Data storage system and control method thereof

• US 20080065850A1
• Filed: 10/25/2007
• Published: 03/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Akinobu Shimada, Hiroshi Morishima, Tatsuya Murakami, Toshio Nakano, Yasuaki Nakamura
• Original Assignee: Akinobu Shimada, Hiroshi Morishima, Tatsuya Murakami, Toshio Nakano, Yasuaki Nakamura
• Inventors: Nakamura, Yasuaki, Murakami, Tatsuya, Nakano, Toshio, Shimada, Akinobu, Morishima, Hiroshi
• Application Number:
  US11/976,484
• Publication Number:
  US 20080065850A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/163
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0637 Permissions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0843 based on generic templates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0853 by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

In the configuration of multiple (M units of) disk subsystems shared from multiple (N units of) hosts, having an exclusive control command that limits access to all disk subsystems temporarily is provided, using this exclusive control command, configuration information of all multiple disk subsystems, for example, performance and a setting change, are acquired in point of time series and stored in a management server database (“configuration information database”), then managed in a centralized manner, a function that associates the file that the application uses with the “configuration information database” is provided using a function that detects the position on the logical unit, and a means that can retrieve the modified contents of the system configuration and time as keys is provided in the “configuration information database”.

Claims

1. A control method of a data storage system in which multiple external storage systems that store information are connected to a first network and each of said multiple external storage systems is arranged separately, comprising:

generating an interrupt by an external storage system to a management server; and

issuing an exclusive control command by said management server to said external storage system;

wherein said exclusive control command temporarily limits access to said external storage system such that said management server is the only control server that enables configuration setting of the data storage system;

wherein said management server acquires configuration information of said external storage systems in point of time series and stores said configuration information in the database managed by said management server using said exclusive control command, and

wherein a time series acquisition is made with a simultaneous and periodic inquiry into multiple external storage systems as moments.