PERIODIC ROTATIONAL VIBRATION CHECK FOR STORAGE DEVICES TO COMPENSATE FOR VARYING LOADS

• US 20080071393A1
• Filed: 08/25/2006
• Published: 03/20/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Cagno, Brian James, Jones, Carl Evan, Green, Kenton Coleman, O'Connell, Michael Desmond
• Granted Patent: US 8,271,140 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/28
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 13/0205 not using a model or a simulator of the controlled system
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/36 Monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing for digital recording G11B20/00 and s.gr.; for monitoring, testing or measuring of TV recorders of the type covered by H04N5/76 and subgroups, see H04N17/06

Abstract

A periodic rotational vibration check for storage devices to compensate for varying loads is disclosed. A variable representing rotational vibration status is maintained in a rotational vibration log. The variable is processed to determine whether a storage device exhibits a rotational vibration issue. Workload analysis is performed to identify a change to the workloads run on physically separate hardware to resolve the rotational vibration issue and thus eliminate the need for more expensive hardware.

Claims

1. A program product comprising a computer readable medium embodying at least one program of instructions executable by a computer to perform operations to monitor rotational vibrations, comprising:

monitoring rotational vibration in a storage system;

analyzing system workloads; and

reconfiguring the storage system based upon the analysis of the system workloads to reduce the rotational vibration.

2. The program product of claim 1, wherein the monitoring rotational vibration in a storage system further comprises maintaining a rotational vibration log, the rotational vibration log including information regarding a rotational vibration status of at least one storage device.

3. The program product of claim 1, wherein the maintaining a rotational vibration log further comprises providing information regarding a rotational vibration status of at least one storage device to the rotational vibration log when the at least one storage device compensates for rotational vibration.

4. The program product of claim 1, wherein the maintaining a rotational vibration log further comprises storing a variable passed from the at least one storage device representing rotational vibration associated with the at least one storage device.

5. The program product of claim 1, wherein the maintaining a rotational vibration log further comprises storing information regarding any corrective action that has been taken to compensate for rotational vibration.

6. The program product of claim 1, wherein the maintaining a rotational vibration log further comprises storing information associated with problems created by vibration sources external to the at least one storage device.

7. The program product of claim 6, wherein storing information associated with problems created by vibration sources external to the at least one storage device further comprises storing information regarding at least one selected from the group consisting of the host cooling system, devices external to the at least one storage device and building vibrations.

8. The program product of claim 1 further comprises granting a service vendor rights to access the rotational vibration log to resolve rotational vibration problems associated with the at least one storage devices.

9. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

memory, coupled to the processor, the memory comprising a computer usable medium embodying at least one program of instructions to perform operations, the operations comprising;

monitoring rotational vibration of at least one storage device in a storage system;

analyzing system workloads; and

reconfiguring the storage system based upon the analysis of the system workloads to reduce the rotational vibration.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the reconfiguring comprises reassigning workloads within an array of storage devices.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the reconfiguring comprises reassigning volumes and arrays to spread activity of the at least one storage device to reduce rotational vibration interaction.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the monitoring further comprises maintaining a rotational vibration log for the storage system.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the maintaining a rotational vibration log for the storage system further comprises maintaining rotational vibration data associated with at least one storage device.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the maintaining a rotational vibration log for the storage system further comprises storing a variable received from at least one storage devices representing rotational vibration associated with the at least one storage device.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the maintaining a rotational vibration log for the storage system further comprises storing information regarding any corrective action that has been taken to compensate for rotational vibration.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the maintaining a rotational vibration log for the storage system further comprises checking the rotational vibration log to determine whether a storage device has been significantly degraded by rotational vibration and surfacing an error to initiate corrective action before data loss occurs when a drive has been significantly degraded by rotational vibration.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the maintaining a rotational vibration log for the storage system further comprises storing information associated with problems created by external vibration sources.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the storing information associated with problems created by external vibration sources further comprises storing information associated with at least one selected from the group consisting of the host cooling system, devices external to the at least one storage device and building vibrations.

19. The system of claim 9, wherein the monitoring rotational vibration of at least one storage device in a storage system further comprises maintaining a rotational vibration log for the storage system, determining whether information in the rotational vibration log meets a predetermined criteria and surfacing an error in response thereto.

20. The system of claim 9, wherein the monitoring rotational vibration of at least one storage device in a storage system further comprises rearranging the configuration of the workloads of the storage system to compensate for the rotational vibration when the information in the rotational vibration log meets a predetermined criteria.

21. The system of claim 9, wherein the reconfiguring the storage system based upon the analysis of the system workloads to reduce the rotational vibration further comprises reassigning volumes and arrays to spread the activity of the at least one storage device to reduce rotational vibration interaction.

22. The system of claim 9, wherein the reconfiguring the storage system based upon the analysis of the system workloads to reduce the rotational vibration further comprises performing rotational vibration log analysis to identify rotational vibration caused by fan speed and changing fan speed to remove a frequency component causing the rotational vibration.

23. The system of claim 9 further comprising issuing a service request to a service vendor to indicate that the rotational vibration problem needs further analysis when reconfiguring the storage system fails to reduce rotational vibration.

24. A method for providing a periodic rotational vibration check for storage devices to compensate for varying loads, comprising:

accessing, by a service provider, a rotational vibration log associated with at least one storage device in a storage system; and

analyzing the rotational vibration log to resolve a rotational vibration problem indicated by the rotational vibration log.

25. The method of claim 24 further comprising applying analytics by the service provider to information in the rotational vibration log to identify.

26. The method of claim 24 further comprising receiving at a service provider a service request indicating a rotational vibration problem associated with at least one storage device in a storage system, the accessing the rotational vibration log being based upon the receipt of the service request.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein the accessing the rotational vibration log further comprises periodically accessing the information to anticipate problems with the plurality of storage devices.

28. The method of claim 24, wherein the analyzing the rotational vibration log further comprises determining whether the rotational vibration log indicates a rotational vibration issue for the storage system associated with the rotational vibration log and contacting a customer of the storage system by the service provider to resolve the rotational vibration issue.

29. A method for providing a periodic rotational vibration check for storage devices to compensate for varying loads, comprising:

maintaining rotational vibration data associated with at least one storage device of a storage system in a rotational vibration log; and

using the rotational vibration data to correct a rotational vibration issue.