Storage management system and method

• US 20080162839A1
• Filed: 12/07/2007
• Published: 07/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Nagata, Akira, Nakamichi, Koji
• Application Number:
  US12/000,102
• Publication Number:
  US 20080162839A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/159
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0607 by facilitating the process of upgrading existing storage systems, e.g. for improving compatibility between host and storage device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0613 in relation to throughput
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0665 at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD
• 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 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

In a storage management system and method which virtualizes a plurality of storage devices distributed over a network to be managed, a storage state manager, in a storage management server, manages a storage usage state in each storage device, a network state manager manages a traffic state of each network device, and a path searching/setup portion determines a storage data path to be set up in the network device based on the storage usage state and the traffic state. In a host, a virtualization mapper associates a storage space replied from the storage management server with a virtual storage, and a path information setup portion transmits/receives storage data with the storage data path.

Claims

1. A storage management server comprising:

a storage state manager managing a storage usage state in each storage device;

a network state manager managing a traffic state of a network by monitoring each network device; and

a path searching/setup portion determining a storage data path to be set up in the network device based on the storage usage state and the traffic state.

2. The storage management server as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a virtual storage manager/controller selecting a storage suitable for a storage capacity requested from a host or a system manager based on the storage usage state, wherein

the path searching/setup portion determines the storage data path base don the selected storage space and the traffic state.

3. The storage management server as claimed in claim 1, wherein the storage usage state comprises a used bandwidth of a link or a number of communication channels.

4. The storage management server as claimed in claim 1, wherein when determining a storage data path of a single host, the path searching/setup portion monitors a path usage state of another host as the traffic state, and determines the storage data path of the host based on the traffic state.

5. The storage management server as claimed in claim 2, wherein the virtual storage manager/controller notifies the selected storage space and the determined storage data path to the host.

6. The storage management server as claimed in claim 2, wherein the path searching/setup portion prestructures a plurality of spanning trees between the host and the storage device, and selects the storage data path from among the spanning trees based on a number of iSCSI sessions or hops of the spanning trees upon a storage capacity request from the host.

7. The storage management server as claimed in claim 1, wherein the path searching/setup portion notifies the determined storage data path to the host.

8. The storage management server as claimed in claim 2, wherein when a plurality of storage spaces are selected, the path searching/setup portion selects a storage data path by which a deviation of a delay time of the storage data paths connecting the host to the selected storage space is reduced.

9. The storage management system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the storage data path is determined by a VLAN or an MPLS system.

10. The storage management system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the network device comprises an IP network device.

11. The storage management system as claimed in claim 1, wherein when a fault occurs or a fault occurrence is predicted respectively in the storage device and the network device, the path searching/setup portion searches and determines, based on the storage usage state and the traffic state, a substitute storage for a storage space in the storage device in which the fault occurs or the fault occurrence is predicted, or searches and determines a substitute path for a storage data path related to the network device in which the fault occurs or the fault occurrence is predicted.