SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SELECTING AND SCHEDULING CORRECTIVE ACTIONS FOR AUTOMATED STORAGE MANAGEMENT

• US 20080262890A1
• Filed: 04/19/2007
• Published: 10/23/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Voruganti, Kaladhar, Uttamchandani, Sandeep M., Korupolu, Madhukar R., Yin, Li
• Granted Patent: US 8,326,669 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06312 Adjustment or analysis of established resource schedule, e.g. resource or task levelling, or dynamic rescheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06316 Sequencing of tasks or work
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0635 Risk analysis of enterprise or organisation activities

Abstract

Disclosed is a storage management framework that integrates corrective action plans output from multiple different types of planning tools, sorts the different corrective action plans based on utility and risk values and outputs a time-based schedule for implementing one or more of the corrective action plans to resolve identified current and anticipated workload service level objective (SLO) violations.

Claims

1. A management system for a data storage system comprising:

a controller; and

at least two different types of planning tools in communication with said controller,

wherein said controller is adapted to automatically determine if corrective action is warranted in response to a triggering event and, if so, to generate a query,

wherein said planning tools are adapted to process said query and to output corrective action plans, and

wherein said controller is further adapted to create and output a schedule comprising at least one of said corrective action plans.

2. The management system of claim 1, further comprising:

a translator in communication with said controller and said planning tools and adapted to translate said query into appropriate formats for input into each of said planning tools; and

a calculator in communication with said controller and said planning tools and adapted to calculate risk and utility values for each of said corrective action plans based on plan parameters, business constraints and system attributes, and

wherein said controller is further adapted to create and output said schedule based on said risk and utility values.

3. The management system of claim 2,

wherein said triggering event comprises one of a current service level objective violation and an anticipated service level objective violation,

wherein said business constraints comprise utility functions, budget constraints, a desired analysis window and service-level objectives information, and

wherein said system attributes comprise current and anticipated system states.

4. The management system of claim 1,

wherein said controller is adapted to generate a plurality of queries specifying different time periods, and

wherein said planning tools are adapted to output multiple corrective action plans, each optimized for responding to said triggering event during a corresponding one of said different time periods.

5. The management system of claim 1, wherein said schedule comprises a time-based schedule comprising:

more than one of said corrective action plans;

a sequence for implementing said corrective action plans; and

approximate times for initiating and completing said corrective action plans.

6. The management system of claim 1,

wherein said schedule further comprises checkpoint states each of which comprises an anticipated state of said data storage system during said implementing of said at least one of said corrective action plans according to said schedule, and

wherein said controller is further adapted to alter said schedule based on differences between an actual state of said data storage system at a given time and a checkpoint state for said given time.

7. The management system of claim 1,

wherein a utility value of a corrective action plan comprises an expected benefit to said data storage system if said corrective action plan is implemented, and

wherein a risk value of said corrective action plan comprises a probability that said expected benefit will be lost as a result of at least one of volatility in workload time-series functions and as a result of human error.

8. A management system for a data storage system comprising:

a controller adapted to receive inputs comprising business constraints, system attributes, and a triggering event;

at least two different types of planning tools in communication with said controller; and

a calculator in communication with said controller and said planning tools,

wherein said controller is further adapted to automatically determine, based on said inputs, if corrective action is warranted in response to said triggering event and, if so, to generate a plurality of queries comprising different time periods,

wherein said planning tools are adapted to recommend multiple corrective action plans, each optimized for responding to said triggering event during a corresponding one of said different time periods,

wherein said calculator is adapted to determine risk and utility values for each of said multiple corrective actions based on plan parameters, said business constraints and said system attributes, and

wherein said controller is further adapted to create and output a corrective actions schedule comprising more than one of said multiple corrective action plans from said planning tools based on said risk and utility values.

9. The management system of claim 8,

wherein said triggering event comprises one of a current service level objective violation and an anticipated service level objective violation,

wherein said business constraints comprise utility functions, budget constraints, a desired analysis window and service-level objectives information, and

wherein said system attributes comprise current and anticipated system states.

10. The management system of claim 8, further comprising a translator in communication with said controller and said planning tools and adapted to translate said query into appropriate formats for input into each of said planning tools.

11. The management system of claim 8, wherein said schedule further comprises a time-based schedule comprising:

a sequence for implementing said corrective action plans; and

approximate times for initiating and completing said corrective action plans.

12. The management system of claim 8,

wherein said schedule further comprises checkpoint states, each of which comprises an anticipated state of said data storage system during said implementing of said at least one of said corrective action plans according to said schedule, and

wherein said controller is further adapted to alter said schedule based on differences between an actual state of said data storage system at a given time and a checkpoint state for said given time.

13. The management system of claim 8,

wherein a utility value of a corrective action plan comprises an expected benefit to said data storage system if said corrective action plan is implement, and

wherein a risk value of said corrective action plan comprises a probability that said expected benefit will be lost as a result of at least one of volatility in workload time-series functions and as a result of human error.

14. A method for managing a data storage system, said method comprising:

automatically determining if corrective action is warranted in response to a triggering event;

if said corrective action is warranted, generating a query and communicating said query to at least two different types of planning tools;

receiving from said planning tools corrective action plans; and

automatically creating and outputting a schedule for performing at least one of said corrective action plans from said planning tools.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising calculating risk and utility values for each of said corrective action plans based on plan parameters, business constraints and system attributes, wherein said creating further comprises creating said schedule based on said risk and utility values.

16. The method of claim 15,

wherein said business constraints comprise utility functions, budget constraints, a desired analysis window and service-level objective violation thresholds,

wherein said system attributes comprise current and anticipated system states, and

wherein said triggering event comprises one of a current workload service level objective violation and an anticipated workload service level objective violation.

17. The method of claim 14,

wherein said generating further comprises generating a plurality of queries with different time periods so that multiple corrective action plans, each of which is optimized to respond to said triggering event during a corresponding one of said different time periods, are received from each of said planning tools.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein said creating further comprises:

selecting more than one of said corrective action plans;

determining a sequence for said performing of said more than one of said corrective action plans; and

determining approximate times for initiating said performing of said more than one of said corrective action plans.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising continuously monitoring an impact of any corrective action plan implemented in said data storage system.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein said generating further comprises generating at least one query and automatically translating said at least one query into appropriate formats for input into each of said planning tools.

21. The method of claim 14, wherein said calculating comprises:

calculating a utility value of a corrective action plan by calculating an expected benefit to said data storage system if said corrective action plan is implemented;

calculating a risk value of said corrective action plan by calculating a probability that said expected benefit will be lost as a result of at least one of volatility in workload time-series functions and as a result of human error.

22. A program storage device readable by computer and tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by said computer to perform a method of managing a data storage system, said method comprising:

automatically determining if corrective action is warranted in response to a triggering event;

if said corrective action is warrantec, generating a query and communicating said query to at least two different types of planning tools;

receiving from said planning tools corrective action plans; and

automatically creating and outputting a schedule for performing at least one of said corrective action plans.

23. The program storage device of claim 22,

wherein said method further comprises calculating risk and utility values for each of said corrective action plans based on business constraints and system attributes, and

wherein said creating further comprises creating said schedule based on said risk and utility values.

24. The program storage device of claim 23,

wherein said business constraints comprise utility functions, budget constraints, a desired analysis window and service-level objective violation thresholds,

wherein said system attributes comprise current and anticipated system states, and

wherein said triggering event comprises one of a current workload service level objective violation and an anticipated workload service level objective violation.

25. The program storage device of claim 22,

wherein said generating further comprises generating a plurality of queries with different time periods so that multiple corrective action plans, each of which is optimized to respond to said triggering event during a corresponding one of said different time periods, are received from each of said planning tools.

26. The program storage device of claim 22, wherein said creating further comprises:

selecting more than one of said corrective action plans;

determining a sequence for said performing of said more than one of said corrective action plans; and

determining approximate times for initiating said performing of said more than one of said corrective action plans.

27. The program storage device of claim 22, wherein said method further comprises continuously monitoring an impact of any corrective action plan implemented in said data storage system.

28. The program storage device of claim 22, wherein said generating further comprises generating at least one query and automatically translating said at least one query into appropriate formats for input into each of said planning tools.

29. The program storage device of claim 22, wherein said calculating comprises:

calculating a utility value of a corrective action plan by calculating an expected benefit to said data storage system if said corrective action plan is implemented;

calculating a risk value of said corrective action plan by calculating a probability that said expected benefit will be lost as a result of at least one of volatility in workload time-series functions and as a result of human error.