STORAGE SUBSYSTEM

• US 20090193219A1
• Filed: 03/18/2008
• Published: 07/30/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Ohira, Yoshinori, Shiga, Kenta, Eguchi, Yoshiaki, Kodama, Shoji
• Granted Patent: US 8,245,007 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/170
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0608 Saving storage space on storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0641 De-duplication techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0664 at device level, e.g. emulation of a storage device or system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

There is provided a storage subsystem having a virtual volume and a page volume which has a page physical area allocated to the virtual volume. The storage subsystem divides an address space of the virtual volume into a plurality of pages, classifies each of the pages into one of a plurality of states including at least a first state and a second state, and further divide a page which is classified into the second state into a plurality of segments to managed the page classified into the second state. The first state is a state in which a page physical area is allocated to the page from the page volume, and the write data is stored in the page physical area. The second state is a state in which the predetermined pattern data and the segment are managed, in the memory, by correlating with each other.

Claims

1. A storage subsystem, comprising:

a processor;

a memory;

a virtual volume; and

a page volume which includes a plurality of storage media, and has a page physical area allocated to the virtual volume, wherein;

the processor is configured to;

divide an address space of the virtual volume into a plurality of pages, and classify each of the plurality of pages into one of a plurality of states including at least a first state and a second state to manage the address space of the virtual volume; and

further divide a page which is classified into the second state into a plurality of segments to managed the page classified into the second state;

the first state is a state in which, as a result of receiving a request for writing write data in a page, a page physical area is allocated to the page from the page volume, and the write data is stored in the page physical area; and

the second state is a state in which, as a result of receiving a request for writing write data matched with predetermined pattern data in a segment of the page, the predetermined pattern data and the segment are managed, in the memory, by correlating with each other.

2. The storage subsystem according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of states further includes a third state that is a state in which no page physical area is allocated to a page from the page volume, and the page is not divided into segments to be managed.

3. The storage subsystem according to claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to store the write data in the page physical area allocated to the page in the case of which a page designated by an address included in the received write request is in the first state.

4. The storage subsystem according to claim 3, wherein the processor is further configured to:

divide the page into the segments to manage correlation each of the divided segments with the predetermined pattern data in the memory in the case of which all pieces of data stored in the page of the first state match the predetermined pattern data;

release the page physical area allocated to the page; and

manage the page from which the physical area has been released as a page of the second state.

5. The storage subsystem according to claim 2, wherein the processor is further configured to judge whether the write data matches the predetermined pattern data in the case of which a page designated by an address included in the received write request is in one of the second status and the third status.

6. The storage subsystem according to claim 5, wherein the processor is further configured to:

manage the predetermined pattern data with a segment designated by the address in the memory, by correlating in the case of which the page designated by the address included in the write request is in the second status, and the write data matches the specific pattern data; and

discard the write data.

7. The storage subsystem according to claim 5, wherein the processor is further configured to:

allocate the page physical areas to the page designated by the address from the page volume in the case of which the page designated by the address included in the write request is in the second state, and the write data does not match the predetermined pattern data;

store the predetermined pattern data in a physical area corresponding to the segment of the page physical areas allocated to the page based on correspondence between the predetermined pattern data managed in the memory and the segment of the page;

store the write data in a physical area of the page physical areas specified by the address; and

manage the page specified by the address as a page of the first state.

8. The storage subsystem according to claim 5, wherein the processor is further configured to:

divide the page into the segments with correlating the segment designated by the address with the predetermined pattern data to be recorded in the memory in the case of which the page designated by the address included in the write request is in the third state, and the write data matches the predetermined pattern data;

discard the write data; and

manage the page from which the write data has been discarded as a page of the second state.

9. The storage subsystem according to claim 5, wherein the processor is further configured to:

allocates the page physical area to the page from the page volume in the case of which the page designated by the address included in the write request is in the third state, and the write data does not match the predetermined pattern data;

store the write data in the page physical area; and

manage the page where the write data has been stored as a page of the first state.

10. The storage subsystem according to claim 4, wherein the processor is further configured to:

count the number of pieces of data matched with the predetermined pattern data of the data stored in the page of the first state;

store, in the case of which the write data received according to the write request matches the predetermined pattern data, the write data in the page physical area allocated to the page;

increment the counted number of pieces of data by one; and

judge whether all pieces of data stored in the page match the predetermined pattern data in the case of which the number of pieces of data exceeds a predetermined first threshold.

11. The storage subsystem according to claim 1, further comprising a segment volume which includes a plurality of storage media and has a segment physical area allocated to the virtual volume,

wherein the processor is further configured to:

divide the page into the segments in the case of which the number of pieces of data stored in the page of the first state and matched with the predetermined pattern data exceeds a predetermined first threshold value, and the number of pieces of data stored in the page and not matched with the predetermined pattern data is equal to or less than a predetermined second threshold value;

manage correlation of the segment with the predetermined pattern data in the memory in the case of which the data stored in each of the segments of the page matches with the predetermined pattern data;

allocate the segment physical area to the segment from the segment volume to store the data in the segment physical area in the case of which the data stored in the segment does not match with the predetermined pattern data; and

release the page physical area allocated to the page, and manage the page from which the physical area has been released as a page of the second state.

12. The storage subsystem according to claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to:

allocate a new segment physical area to the page from the segment volume in the case of which write data received according to a write request which request to write data in the page of the second state does not match with the predetermined pattern data, and the number of pieces of data stored in the page which does not match with the predetermined pattern data is equal to or less than the second threshold value; and

store the write data in the segment physical area.

13. The storage subsystem according to claim 1, further comprising a normal volume which includes a plurality of storage media,

wherein the processor is further configured to sequentially reads data whose size is equal to the segment from the normal volume, and writes the read data in the virtual volume in the case of which the data stored in the normal volume is migrated to the virtual volume.

14. The storage subsystem according to claim 1,

wherein the storage subsystem is coupled to another storage subsystem which has a physical volume including a plurality of storage media, and

wherein the processor further is configured to:

sequentially read data from a head segment of the physical volume of the another storage subsystem; and

write the read data in the virtual volume.

15. The storage subsystem according to claim 14, wherein the storage subsystem is further configured to:

count the number of pieces of data which is identical with each other among the data read from the physical volume; and

store the predetermined pattern data in the memory in the case of which the counted number of pieces of data exceeds a predetermined threshold.

16. A storage system comprising:

a first storage subsystem; and

a second storage subsystem coupled to the first storage subsystem, wherein;

the first storage subsystem includes a copy source volume;

the second storage subsystem includes a virtual volume, and a copy destination physical volume which includes a plurality of recording media and has a page physical area allocated to the virtual volume;

the second storage subsystem is configured to

divide an address space of the virtual volume into a plurality of pages, and classify each of the plurality of pages into one of a plurality of states including at least a first state and a second state to manage the address space of the virtual volume, and

divide a page of the second state into a plurality of segments to manage the page of the second state;

the first state is a state in which, as a result of receiving a request for writing write data in a page, a page physical area is allocated to the page from the copy destination physical volume, and the write data is allocated to the page physical area;

the second state is a state in which, as a result of receiving a request of writing data matched with predetermined pattern data in a segment of a page, the segment and the predetermined pattern data are managed by correlating with each other;

the first storage subsystem is configured to read data to be remote-copied from the copy source volume, and transmit an identifier for identifying the predetermined pattern data to the second storage subsystem in the case of which the read data matches the predetermined pattern data; and

the second storage subsystem is further configured to execute a different process according to which of the first state and the second state a page of the virtual volume to be a storage destination of the predetermined pattern data identified by the identifier is in upon reception of the identifier from the first storage subsystem.

17. The storage system according to claim 16, wherein the first storage subsystem stores the predetermined pattern data identified by the identifier in the page physical area allocated to the page in the case of which the page of the virtual volume to be the storage destination of the predetermined pattern data identified by the identifier is in the first state.

18. The storage system according to claim 16, wherein the transmission destination storage subsystem manage correlation of the identifier with the segment of the storage destination to be managed in the memory in the case of which the page of the virtual volume to be the storage destination of the predetermined pattern data identified by the identifier is in the second state.

19. The storage system according to claim 16, wherein the copy source volume comprises a virtual volume of the first storage subsystem.

20. The storage system according to claim 16, wherein the copy source volume comprises a physical volume which includes a plurality of storage media.