Computer system and garbage collection method of disk space

• US 20090198946A1
• Filed: 04/22/2008
• Published: 08/06/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Ebata, Atsushi
• Granted Patent: US 7,925,846 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/171
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0608 Saving storage space on storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0644 Management of space entities, e.g. partitions, extents, pools
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

A processor of a management computer acquires the free disk space amount of a disk pool, acquires the invalid disk space amount from a plurality of host computers, determines a host computer to which the instruction for the physical disk space collection is issued on the basis of the invalid disk space amount, and judges that the free disk space amount is smaller than a predetermined threshold value before transmitting a GC control request to the determined host computer; another processor generates and transmits invalid disk space position information indicating the position of the invalid disk space in a virtual volume in cases where a host investigation request is received; and the other processor collects the physical disk space of a physical disk allocated to the storage disk space of the virtual volume in the disk pool.

Claims

1. A computer system having a disk pool supply device which has a disk pool constituted by a physical disk space of one or more physical disks, a virtual volume management device which dynamically allocates the physical disk space belonging to the disk pool to a storage disk space of a virtual volume, a plurality of host computers which have a file system for managing files by using the storage disk space of the virtual volume, and a management computer for managing the host computers and the virtual volume management device, wherein

the management computer comprises:

a threshold value storage unit which stores a predetermined threshold value which is used in a comparison with a free disk space amount of the disk pool;

a free disk space amount acquisition unit which acquires the free disk space amount of the disk pool from the virtual volume management device;

an invalid disk space amount acquisition unit which acquires from the plurality of host computers, an amount of an invalid disk space in the virtual volume, which is a disk space to which the physical disk space has been allocated but in which the files are not stored;

a host determination unit which determines a host computer which instructs collection of the physical disk space allocated to the invalid disk space on the basis of the amount of the invalid disk space;

a free disk space amount judgment unit which judges whether the free disk space amount of the disk pool is smaller than the threshold value; and

a collection request unit which transmits a collection request for the physical disk space allocated to the invalid disk space to the determined host computer after judging that the free disk space amount of the disk pool is smaller than the threshold value,

the host computers each comprises;

an invalid disk space amount detection/transmission unit which detects the amount of the invalid disk space in the virtual volume and transmits the amount of the invalid disk space to the management computer; and

an invalid disk space position information transmission unit which, in cases where the collection request is received from the management computer, generates invalid disk space position information which indicates a position of invalid disk space in the virtual volume, and transmits the invalid disk space position information to the virtual volume management device, and

the virtual volume management device comprises;

a physical free disk space amount transmission unit which transmits the free disk space amount of the disk pool to the management computer; and

a collection unit which receives the invalid disk space position information from the host computer and collects the physical disk space of the physical disk allocated to the storage disk space of the virtual volume on the basis of the invalid disk space position information.

2. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein

the management computer comprises:

a capacity reception unit which receives a capacity of the disk pool from the virtual volume management device;

a proportion storage unit which stores a proportion of the threshold value with respect to the capacity of the disk pool; and

a threshold value calculation unit which calculates the threshold value by multiplying the proportion by the capacity of the disk pool and stores the threshold value in the threshold value storage unit.

3. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein

the host computer further comprises:

a written map information storage unit which stores written map information in the virtual volume, which indicates storage disk space in which writing of the files is carried out; and

a file system map information storage unit which stores file system map information which indicates the storage disk space in the virtual volume, in which the files are stored, wherein

the invalid disk space detection/transmission unit specifies the invalid disk space and detects the amount of the invalid disk space on the basis of the written map information and the file system map information.

4. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein

the host computer comprises a counter which counts the amount of the invalid disk space, and

the invalid disk space detection/transmission unit increments the counter by the quantity of the storage disk spaces when erasing the files from the storage disk space of the virtual volume and detects the amount of the invalid disk space from a value of the counter.

5. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein

the host computer comprises:

a plurality of file systems which manage files by using the storage disk spaces of different virtual volumes; and

a target file system determination unit which determines a file system constituting a target for collecting the physical disk space from among the plurality of file systems on the basis of a predetermined condition, wherein

the invalid disk space position information transmission unit generates and transmits the invalid disk space position information of the target file system.

6. The computer system according to claim 5, wherein the target file system determination unit determines file systems, which have a large amount of invalid disk space, as collection targets.

7. The computer system according to claim 5, wherein the target file system determination unit excludes file systems whose I/O load exceeds a predetermined value from the collection targets.

8. The computer system according to claim 5, wherein

the host computer further comprises an excluded information storage unit which stores information specifying the file system to be excluded from the collection targets;

and

the target file system determination unit excludes the file systems which correspond with the information stored in the excluded information storage unit from the collection targets.

9. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein

the management computer further comprises a utilization acquisition unit which acquires processor utilization from the host computers, and

the host determination unit excludes host computers, for which the processor utilization is equal to or more than a predetermined value, from the targets for which a collection instruction has been issued.

10. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein

the management computer further comprises a free disk space amount acquisition unit which acquires the free disk space amount of the main memory from the host computers, and

the host determination unit excludes host computers, for which the free disk space amount of a main memory is equal to or less than a predetermined amount, from the targets for which a collection instruction has been issued.

11. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein

the host computer further comprises a host exclusion information storage unit which stores host exclusion information indicating that the host computer has been excluded from the collection target, and

the management computer further comprises a host exclusion information reception unit which acquires the host exclusion information, and

the host determination unit excludes the host computer which corresponds with the host exclusion information from the target for which a collection instruction has been issued.

12. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein

the virtual volume management device further comprises a referenced map information storage unit which stores referenced map information indicating whether the physical disk space which stores real data of the files managed by the file system has been referenced by snapshot reference data for these files, and

the collection unit excludes the physical disk space which has been referenced by the snapshot reference data from the collection target on the basis of the referenced map information.

13. The computer system according to claim 12, wherein

the virtual volume management device comprises:

a snapshot processing unit which creates snapshot reference data for referencing real data of the files managed by the file system at a predetermined time;

a referenced map creation unit which creates the referenced map information indicating that the physical disk space which stores the real data has been referenced by the snapshot reference data and stores the referenced map information in the referenced map information storage unit;

a reference destination update unit which stores pre-update real data in another physical disk space when updating the real data of the files to new real data, and updates the reference destination of the snapshot reference data to the other physical disk space;

a real data update unit which stores the new real data of the files in the physical disk space; and

a referenced map update unit which creates referenced map information indicating that the physical disk space in which the new real data are stored has not been referenced by the snapshot reference data, and stores the referenced map information in the referenced map storage unit.

14. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein

the host computer is a virtual host computer which is disposed on a physical computer, and

the management computer further comprises:

a first utilization acquisition unit which acquires a first utilization of the processor from the physical computer; and

a relocation unit which relocates at least one virtual host computer that is disposed on a physical computer for which the utilization of the processor is equal to or more than a predetermined value to another physical computer.

15. The computer system according to claim 14, wherein

the management computer further comprises a second utilization acquisition unit which acquires a second utilization of the processor of the physical computer by the virtual host computer,

the relocation unit relocates a virtual host computer, for which the second utilization is equal to or less than a predetermined value, among a plurality of virtual host computers disposed on the physical computer to the other physical computer.

16. A physical disk collection method of a computer system having a disk pool supply device which has a disk pool constituted by a physical disk space of one or more physical disks, a virtual volume management device which dynamically allocates the physical disk space belonging to the disk pool to a storage disk space of a virtual volume, a plurality of host computers which have a file system for managing files by using the storage disk space of the virtual volume, and a management computer for managing the host computers and the virtual volume management device, the method comprising:

a free disk space amount acquisition step in which a free disk space amount acquisition unit of the management computer acquires a free disk space amount in the disk pool from the virtual volume management device;

an invalid disk space amount acquisition step in which the invalid disk space amount acquisition unit of the management computer acquires in the virtual volume, from the plurality of host computers, an amount of the invalid disk space which is a disk space to which the physical disk space has been allocated but in which files are not stored;

a determination step in which a host determination unit of the management computer determines a host computer which instructs collection of the physical disk space allocated to the invalid disk space on the basis of the amount of the invalid disk space;

a free disk space amount judgment step in which a free disk space amount judgment unit of the management computer judges whether a free disk space amount is smaller than a predetermined threshold value which is used in a comparison with the free disk space amount of the disk pool stored in a threshold value storage section;

a collection request step in which a collection request unit of the management computer transmits a collection request for the physical disk space allocated to the invalid disk space to the determined host computer after judging that the free disk space amount is smaller than the threshold value;

an invalid disk space position information transmission step in which an invalid disk space position information transmission unit of the host computer generates invalid disk space position information which indicates a position of the invalid disk space in the virtual volume in cases where the collection request is received, and transmits the invalid disk space position information to the virtual volume management computer; and

a collection step in which a collection unit of the virtual volume management device collects the physical disk space of the physical disk allocated to the storage disk space of the virtual volume on the basis of the invalid disk space position information.

17. A computer system having a disk pool constituted by a physical disk space of one or more physical disks, a disk array which dynamically allocates a physical storage space which belongs to the disk pool to the storage disk space of a virtual volume, a plurality of host computers which have a file system for managing files by using the storage disk space of the virtual volume, and a management computer for managing the host computers and the disk array, wherein

the management computer comprises a first memory and a first processor, wherein

the first memory stores a predetermined threshold value which is used in a comparison with the disk space amount of the disk pool, and

the first processor acquires the free disk space amount in the disk pool from the disk array, acquires, from the plurality of host computers, an amount of the invalid disk space in the virtual volume, which is a disk space to which the physical disk space has been allocated but in which files are not stored, determines a order of the host computers which instruct collection of the physical disk space allocated to the invalid disk space on the basis of the amount of the invalid disk space, judges whether the free disk space amount is smaller than the threshold value, and transmits a collection request for the physical disk space allocated to the invalid disk space to the host computer in accordance with the determined order after judging that the free disk space amount is smaller than the threshold value;

the host computer each comprises a second memory and a second processor, wherein

the second memory stores written disk space position information indicating the position of storage disk space, to which the physical disk space of the virtual volume has been allocated, and file position information indicating storage disk space, in which the files of the virtual volume are stored, and

the second processor reports the amount of the invalid disk space to the management computer and, in cases where a collection request for physical disk space which has been allocated to the invalid disk space is received from the management computer, generates invalid disk space position information indicating the position of the invalid disk space in the virtual volume on the basis of the written disk space position information and the file position information, and transmits the invalid disk space position information to the disk array; and

the disk array comprises a third processor, wherein

the third processor transmits a free disk space amount of the disk pool to the management computer and collects the physical disk space of the physical disk allocated to the storage disk space of the virtual volume on the basis of the invalid disk space position information received from the host computer.