SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR UPDATE OF FIRMWARE OF A STORAGE ARRAY CONTROLLER IN A STORAGE AREA NETWORK

• US 20100229166A1
• Filed: 03/05/2009
• Published: 09/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Mukherjee, Saikat, Singh, Sushil Kumar, Mopur, Satish Kumar, Mehrotra, Vivek, Rao, Satyaprakash
• Granted Patent: US 8,881,132 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/168
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0617 in relation to availability
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0632 by initialisation or re-initialisation of storage systems
• 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 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57

Abstract

A system and method for update of firmware of a storage array controller of a storage device in a storage area network. The I/O workload of the storage device is monitored to obtain workload information regarding I/O traffic of the storage device. The workload information is analyzed to identify patterns in the I/O traffic of the storage device. Based on one or more identified patterns in the I/O traffic, future I/O workload of the storage device is forecasted, and, according to the forecasted future I/O workload, at least one firmware update is scheduled.

Claims

1. A method for update of firmware of a storage array controller of a storage device in a storage area network, SAN, comprising the steps of:

monitoring the Input/Output, I/O, workload of the storage device to obtain workload information regarding I/O traffic of the storage device;

analysing the workload information to identify patterns in the I/O traffic of the storage device;

forecasting future I/O workload of the storage device based on one or more identified patterns in the I/O traffic; and

scheduling at least one firmware update according to the forecasted future I/O workload.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

categorizing the forecasted future I/O workload according to categorization rules, the categorization rules defining one or more categories within which an I/O workload is contained.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the scheduling comprises:

recommending a future period of time within which a firmware update of the storage array controller may be performed based on results of the categorization step.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising analyzing the physical configuration of the storage device to obtain configuration information regarding the physical configuration of the storage device, wherein the categorization rules take account of at least one of:

the configuration information;

the workload information;

an importance weighting factor; and

a forecast future I/O workload.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the workload information comprises information relating to at least one of:

the number of short term fluctuations in the I/O workload of the storage device;

the duration of a short term fluctuation in the I/O workload of the storage device;

the date and time of I/O workload value; and

the date and time of a short term fluctuation in the I/O workload.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration information comprises information relating to at least one of:

a number of physical and virtual disks making up the storage device;

a controller of the storage device;

free storage space available; and

the current version of firmware of the storage device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage device comprises an array of physical or virtual storage disks.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the storage device comprises an enterprise virtual array storage system.

9. A system for update of firmware of a storage device in a storage area network comprising:

a I/O workload monitoring unit adapted to monitor the I/O workload of the storage device to obtain workload information regarding I/O traffic of the storage device;

data storage means adapted to store the configuration information and the workload information; and

a processor adapted to analyze the workload information to identify patterns in the I/O traffic of the storage device;

to forecast future I/O workload of the storage device based on one or more identified patterns in the I/O traffic; and

to schedule at least one firmware update according to the forecasted future I/O workload.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the processor is further adapted to categorize the forecasted future I/O workload according to categorization rules, the categorization rules defining one or more categories within which an I/O workload is contained.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the processor is further adapted to recommended a future period of time within which a firmware update of the storage device may be performed.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the workload information comprises information relating to at least one of:

the number of short term fluctuations in the I/O workload of the storage device;

the duration of a short term fluctuation in the I/O workload of the storage device;

the date and time of I/O workload value; and

the date and time of a short term fluctuation in the I/O workload.

13. The system of claim 9, comprising a controller adapted to analyze the physical configuration of the storage device to obtain configuration information regarding the physical configuration of the storage device;

wherein the configuration information comprises information relating to at least one of;

a number of physical and virtual disks making up the storage device;

a controller of the storage device;

free storage space available; and

the current version of firmware of the storage device.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the storage device comprises an array of physical or virtual storage disks and one or more storage array controllers.

15. A computer program comprising computer program code means adapted to perform, when run on a computer, the steps of:

monitoring the Input/Output, I/O, workload of a storage device to obtain workload information regarding I/O traffic of the storage device;

analysing the workload information to identify patterns in the I/O traffic of the storage device;

forecasting future I/O workload of the storage device based on one or more identified patterns in the I/O traffic; and

scheduling at least one firmware update according to the forecasted future I/O workload.