STORAGE APPARATUS AND DATA MANAGEMENT METHOD

• US 20110289287A1
• Filed: 05/18/2010
• Published: 11/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Sudo, Azusa, Yamamoto, Masayuki, Eguchi, Yoshiaki
• Granted Patent: US 9,052,823 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/156
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0649 Lifecycle management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0665 at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0685 Hybrid storage combining heterogeneous device types, e.g. hierarchical storage, hybrid arrays

Abstract

Proposes the realization of the performance stability operation of virtual volumes and the stabilized access performance for the virtual volumes in the storage apparatus. In the storage apparatus which configures a pool of multiple types of storage tiers of different performances, provides virtual volumes to the host computer and, in accordance with a write request from an application to a virtual volume, assigns pages to the relevant virtual volume from the pool, a policy associating an application with the virtual volume with which the relevant application reads/writes data, a storage tier to assign pages to the relevant virtual volume, and the priority of the relevant storage tier is managed and, in accordance with a write request from the application, complying with the corresponding policy, among the storage tiers associated with the corresponding virtual volume, pages are assigned from the storage tier of the higher priority to the relevant virtual volume.

Claims

1. A storage apparatus, comprising:

a plurality of types of storage devices with different performances; and

a controller for managing respective storage areas respectively provided by the plurality of types of storage devices as respectively different types of storage tiers, configuring a pool from the plurality of different types of storage tiers, providing a virtual volume to a host computer, assigning a storage area to the relevant virtual volume from the pool in page units of a specified size in accordance with a write request to the virtual volume from an application installed in the host computer, and storing write target data in the assigned page,

wherein the controller,

manages a policy associating the application, the virtual volume with which the relevant application reads/writes data, the storage tier to assign the page to the relevant virtual volume, and the priority of the relevant storage tier, and,

in accordance with a write request from the corresponding application to the virtual volume, assigns the page from the storage tier of the higher priority to the relevant virtual volume among the storage tiers associated with the relevant virtual volume in accordance with the corresponding policy.

2. The storage apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the controller allocates the required number of pages from the storage tiers of the same type according to the write request from the application.

3. The storage apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the controller migrates, regularly or irregularly, the data written into the virtual volume between the storage tiers according to the policy as needed.

4. The storage apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein, in accordance with an external request, the controller migrates data between the corresponding storage tiers so as to store the data written into the virtual volume in the page assigned from the storage tier that was designated according to the request.

5. A data management method in a storage apparatus comprising a plurality of types of storage devices with different performances, and a controller for managing respective storage areas respectively provided by the plurality of types of storage devices as respectively different types of storage tiers, configuring a pool from the plurality of different types of storage tiers, providing a virtual volume to a host computer, assigning a storage area to the relevant virtual volume from the pool in page units of a specified size in accordance with a write request to the virtual volume from an application installed in the host computer, and storing write target data in the assigned page,

wherein the controller comprises:

a first step of managing a policy associating the application, the virtual volume with which the relevant application reads/writes data, the storage tier to assign the page to the relevant virtual volume, and the priority of the relevant storage tier; and

a second step of assigning, in accordance with a write request from the corresponding application to the virtual volume, the page from the storage tier of the higher priority to the relevant virtual volume among the storage tiers associated with the relevant virtual volume in accordance with the corresponding policy.

6. The data management method according to claim 5,

wherein, at the second step, the controller allocates the required number of pages from the storage tiers of the same type according to the write request from the application.

7. The data management method according to claim 5,

wherein the controller comprises a third step of migrating, regularly or irregularly, the data written into the virtual volume between the storage tiers according to the policy as needed.

8. The data management method according to claim 5,

wherein the controller comprises a third step of migrating, in accordance with an external request, data between the corresponding storage tiers so as to store the data written into the virtual volume in the page assigned from the storage tier that was designated according to the request.