STORAGE MANAGEMENT METHOD AND SERVER

• US 20120011255A1
• Filed: 09/19/2011
• Published: 01/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: KUSAMA, TAKATO, OCHI, HIROYUKI, MATSUO, TOSHIAKI
• Granted Patent: US 8,200,817 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/50 Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/08 Configuration management of networks or network elements address allocation H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/083 for increasing network speed
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0883 Semiautomatic configuration, e.g. proposals from system
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/101 based on network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1031 Controlling of the operation of servers by a load balancer, e.g. adding or removing servers that serve requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

When the application I/O performance problem is solved, the I/O amount from the application is increased. In the conventional technique, no consideration has been taken on the affect of the increase of the application I/O performance to other applications. A resource whose I/O load is reduced by setting modification of a storage subsystem is specified and the application using this resource is specified as an application whose I/O processing amount may be increased. Furthermore, the resource used by the specified application and another application using this resource are specified as a resource and an application whose I/O processing performance may be lowered by the setting modification.

Claims

1. A system comprising,

at least one server;

at least one storage subsystem; and

a storage management server connected to the at least one storage subsystem and the at least one server via a network,

the storage management server comprising;

a first collecting unit configured to collect information on connection relationship between resources on an I/O path from each of applications in the at least one server to a logical volume used by the applications as configuration information from the at least one server and the at least one storage subsystem;

a second collecting unit configured to collect performance information on each of the resources on the I/O path from each of the applications in the at least one server to the logical volume used by the applications from the at least one server and the at least one storage subsystem;

a rule table which includes IF-THEN type rules for avoiding performance deterioration of each application, each of the rules storing a cause and a condition in a preamble part and storing a countermeasure in a conclusion part;

an I/O amount increase application search engine for inputting a setting modification definition for balancing an I/O load of the at least one storage subsystem, specifying a resource on the I/O path whose I/O load is reduced according to the setting modification definition, and identifying a first application whose I/O amount may be increased, the setting modification definition being configured to eliminate a predicted bottleneck that may occur between the at least one server and the at least one storage subsystem and defining movement of the logical volume;

an I/O performance lowering resource search engine for specifying a resource on a I/O path used by the first application whose I/O amount may be increased based on the configuration information; and

an I/O performance lowering application search engine for identifying a second application using the resource specified by the I/O performance lowering resource search engine based on the configuration information,

wherein the I/O performance lowering application search engine sets the specified I/O performance lowering resource as the cause of the rule and also sets the I/O amount increased path specified by the I/O performance lowering resource search engine as a condition of the rule for the second application, and obtains the countermeasure as the conclusion from the rule, and displays a name of application, the cause, the condition and the countermeasure on a display device.

2. The system according to claim 1,

wherein the I/O path from each application in the at least one server to a logical volume in the at least one storage subsystem includes at least one of server side ports and at least one of storage side ports.

3. The system according to claim 2,

wherein the I/O amount increase application search engine identifies the first application, if none of the utilization ratio of the server side ports and storage side ports on the I/O path from the first application to the logical volume used by the first application exceeds a predetermined value.

4. The system according to claim 1,

wherein the I/O performance lowering application search engine displays the name of the second application, the cause and the countermeasure in a table form on the display device.

5. The system according to claim 2,

wherein the rule stores, when the cause is the storage side port performance deterioration and the condition is that the I/O amount increased between the first application to the storage side port, the countermeasure is that the second application is given a priority of using the storage side port.

6. The system according to claim 2,

wherein the I/O path further includes a disk cache,

wherein the rule stores, when the cause is a cache performance deterioration and the condition is that the I/O amount increased between the second application to the storage side port via the cache, the countermeasure is that the cache of a logical volume is made resident.

7. A storage management method for a system having at least one server, at least one storage subsystem, and a storage management server comprising a rule table and connected to the at least one storage subsystem and the at least one server via a network, the method comprising:

collecting information on connection relationship between resources on an I/O path from each of applications in the at least one server to a logical volume used by the applications as configuration information from the at least one server and the at least one storage subsystem;

collecting performance information on each of the resources on the I/O path from each of the applications in the at least one server to the logical volume used by the applications from the at least one server and the at least one storage subsystem;

inputting a setting modification definition for balancing an I/O load of the at least one storage subsystem, specifying a resource on the I/O path whose I/O load is reduced according to the setting modification definition;

identifying a first application whose I/O amount may be increased, the setting modification definition being configured to eliminate a predicted bottleneck that may occur between the at least one server and the at least one storage subsystem and defining movement of the logical volume;

specifying a resource on a I/O path used by the first application whose I/O amount may be increased based on the configuration information;

identifying a second application using the resource specified based on the configuration information,

wherein the rule table includes IF-THEN type rules for avoiding performance deterioration of each application, each of the rules storing a cause and a condition in a preamble part and storing a countermeasure in a conclusion part;

setting the specified I/O performance lowering resource as the cause of the rule;

setting the I/O amount increased path specified in the specifying a resource step as a condition of the rule for the second application;

obtaining the countermeasure as the conclusion from the rule; and

displaying a name of application, the cause, the condition and the countermeasure on a display device.

8. The method according to claim 7,

wherein the I/O path from each application in the at least one server to a logical volume in the at least one storage subsystem includes at least one of server side ports and at least one of storage side ports.

9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising:

identifying the first application, if none of the utilization ratio of the server side ports and storage side ports on the I/O path from the first application to the logical volume used by the first application exceeds a predetermined value.

10. The method according to claim 7, further comprising:

displaying the name of the second application, the cause and the countermeasure in a table form on the display device.

11. The method according to claim 8,

wherein the rule stores, when the cause is the storage side port performance deterioration and the condition is that the I/O amount increased between the first application to the storage side port, the countermeasure is that the second application is given a priority of using the storage side port.

12. The method according to claim 8,

wherein the I/O path further includes a disk cache,

wherein the rule stores, when the cause is a cache performance deterioration and the condition is that the I/O amount increased between the second application to the storage side port via the cache, the countermeasure is that the cache of a logical volume is made resident.

13. A computer readable storage medium storing a program for a storage management method for a system having at least one server, at least one storage subsystem, and a storage management server comprising a rule table and connected to the at least one storage subsystem and the at least one server via a network, the method comprising:

collecting information on connection relationship between resources on an I/O path from each of applications in the at least one server to a logical volume used by the applications as configuration information from the at least one server and the at least one storage subsystem;

collecting performance information on each of the resources on the I/O path from each of the applications in the at least one server to the logical volume used by the applications from the at least one server and the at least one storage subsystem;

inputting a setting modification definition for balancing an I/O load of the at least one storage subsystem, specifying a resource on the I/O path whose I/O load is reduced according to the setting modification definition;

identifying a first application whose I/O amount may be increased, the setting modification definition being configured to eliminate a predicted bottleneck that may occur between the at least one server and the at least one storage subsystem and defining movement of the logical volume;

specifying a resource on a I/O path used by the first application whose I/O amount may be increased based on the configuration information;

identifying a second application using the resource specified based on the configuration information,

wherein the rule table includes IF-THEN type rules for avoiding performance deterioration of each application, each of the rules storing a cause and a condition in a preamble part and storing a countermeasure in a conclusion part;

setting the specified I/O performance lowering resource as the cause of the rule;

setting the I/O amount increased path specified in the specifying a resource step as a condition of the rule for the second application;

obtaining the countermeasure as the conclusion from the rule; and

displaying a name of application, the cause, the condition and the countermeasure on a display device.