STORAGE SYSTEM FOR MANAGING A LOG OF ACCESS

• US 20120239879A1
• Filed: 05/31/2012
• Published: 09/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/18/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Norihiko Kawakami, Tetsuya Shirogane
• Original Assignee: Norihiko Kawakami, Tetsuya Shirogane
• Inventors: KAWAKAMI, Norihiko, SHIROGANE, Tetsuya
• Granted Patent: US 8,732,129 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/113
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/50 Monitoring users, programs or devices to maintain the integrity of platforms, e.g. of processors, firmware or operating systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/604 Tools and structures for managing or administering access control systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/78 to assure secure storage of data address-based protection against unauthorised use of memory G06F12/14; record carriers for use with machines and with at least a part designed to carry digital markings G06K19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2101 Auditing as a secondary aspect

Abstract

Provided is a storage system including: a first interface connected to a host computer; a second interface connected to a manager terminal; a control unit connected to the first interface and the second interface and equipping a processor and a memory; and one or more disk drives in which data that is requested to read by the host computer is stored, in which the control unit detects an access from the host computer to the first interface and an access from the manager terminal to the second interface, and generates log data of operations according to the accesses. Accordingly, log data concerning every action and every operation of the storage system is maintained and stored.

Claims

1. A storage system comprising:

a plurality of first interfaces, each of the plurality of first interfaces being coupled to a host computer;

a plurality of second interfaces, each of the plurality of second interfaces being coupled to a manager terminal;

a plurality of control units, each of the plurality of control units being coupled to at least one of the first interfaces and at least one of the second interfaces,

wherein each of the plurality of control units includes a processor and a cache memory; and

a plurality of storage units,

wherein data that is requested to be read by the host computer is stored in the plurality of storage units, and

wherein the plurality of storage units includes a plurality of log storage areas, each of the plurality of log storage areas storing a different type of log data generated by the plurality of control units.

2. The storage system according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of control units detects an access from the host computer to a coupled first interface of the plurality of first interfaces, detects an access from the manager terminal to a coupled second interface of the plurality of second interfaces, and generates the log data of operations according to the accesses.

3. The storage system according to claim 1, wherein each of the control units obtains the processing details and the processing results executed within the storage system in relation to neither the access to the first interface nor the access to second interface.

4. The storage system according to claim 1,

wherein a certain control unit of the plurality of control units collects log data generated by each of the other control units from the cache memory of each of the other control units and unifies the collected log data using a template that specifies a format in the cache memory of the certain control unit, and

wherein the certain control unit writes the log data collected from the other control units and the unified log data generated by the certain control unit into a log storage area configured in the one or more disk drives.

5. The storage system according to claim 2, wherein a first log storage area stores a failure log that is generated based on an access related to failures from the manager terminal.

6. The storage system according to claim 3, wherein a second log area stores an authentication log that is generated from the processing details and the processing results executed in the storage system and that is related to the authentication.

7. The storage system according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of storage units stores a template that specifies a format of log data generated by each of the plurality of control units.

8. The storage system according to claim 1, wherein after detecting the access from the host computer to the first interface and the access from the manager terminal to the second interface, each of the control units obtains processing details and processing results executed in correspondence with the accesses, applies a template to the processing details and the processing results to generate the log data, and stores the log data in the cache memory.

9. The storage system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a storage unit storing access management information that specifies permission of an access to the log storage area,

wherein each of the control units denies an access from the host computer to the log storage area by referring to the access management information and denies an access from the management computer to attempt to delete the log storage area by referring to the access management information.

10. A method for managing a log of access in a storage system, the storage system including a plurality of first interfaces, each of the plurality of first interfaces being coupled to a host computer, a plurality of second interfaces, each of the plurality of second interfaces being coupled to a manager terminal, a plurality of control units, each of the plurality of control units being coupled to at least one of the first interfaces and at least one of the second interfaces, each of the plurality of control units including a processor and a cache memory, and a plurality of storage units, the plurality of storage units including a plurality of log storage areas, the method comprising:

storing, in the plurality of storage units, data that is requested to be read by the host computer; and

storing, in each of the plurality of log storage areas, a different type of log data generated by the plurality of control units.

11. The method according to claim 10, the method further comprising:

detecting, by each of the plurality of control units, an access from the host computer to a coupled first interface of the plurality of first interfaces;

detecting, by each of the plurality of control units, an access from the manager terminal to a coupled second interface of the plurality of second interfaces; and

generating, by each of the plurality of control units, the log data of operations according to the accesses.

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

obtaining, by each of the control units, the processing details and the processing results executed within the storage system in relation to neither the access to the first interface nor the access to second interface.

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

collecting, by a certain control unit of the plurality of control units, log data generated by each of the other control units from the cache memory of each of the other control units;

unifying, by the certain control unit, the collected log data using a template that specifies a format in the cache memory of the certain control unit; and

writing, by the certain control unit, the log data collected from the other control units and the unified log data generated by the certain control unit into a log storage area configured in the one or more disk drives.

14. The method according to claim 11, further comprising:

storing, by the first log storage area, a failure log that is generated based on an access related to failures from the manager terminal.

15. The method according to claim 12, further comprising:

storing, by a second log area, an authentication log that is generated from the processing details and the processing results executed in the storage system and that is related to the authentication.

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

storing, in a plurality of storage units, a template that specifies a format of log data generated by each of the plurality of control units.

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

after detecting the access from the host computer to the first interface and the access from the manager terminal to the second interface, obtaining, by each of the control units, processing details and processing results executed in correspondence with the accesses, applying, by each of the control units, a template to the processing details and the processing results to generate the log data, and storing, by each of the control units, the log data in the cache memory.

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

storing, in a storage unit, access management information that specifies permission of an access to the log storage area,

wherein each of the control units denies an access from the host computer to the log storage area by referring to the access management information and denies an access from the management computer to attempt to delete the log storage area by referring to the access management information.