COMPUTER SYSTEM, COMPUTER AND METHOD FOR PERFORMING THIN PROVISIONING CAPACITY MANAGEMENT IN COORDINATION WITH VIRTUAL MACHINES

• US 20140136780A1
• Filed: 01/16/2014
• Published: 05/15/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/05/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: ANDO, NOBUHIKO, BENIYAMA, NOBUO, FUKUI, YOSHIKI, ASAKI, KATSUTOSHI, YAMAMOTO, MASAYUKI, INNAN, MASATAKA, KUSAMA, TAKATO
• Granted Patent: US 9,058,125 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/114
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/1044 Space efficiency improvement
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/152 Virtualized environment, e.g. logically partitioned system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/657 Virtual address space management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/064 Management of blocks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0665 at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• 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 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5016 the resource being the memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455

Abstract

In the computer system, a storage system provides a storage level virtual volume based on thin provisioning technology, to a physical server on which a virtual machine is defined. The storage system releases the area of the logical volume corresponding to the storage level virtual volume accessed by a virtual machine which is specified to be deleted, on the basis of storage level virtual volume conversion information which is managed by the storage system.

Claims

1. A management system for managing a storage system configured to provide one or more storage level virtual volumes associated with a first storage level pool and a server computer configured to provide one or more server level virtual volumes associated with a server level pool to which the one or more storage level virtual volumes belong, comprising:

an interface device to communicate with the storage system and the server computer;

a storage device; and

a processor coupled to the interface device and the storage device,

wherein the processor is configured to

receive storage level pool information that includes information of the capacity of the first storage level pool from the storage system,

store the received storage level pool information in the storage device,

receive a server level pool information that includes information of the capacity of the server level pool from the server computer,

store the received server level pool information in the storage device,

calculate a leverage ratio which is a ratio of total capacity of the one or more server level virtual volumes corresponding to the first storage level pool, to capacity of the first storage level pool, based on the storage level pool information and the server level pool information,

compare the leverage ratio to a predetermined threshold value, and

output information relating to a possibility of capacity insufficient has increased, if the leverage ratio is larger than the predetermined threshold value.

2. The management system according to claim 1,

wherein the information is an alert which announces that the possibility of capacity insufficient has increased.

3. The management system according to claim 1,

wherein the information is information which indicates a cause location that is a cause of steep rise in the leverage ratio, and

wherein the processor is configured to identify the cause location based on the storage level pool information and the server level pool information.

4. The management system according to claim 3,

wherein the cause location is the server level virtual volume having the largest value of the unallocated capacity of the one or more server level virtual volumes.

5. The management system according to claim 1,

wherein the processor is configured to add a surplus capacity to the first storage level pool if the leverage ratio is larger than the predetermined threshold value.

6. The management system according to claim 5,

wherein the processor is configured to

compare the predetermined threshold value to a leverage ratio updated due to the addition of the surplus capacity, and

output information relating to the possibility of capacity insufficient has reduced if the updated leverage ratio is equal to or less than the predetermined threshold value.

7. The management system according to claim 5,

wherein the processor is configured to

compare the predetermined threshold value to a leverage ratio updated due to the addition of the surplus capacity,

determine whether there is a second storage level pool which is a separate from the first storage level pool, if the updated leverage ratio is larger than the predetermined threshold value, and

output information relating to the possibility of capacity insufficient if there is not the second storage level pool.

8. The management system according to claim 5,

wherein the processor is configured to

compare the predetermined threshold value to a leverage ratio updated due to the addition of the surplus capacity,

determine whether there is a second storage level pool which is a separate from the first storage level pool, if the updated leverage ratio is larger than the predetermined threshold value,

migrate at least one of the one or more server level virtual volumes corresponding to the first storage level pool from the first storage level pool to the second storage level pool, if there is the second storage level pool,

compare the predetermined threshold value to a leverage ratio updated due to the migration,

output information relating to the possibility of capacity insufficient has reduced if the leverage ratio updated due to the migration is equal to or less than the predetermined threshold value, and

output information relating to the possibility of capacity insufficient if the leverage ratio updated due to the migration is larger than the predetermined threshold value.

9. A computer system comprising:

a storage system configured to provide one or more storage level virtual volumes associated with a storage level pool;

a server computer configured to provide one or more server level virtual volumes associated with a server level pool to which the one or more storage level virtual volumes belong; and

a management system configured to manage the storage system and the server computer,

wherein the management system is configured to

receive storage level pool information that includes information of the capacity of the first storage level pool from the storage system,

receive a server level pool information that includes information of the capacity of the server level pool from the server computer,

calculate a leverage ratio which is a ratio of total capacity of the one or more server level virtual volumes corresponding to the storage level pool, to capacity of the storage level pool, based on the storage level pool information and the server level pool information,

compare the leverage ratio to a predetermined threshold value, and

output information relating to a possibility of capacity insufficient has increased, if the leverage ratio is larger than the predetermined threshold value.

10. A management method for managing a storage system configured to provide one or more storage level virtual volumes associated with a first storage level pool and a server computer configured to provide one or more server level virtual volumes associated with a server level pool to which the one or more storage level virtual volumes belong, comprising a steps of:

receiving storage level pool information that includes information of the capacity of the storage level pool from the storage system,

receiving server level pool information that includes information of the capacity of the server level pool from the server computer,

calculating a leverage ratio which is a ratio of total capacity of the one or more server level virtual volumes corresponding to the storage level pool, to capacity of the storage level pool, based on the storage level pool information and the server level pool information,

comparing the leverage ratio to a predetermined threshold value, and

output information relating to a possibility of capacity insufficient has increased, if the leverage ratio is larger than the predetermined threshold value.