DETERMINING WEIGHT VALUES FOR STORAGE DEVICES IN A STORAGE TIER TO USE TO SELECT ONE OF THE STORAGE DEVICES TO USE AS A TARGET STORAGE TO WHICH DATA FROM A SOURCE STORAGE IS MIGRATED

• US 20140189196A1
• Filed: 01/02/2013
• Published: 07/03/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/02/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kelkar, Bhooshan P., Patil, Sandeep R., Sodhiya, Prashant, Shiraguppi, Riyaz M.
• Granted Patent: US 9,047,239 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/102
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/16 Protection against loss of memory contents contains no material, see G06F11/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0611 in relation to response time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0613 in relation to throughput
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0616 in relation to life time, e.g. increasing Mean Time Between Failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0634 by changing the state or mode of one or more devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0647 Migration mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0673 Single storage device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0685 Hybrid storage combining heterogeneous device types, e.g. hierarchical storage, hybrid arrays
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0688 Non-volatile semiconductor memory arrays

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method, system, and computer program product for determining storage device weight values to use to select one of the storage devices to use as a target storage to which data from a source storage is migrated. A determination is made, for each of the storage devices, of static parameter values for static parameters comprising attributes of the storage device and dynamic parameter values for dynamic parameters providing device health information determined by accessing the storage device to determine operational conditions at the storage device. Storage device weight values are determined as a function of the static parameter values and the dynamic parameter values of the device. The determined storage device weight values are used to select one of the storage devices as the target storage to which data from the source storage is migrated.

Claims

1. A computer program product for migrating data from a source storage to a target storage comprising at least one of a plurality of storage devices, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therein that executes to perform operations, the operations comprising:

determining for each of the storage devices, static parameter values for static parameters comprising attributes of the storage device;

determining, for each of the storage devices, dynamic parameter values for dynamic parameters providing device health information determined by accessing the storage device to determine operational conditions at the storage device;

determining, for each of the storage devices, a storage device weight value as a function of the static parameter values and the dynamic parameter values of the storage device; and

using the determined storage device weight values of the storage devices to select one of the storage devices as the target storage to which data from the source storage is migrated.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein there is a different vendor value assigned to different vendors, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining, for each of the storage devices, a vendor value for a vendor of the storage device, wherein the function uses the determined static parameter values, the dynamic parameter values, and the vendor value for the storage device to determine the storage device weight value, wherein higher preferred vendors have a higher vendor value than lessor preferred vendors.

3. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the function uses at least two parameter weight values for at least two of the static and dynamic parameters, wherein the at least two parameter weight values are different values, and wherein the function multiplies the parameter weight values times the static or/and dynamic parameter values to which the parameter weight value applies.

4. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the storage devices are identified in at least a first tier and a second tier based on characteristics of the storage devices, wherein the first and second tiers have different static and dynamic parameters, wherein the static and dynamic parameters for storage devices within one of the first and second tiers are capable of having different values, and wherein the source device is in the first tier and wherein the target device is selected from one of the storage devices identified as in the second tier.

5. The computer program product of claim 4, wherein the first tier comprises solid state storage devices and wherein the second tier comprises hard disk drives.

6. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the function uses one parameter weight value for each of the dynamic and static parameters and applies the parameter weight values for the static parameters to the corresponding static parameters values to determine an aggregate static parameter value and applies the parameter weight values for dynamic parameters to the dynamic parameter values to determine an aggregate dynamic parameter value, wherein the weight value is a function of the aggregate static parameter value and the aggregate dynamic parameter value.

7. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein the function provides a dynamic weight and a static weight, wherein the function applies the dynamic weight to the aggregate dynamic parameter value to produce a weighted aggregate dynamic parameter value and the static weight to the aggregate static parameter value to produce a weighted aggregate static parameter value, wherein the storage device weight value is a function of the weighted aggregate dynamic parameter value and the weighted aggregate static parameter value.

8. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein for each of the storage devices there is a vendor value assigned to a vendor of the storage device, wherein there are different vendor weights associated with different storage device types, wherein the operations to determine the storage device weight value for each storage device comprises:

determining the vendor value for the storage device;

determining the vendor weight for the storage device type of the storage device;

determining a weighted vendor value from the determined vendor value and the vendor weight;

wherein the storage device weight value is a function of the weighted aggregate dynamic parameter value, the weighted aggregate static parameter value, the vendor value for the storage device, and the weighed vendor value of the storage device.

9. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the static parameters comprise at least one of a mean time between failure, read/write performance, availability, and durability, and wherein the dynamic parameters comprise at least one of a errors encountered, temperature, and data throughput.

10. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the static parameter values are obtained from product specification information for the storage devices, and wherein the dynamic parameter values are obtained by querying the storage devices during operations to gather operational state information indicating operational health of the storage device.

11. The computer program product of claim 1, the using the storage device weight values to select one of the storage devices as the target device comprises:

determining that multiple of the storage devices are deemed to have equivalent weight values; and

using an administrative policy to select one of the determined multiple storage devices deemed to have equivalent weight values as the target device.

12. A computer program product for migrating data from a first storage to a target storage comprising at least one of a plurality of storage devices, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therein that executes to perform operations, the operations comprising:

determining the storage devices comprising a first type of storage devices and a second type of storage devices, wherein the first type of storage devices are faster access than the second type of storage devices;

determining, for each of the storage devices, static parameter values for static parameters comprising attributes of the storage device;

determining, for each of the storage devices, dynamic parameter values for dynamic parameters providing device health information determined by accessing the storage device to determine operational conditions at the storage device;

determining, for each of the storage devices, a storage device weight value as a function of the static parameter values and the dynamic parameter determined for the storage device;

using the determined weight values of the first type of storage devices to select one of the first type of storage devices to which data from one of the second type of storage devices is migrated; and

using the determined weight values of the second type of storage devices to select one of the second type of storage devices to which data from one of the first type of storage devices is migrated.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining a third type of storage devices, wherein the second type of storage devices is faster access than the third type of storage device;

determining for each of the third type of storage device static parameter values for static parameters comprising attributes of the third type of storage device;

determining for the third type of storage devices dynamic parameter values for dynamic parameters providing device health information determined by accessing the third type of storage devices to determine operational conditions at the third type of storage devices;

determining for each of the third type of storage devices a weight value based on a function of the static parameter values and the dynamic parameter values of the storage device;

using the determined weight values of the third type of storage devices to select one of the third type of storage devices to which data from one of the second type of storage devices is migrated; and

using the determined weight values of the second type of storage devices to select one of the second type of storage devices hard disk drives to which data from one of the third type of storage devices is migrated.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the first type of storage devices comprise solid state storage devices, wherein the second type of storage devices comprise hard disk drives, and wherein the third type of storage devices comprise tape drives.

15. A system for migrating data from a first storage to a target storage comprising at least one of a plurality of storage devices, comprising:

a processor; and

computer readable storage medium having code executed by the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising;

determining for each of the storage devices, static parameter values for static parameters comprising attributes of the storage device;

determining, for each of the storage devices, dynamic parameter values for dynamic parameters providing device health information determined by accessing the storage device to determine operational conditions at the storage device;

determining, for each of the storage devices, a storage device weight value as a function of the static parameter values and the dynamic parameter values of the storage device; and

using the determined storage device weight values of the storage devices to select one of the storage devices as the target storage to which data from the source storage is migrated.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein there is a different vendor value assigned to different vendors, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining, for each of the storage devices, a vendor value for a vendor of the storage device, wherein the function uses the determined static parameter values, the dynamic parameter values, and the vendor value for the storage device to determine the storage device weight value, wherein higher preferred vendors have a higher vendor value than lessor preferred vendors.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the storage devices are identified in at least a first tier and a second tier based on characteristics of the storage devices, wherein the first and second tiers have different static and dynamic parameters, wherein the static and dynamic parameters for storage devices within one of the first and second tiers are capable of having different values, and wherein the source device is in the first tier and wherein the target device is selected from one of the storage devices identified as in the second tier.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the function uses one parameter weight value for each of the dynamic and static parameters and applies the parameter weight values for the static parameters to the corresponding static parameters values to determine an aggregate static parameter value and applies the parameter weight values for dynamic parameters to the dynamic parameter values to determine an aggregate dynamic parameter value, wherein the weight value is a function of the aggregate static parameter value and the aggregate dynamic parameter value.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the static parameter values are obtained from product specification information for the storage devices, and wherein the dynamic parameter values are obtained by querying the storage devices during operations to gather operational state information indicating operational health of the storage device.

20. A system for migrating data from a first storage to a target storage comprising at least one of a plurality of storage devices, comprising:

a processor; and

computer readable storage medium having code executed by the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising;

determining the storage devices comprising a first type of storage devices and a second type of storage devices, wherein the first type of storage devices are faster access than the second type of storage devices;

determining, for each of the storage devices, static parameter values for static parameters comprising attributes of the storage device;

determining, for each of the storage devices, dynamic parameter values for dynamic parameters providing device health information determined by accessing the storage device to determine operational conditions at the storage device;

determining, for each of the storage devices, a storage device weight value as a function of the static parameter values and the dynamic parameter determined for the storage device;

using the determined weight values of the first type of storage devices to select one of the first type of storage devices to which data from one of the second type of storage devices is migrated; and

using the determined weight values of the second type of storage devices to select one of the second type of storage devices to which data from one of the first type of storage devices is migrated.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining a third type of storage devices, wherein the second type of storage devices is faster access than the third type of storage device;

determining for each of the third type of storage device static parameter values for static parameters comprising attributes of the third type of storage device;

determining for the third type of storage devices dynamic parameter values for dynamic parameters providing device health information determined by accessing the third type of storage devices to determine operational conditions at the third type of storage devices;

determining for each of the third type of storage devices a weight value based on a function of the static parameter values and the dynamic parameter values of the storage device;

using the determined weight values of the third type of storage devices to select one of the third type of storage devices to which data from one of the second type of storage devices is migrated; and

using the determined weight values of the second type of storage devices to select one of the second type of storage devices hard disk drives to which data from one of the third type of storage devices is migrated.

22. A method for migrating data from a first storage to a target storage, comprising:

determining a plurality of storage devices;

determining for each of the storage devices, static parameter values for static parameters comprising attributes of the storage device;

determining, for each of the storage devices, dynamic parameter values for dynamic parameters providing device health information determined by accessing the storage device to determine operational conditions at the storage device;

determining, for each of the storage devices, a storage device weight value as a function of the static parameter values and the dynamic parameter values of the storage device; and

using the determined storage device weight values of the storage devices to select one of the storage devices as the target storage to which data from the source storage device is migrated.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein there is a different vendor value assigned to different vendors, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining, for each of the storage devices, a vendor value for a vendor of the storage device, wherein the function uses the determined static parameter values, the dynamic parameter values, and the vendor value for the storage device to determine the storage device weight value, wherein higher preferred vendors have a higher vendor value than lessor preferred vendors.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the storage devices are identified in at least a first tier and a second tier based on characteristics of the storage devices, wherein the first and second tiers have different static and dynamic parameters, wherein the static and dynamic parameters for storage devices within one of the first and second tiers are capable of having different values, and wherein the source device is in the first tier and wherein the target device is selected from one of the storage devices identified as in the second tier.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein the function uses one parameter weight value for each of the dynamic and static parameters and applies the parameter weight values for the static parameters to the corresponding static parameters values to determine an aggregate static parameter value and applies the parameter weight values for dynamic parameters to the dynamic parameter values to determine an aggregate dynamic parameter value, wherein the weight value is a function of the aggregate static parameter value and the aggregate dynamic parameter value.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein the static parameter values are obtained from product specification information for the storage devices, and wherein the dynamic parameter values are obtained by querying the storage devices during operations to gather operational state information indicating operational health of the storage device.