SERVICE PLAN TIERING, PROTECTION, AND REHYDRATION STRATEGIES

• US 20150381725A1
• Filed: 06/26/2014
• Published: 12/31/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Vantara, LLC (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi Data Systems Corporation (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: Kats, Yury, Haapaoja, Steven, Lee, Cody, Isherwood, Benjamin
• Granted Patent: US 10,425,480 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0611 in relation to response time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0644 Management of space entities, e.g. partitions, extents, pools
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• 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

A storage system stores objects and copies of objects on the storage system and other storage systems external to the storage system. The storage system stores the copies in storage pools of volumes, which are organized into one or more tiers. The configuration settings of each tier and each pool within the tier may be configured according to a user'"'"'s preferences. In one example, the number of copies of data content and the number copies of metadata associated with the data content an individual pool stores may be specified. When objects are migrated between tiers, the objects are stored among the storage pools of the tiers. If the number of data content copies or metadata copies is increased, the data or metadata is copied from a determined copy source and if the number of copies decreases, the data is removed from the volumes in the pools.

Claims

1. A storage system coupled to a plurality of storage components, the storage system comprising:

a central processing unit configured to manage one or more storage pools within one or more storage tiers, each storage pool having of one or more storage components of the plurality of storage components; and

a memory configured to store tier management information including, for each pool within each of the one or more storage tiers, a number of copies of data content to be stored within a pool and a number of copies of metadata associated with the data content to be stored within a pool,

wherein the central processing unit is configured to store the data content and the metadata associated with the data content into the storage components of each pool according to the number of copies of the data content and the number of copies of metadata associated with the data content in the tier management information.

2. The storage system of claim 1, wherein

the tier management information includes one or more configuration settings of each one of the one or more tiers, and

the central processing unit is configured to store the data content and the metadata associated with the data content in each storage pool according to a change in the number of copies of the data content or the number of copies of metadata associated with the data content of each storage pool in the tier management information in accordance with the one or more configuration settings of the tier containing the storage pool having the change in the tier management information.

3. The storage system of claim 1, wherein

the central processing unit is configured to manage one or more volumes in each of the one or more storage components of a pool, and

the central processing unit is configured to limit the number of copies of the data content and the number of copies of the metadata associated with the data content that is stored in the tier management information to be less than or equal to the total number of volumes within the pool.

4. The storage system of claim 1, wherein

if the number of copies of the data content or the number of copies of the metadata associated with the data content for a pool is changed to be less than a predetermined number, the central processing unit does not store the data content and the metadata associated with the data content in each storage pool according to the change in the number of copies of the data content and number of copies of the metadata associated with the data content in the tier management information.

5. The storage system of claim 1, wherein

the central processing unit is configured to store one or more copies of the data content in a storage pool by copying the data content from a copy source, the copy source is determined according to a predetermined prioritized order of copy sources.

6. The storage system of claim 1, wherein

the central processing unit is configured to store one or more copies of the metadata in a storage pool by copying the metadata from a copy source, the copy source is determined according to a predetermined prioritized order of copy sources.

7. The storage system of claim 1, wherein

the tier management information includes one or more configuration settings of each one of the one or more tiers,

the central processing unit is configured to migrate the data content and the metadata associated with the data content from a source tier of the one or more tiers to a target tier of the one or more tiers according to the configuration settings of the target tier, and

the central processing unit stores the data content and the metadata associated with the data content migrated into the target tier according to the number of copies of the data content and the number of copies of the metadata associated with the data content in the tier management information for each pool within the target tier.

8. The storage system of claim 1, wherein

the central processing unit is configured to manage one or more volumes in each of the one or more storage components of a pool,

the central processing unit stores the copies of the data content in a storage pool in accordance with the number of copies of the data content in the tier management information, the copies of the data content are distributed among the one or more storage components within the pool, and

the central processing unit stores the copies of the metadata associated with the data content in a storage pool in accordance with the number of copies of the metadata associated with the data content in the tier management information, the copies of metadata associated with the data content are distributed among the one or more storage components within the pool.

9. The storage system of claim 1, wherein

the tier management information is modified by a client computer connected to the storage system.

18. The storage method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

modifying the tier management information by a client computer connected to the storage system.

10. A storage method for a storage system coupled to a plurality of storage components, the method comprising:

managing, by a central processing unit, one or more storage pools within one or more storage tiers, each storage pool having one or more storage components of the plurality of storage components;

storing tier management information, by a memory, including, for each pool within each of the one or more storage tiers, a number of copies of data content to be stored within a pool and a number of copies of metadata associated with the data content to be stored within a pool; and

storing, by the central processing unit, the data content and the metadata associated with the data content into the storage components of each pool according to the number of copies of the data content and the number of copies of the metadata associated with the data content in the tier management information.

11. The storage method of claim 10, wherein

the tier management information includes one or more configuration settings of each one of the one or more tiers,

the method further comprises the step of:

storing, by the central processing unit, the data content and the metadata associated with the data content in each storage pool according to a change in the number of copies of the data content or number of copies of the metadata associated with the data content of each storage pool in the tier management information in accordance with the one or more configuration settings of the tier containing the storage pool having the change in the tier management information.

12. The storage method of claim 10, wherein

the central processing unit manages one or more volumes in each of the one or more storage components of a pool,

the method further comprises the step of:

limiting the number of copies of the data content and the number of copies of the metadata associated with the data content that is stored in the tier management information to be less than or equal to the total number of volumes within a pool.

13. The storage method of claim 10, further comprising the step of:

determining, by the central processing unit, whether the number of copies of the data content or the number of copies of the metadata associated with the data content for a pool is changed to be less than a predetermined number, wherein

if the number of copies of data content or the number of copies of metadata associated with the data content for a pool is changed to be less than a predetermined number, the central processing unit does not store the data content and the metadata associated with the data content in each storage pool according to the change in the number of copies of the data content and the number of copies of the metadata associated with the data content in the tier management information.

14. The storage method of claim 10, further comprising the steps of:

storing, by the central processing unit, one or more copies of the data content in a storage pool by copying the data content from a copy source; and

determining the copy source according to a predetermined prioritized order copy sources.

15. The storage method of claim 10, further comprising the steps of:

storing, by the central processing unit, one or more copies of the metadata associated with the data content in a storage pool by copying the metadata from a copy source; and

determining the copy source according to a predetermined prioritized order of copy sources.

16. The storage method of claim 10, wherein

the tier management information includes one or more configuration settings of each one of the one or more tiers,

the method further comprising the steps of:

migrating, by the central processing unit, the data content and the metadata associated with the data content from a source tier of the one or more tiers to a target tier of the one or more tiers according to the configuration settings of the target tier; and

storing the data content and the metadata associated with the data content migrated into the target tier according to the number of copies of the data content and the number of copies of the metadata associated with the data content in the tier management information for each pool within the target tier.

17. The storage method of claim 10, wherein

the central processing unit is configured to manage one or more volumes in each of the one or more storage components of a pool,

the method further comprising the steps of:

storing, by the central processing unit, the copies of the data content in a storage pool in accordance with the number of copies of the data content in the tier management information, the copies of the data content are distributed among the one or more storage components within the pool; and

storing, by the central processing unit, the copies of the metadata associated with the data content in a storage pool in accordance with the number of copies of the metadata associated with the data content in the tier management information, the copies of the metadata associated with the data content are distributed among the one or more storage components within the pool.

19. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a program executed by a computer of a storage system, the program comprising:

code for managing one or more storage pools within one or more storage tiers, each storage pool having of one or more storage components of a plurality of storage components;

code for storing tier management information in a memory coupled to the computer, including, for each pool within each of the one or more storage tiers, a number of copies of data content to be stored within a pool and a number of copies of metadata associated with the data content to be stored within a pool;

code for storing the data content and the metadata associated with the data content into the storage components of each pool according to the number of copies of data content and the number of copies of metadata associated with the data content in the tier management information.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein

the tier management information includes one or more configuration settings of each one of the one or more tiers,

the program further comprises:

code for storing the data content and the metadata associated with the data content in each storage pool according to a change in the number of copies of the data content or the number of copies of the metadata associated with the data content of each storage pool in the tier management information in accordance with the one or more configuration settings of the tier containing the storage pool having the change in the tier management information.