Apparatus and method for diagnosing disk drives in disk array device

• US 5,835,703 A
• Filed: 12/18/1992
• Issued: 11/10/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 02/10/1992
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Konno, Shigeo
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoliel, Jr., Robert W.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Palys, Joseph E.
• Application Number:
  US07/993,037
• Time in Patent Office: 2,153 Days
• Field of Search: 395/575, 395/182.03, 395/182.04, 395/182.05, 395/182.18, 395/185.07, 395/441, 395/183.17, 371/10.1, 371/10.2, 371/21.1
• US Class Current: 714/42
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2221 to test input/output devices or peripheral units

Abstract

In an apparatus and method for diagnosing a plurality of disk drives in at least one disk array device, including a disk array control unit which is connected in parallel with a plurality of data storage disk drives, a redundant disk drive and a spare storage disk drive, and which is adapted to access the plurality of disk drives in parallel in response to an access from a host device. The disk array control unit accesses the spare storage disk drive as well as the plurality of data storage disk drives and the redundant storage disk drive, in accordance with a data transfer requirement from the host device, thereby diagnosing the storage disk drive, when the data transfer requirement represents a read transfer or write transfer.

Claims

1. A method for diagnosing a plurality of disk drives in at least one disk array device including a plurality of data storage disk drives, a redundant disk drive for a redundancy check, a spare storage disk drive, said spare storage disk drive storing data which is recreated when a failure occurs in a data storage disk drive, and a disk array control unit that is connected in parallel with said plurality of disk drives and that is adapted to access said plurality of disk drives in response to an access from a host device for accessing said data storage disk drive only, wherein said method comprises:

a step of simultaneously accessing said spare storage disk drive as well as said plurality of data storage disk drives and said redundant disk drive, when a data transfer requirement issued by said host device is a read transfer requirement that addresses the plurality of data storage disk drives even when said read transfer requirement does not require access to said spare disk drive; and

a step of diagnosing said spare storage disk drive during simultaneous accessing of said data storage disk drives so that said spare storage disk drive may be tested.

2. A method as set forth in claim 1, wherein said disk array control unit performs seek operations and data transfer operations for said spare storage disk drive to diagnose said spare storage disk drive.

3. A method as set forth in claim 1, wherein said disk array control unit accesses said spare storage disk drive as well as said plurality of data storage disk drives and said redundant disk drive, when the data transfer requirement from said host device is a write transfer to diagnose said spare storage disk drive.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said disk array control unit has information representing the state of said spare storage disk drive, and said disk array control unit is operative to refer to said information when receiving a seek command from said host device.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said disk array control unit is operative to access all of the disk drives except said spare storage disk drive when a data transfer requirement issued by said host device is a write transfer requirement.

6. A disk array device that is connectable to a host device and includes at least one data storage disk drive, a redundant disk drive for a redundancy check, and a spare storage disk drive, said spare storage disk drive storing data which is recreated when a failure occurs in said data storage disk drive, comprising:

a host interface controller which receives an access command issued from said host device; and

a disk array control unit for controlling said at least one data storage disk drive, said redundant disk drive, and said spare storage disk drive, in accordance with said access command through said host interface controller, said disk array control unit being operative to access both said at least one data storage disk drive and said spare storage disk drive so as to diagnose said spare storage disk drive during simultaneous access of said data storage disk drives, when a data transfer requirement issued by said host device is a read transfer requirement for said at least one data storage disk drive even when said data transfer requirement does not require access to said spare storage disk drive.

7. A disk array device as set forth in claim 6, wherein said disk array control unit is operative to perform seek operations and data transfer operations for said spare storage disk drive for the purpose of diagnosing said spare storage disk drive.

8. A disk device as set forth in claim 6, wherein said disk array control unit is operative to access said spare storage disk drive as well as said plurality of disk drives including said at least one data storage disk drive and said redundant disk drive, when a data transfer requirement from said host device is a write transfer to diagnose said spare storage disk drive during simultaneous access of said data storage disk drives so that said spare storage disk drive may be tested at any time during said access from said host device without disturbing said data transfer requirement.

9. A disk array device as set forth in claim 8, wherein said disk array control unit is operative to access said spare storage disk drive as well as said plurality of disk drives including said at least one data storage disk drive and said redundant disk drive, when said data transfer requirement from said host device is a diagnosis, and wherein said disk array control unit is operative to diagnose said spare storage disk drive and to write data onto said spare storage disk drive.

10. A disk array device as set forth in claim 9, wherein said diagnosis includes seek operations and data transfer operations for said spare storage disk drive.

11. A disk array device as set forth in claim 8, wherein said disk array control unit is operative to perform seek operations and data transfer operations for said spare storage disk drive for the purpose of diagnosing said spare storage disk drive.

12. A disk array device as set forth in claim 9, wherein said diagnosis includes seek operations, data transfer operations, and recording medium defect detecting operations for the storage disk drives.

13. A disk array device as set forth in claim 6, further comprising a plurality of disk drives, a first disk drive of said plurality of disk drives including said redundant disk drive, a second disk drive of said plurality of disk drives including said spare storage disk drive, and said remaining plurality of disk drives including said at least one data storage disk drive.

14. A disk array device as set forth in claim 13, wherein said disk array control unit further comprises a means for dividing data sent from said host interface controller into a plurality of data blocks, and storing each of said data blocks into respective data storage disk drives.

15. A disk array device as set forth in claim 13, wherein said disk array control unit is operative to access said spare storage disk drive as well as said plurality of disk drives including said at least one data storage disk drive and said redundant storage disk drive.

16. A disk array device as set forth in claim 15, wherein said disk array control unit is operative to access said spare storage disk drive as well as said plurality of disk drives including said at least one data storage disk drive and said redundant disk drive, when said data transfer requirement from said host device is for diagnosing said spare storage disk drive, and said disk array control unit is not operative to transfer data to said host device.

17. A disk array device as set forth in claim 16, wherein said diagnosing includes a seek operation and a data transfer operation for said spare storage disk drive.

18. A disk array device as set forth in claim 15, wherein said disk array control unit is operative to perform seek operations and data transfer operations for said spare storage disk drive for the purpose of diagnosing said spare storage disk drive.

19. A disk array device as set forth in claim 16, wherein said diagnosing includes seek operations, data transfer operations, and recording medium defect detecting operations for said disk drives.

20. A disk array device as set forth in claim 6, wherein said access command is a seek command.

21. A disk array device as set forth in claim 6, wherein said access command is a read command.

22. A disk array device as set forth in claim 6, wherein said disk array control unit comprises a means for checking whether or not an error occurs when said access command is being carried out.

23. The disk array device of claim 6 wherein said disk array control unit has information representing the state of said spare storage disk drive, and said disk array control unit is operative to refer to said information when receiving a seek command from said host device.

24. The disk array device of claim 6 wherein said disk array control unit is operative to access all of the disk drives except said spare storage disk drive when a data transfer requirement issued by said host device is a write transfer requirement.