Hierarchical storage management from a mirrored file system on a storage network segmented by a bridge

• US 6,000,020 A
• Filed: 04/01/1997
• Issued: 12/07/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Gadzoox Networks, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Chin, Howey Q., Chan, Kurt
• Primary Examiner(s): Thai, Tuan V.
• Application Number:
  US08/825,683
• Time in Patent Office: 980 Days
• Field of Search: 395/200.44, 395/200.45, 395/200.46, 395/200.79, 395/182.02, 395/182.03, 395/182.04, 370/401-409, 711/111-114, 711/162, 709/214, 709/216, 709/249
• US Class Current: 711/162
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1456 Hardware arrangements for backup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1474 in transactions G06F16/20 takes precedence

Abstract

A system for hierarchical data storage management and transparent data backup in a high speed, high volume Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop environment comprising first and second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loops, each coupling a Transaction Server and backup HSM server to high speed disk drives and mirrored high speed disk drives respectively. The two loops are coupled by a Bridge compatible with the Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop protocol which forwards write transactions directed to the mirrored disk drives from the first loop the second but keeps read transaction from the Transaction Server to the high speed disk drives on the first loop isolated from backup and HSM transactions occurring on the second loop between the backup HSM server, the mirrored disk drives and backup storage devices coupled to the backup HSM server.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a primary memory which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop node;

a mirrored memory which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop node;

a backup/archival storage device;

means for carrying out read and write transactions with said primary memory over a first Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop local area network and, for every write transaction to said primary memory, carrying out a write transaction of the same data to said mirrored memory via a second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (hereafter FCAL) local area network and an FCAL bridge which is capable of understanding the Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop protocols on said first and second (FCAL) local area networks and establishing loop tenancies between said first and second (FCAL) local area networks when a source node is on said first FCAL local area network and a destination node is on said second FCAL local area network, or vice versa, but when said source and destination nodes are both on said first FCAL local area network, keeping the loop tenancy confined to said first FCAL local area network without tying up said second FCAL local area network, and when said source and destination nodes are both on said second FCAL local area network, keeping the loop tenancy confined to said second FCAL local area getwork without tying up said first FCAL local area network, and further comprising means including said bridge for carrying out read and write transactions between said mirrored memory and said backup/archival storage device via said second FCAL local area network without tying up said first FCAL local area network.

2. An apparatus comprising:

a primary memory which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FCAL) node;

a mirrored memory which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop node;

a backup/archival storage device;

a primary FCAL local area network which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop coupled to said primary memory;

a secondary FCAL local area network which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop coupled to said mirrored memory and said backup/archival storage device;

a bridge means which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop node capable of bridging FCAL loop tenancies between said primary and secondary FCAL local area networks, and specifically for selectively coupling said primary FCAL local area network to said secondary FCAL local area network when open (OPN) primitives arrive from one Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop which are addressed to a node on the other Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop, and wherein said bridge means includes means to resolve conflicting OPN situations;

a transaction processor coupled by said primary FCAL local area network to said bridge means and said primary memory and programmed to carry out read and write transactions with said primary memory over said primary FCAL local area network and, for every write transaction to said primary memory, programmed to carry out another write transaction of the same data to said mirrored memory via said bridge means and said secondary FCAL local area network if said secondary FCAL local area network is available, and, if not available, to try the write transaction one or more times again later until the write transaction to said mirrored memory is completed;

a backup and hierarchical storage management processor coupled to said backup/archival storage device and said mirrored memory and said bridge means via said secondary FCAL local area network, and programmed to carry out read and write transactions between said mirrored memory and said backup/archival storage device via said secondary FCAL local area network without involving said primary FCAL local area network because of the presence of said bridge means.

3. An apparatus comprising:

a primary memory which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FCAL) Node;

a mirrored memory which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop Node;

a backup/archival storage device which is a node for a SCSI bus;

a primary local area network (LAN) which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop and is coupled to said primary memory;

a secondary local area network which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop and is coupled to said mirrored memory;

said SCSI bus coupled to said backup/archival storage device;

an FCAL bridge selectively coupling said primary and secondary FCAL local area networks as one larger FCAL LAN when an npan (OPN) primitive arrives from one FCAL LAN which is addressed to a node on said other FCAL LAN or vice versa, and which includes one or more state machines structured, or microprocessors programmed, to implement necessary switching rules to perform bridging and to resolve conflicting OPN situations;

a backup and hierarchical storage management processor coupled to said FCAL bridge via said secondary local area network, and coupled to said backup/archival storage device via said SCSI bus and coupled to said mirrored memory via said secondary local area network, and including a computer or microprocessor programmed to carry out backup and/or hierarchical storage management read and write transactions between said mirrored memory and said backup/archival storage device via said secondary FCAL local area network and said SCSI bus without involving said primary FCAL local area network such that said primary memory is free to carry out read and write transactions during said backup and/or hierarchical storage management operations by virtue of said primary FCAL local area network being isolated by said FCAL bridge from loop tenancies on said secondary FCAL local area network necessary to carry out said backup and/or hierarchical storage management functions;

a transaction processor which is an FCAL node coupled by said primary FCAL local area network to said primary memory and coupled to said backup and hierarchical storage management processor and said mirrored memory via said FCAL bridge and said secondary FCAL local area network, and programmed to carry out read and write transactions with said primary memory over said primary FCAL local area network and, for every write transaction to said primary memory, said transaction processor is programmed to carry out a mirrored write transaction of the same data to said mirrored memory by sending the same data written on said primary memory to said backup and hierarchical storage management processor via said FCAL bridge and said secondary FCAL local area network if said secondary FCAL local area network is available, and, if not available, to try the write transaction one or more times again later until the write transaction to said mirrored memory is completed; and

wherein said backup and heirarchical storage management processor is programmed to receive data transmissions of said mirrored write transactions and write said data to said mirrored memory via said secondary FCAL local area network.

4. An apparatus comprising:

a Transaction Server computer, said Transaction Server computer being a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop node;

a first array of one or more disk drives or other storage media, said first array being a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop node;

a first Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop coupling said Transaction Server computer to said one or more disk drives;

a backup server computer, said backup server computer being a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop node;

a second array of one or more disk drives or other storage media which mirror the storage capacity of said first array of one or more disk drives or other storage media, said second array being a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop node;

a second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop coupling said backup server computer to said second array of one or more disk drives or other storage media;

a Bridge compatible with the Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop protocol which couples said first Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop to said second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop, said Bridge including means for receiving open (OPN) primitives originating from a node on said first Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop and forwarding said OPN primitive onto said second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop if the destination address of said OPN primitive is a node on said second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop but not otherwise, and for receiving OPN primitives originating from said node on said second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop and forwarding said OPN primitive onto said first Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop if the destination address of said OPN primitive is said node on said first Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop but not otherwise.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein said Transaction Server computer is programmed to initiate a mirrored write transaction to said second array of one or more disk drives or other storage media automatically each time said Transaction Server computer initiates a write transaction to said first array of one or more disk drives or other storage media, said mirrored write transaction being the same data that was written to said first array are or more disk drives said mirrored write transaction being initiated by transmitting said OPN primitive on said first Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop having a destination address which is the node address of said second array of one or more disk drives or other storage media, said mirrored write transaction being carried out if said secondary FCAL local area network is available, and, if not available, said Transaction Server is being programmed to try the write transaction one or more times again later until the write transaction to said mirrored memory is completed.

6. The apparatus of claim 4 further comprising one or more workstation computers and wherein said Transaction Server computer is coupled to said one or more workstation computers by a local area network.

7. The apparatus of claim 4 further comprising one or more backup data storage devices and wherein said backup server computer is coupled to said one or more backup data storage devices by a local area network or a SCSI bus or by said second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein said backup server computer is programmed to perform data backup operations by initiating read transactions addressed to said second array of one or more disk drives or other storage media and taking the data received as a result of said read transactions and writing said data to said backup data storage devices.

9. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein said backup server computer is programmed to perform hierarchical storage management operations by scanning the file structures of data stored on said one or more disk drives or other storage media of said second array and initiating selective read transactions for predetermined data stored on said one or more disk drives or other storage media of said second array, said selective read transactions addressed to said second array of one or more disk drives or other storage media and taking the data received as a result of said read transactions and writing said data to a predetermined one of said backup data storage devices.

10. An apparatus comprising:

first and second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loops;

a first array of disk drives coupled as a node on said first Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop;

a second array of disk drives coupled as a node on said second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop;

a first transaction processing means for performing read transactions with said first array of disk drives via said first Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop, and for performing write transactions with said first and second arrays of disk drives via said first and second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loops;

bridge means coupled to said first and second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loops for selectively coupling said first and second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loops together as one bigger Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop when said first transaction processing means is performing a write transaction with said second array of disk drives but for isolating said first and second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loops at other times, said bridge means including means for resolving conflicting open (OPN) situations; and

further comprising storage management means coupled to said second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop for performing hierarchical storage management functions and data backup transactions with said second array of disk drives using only said second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop during intervals when said first transaction processing means is not performing write transactions with said second array of disk drives.

11. A method of reading and writing data, comprising:

writing data to and reading data from a first memory using a first Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FCAL) local area network (LAN), a transaction processor coupled to said first Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop local area network and one or more workstations coupled to said transaction processor;

whenever data is written to said first memory using said first Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop local area network, writing the same data to a second memory located on a second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop local area network using a bridge which has multiple ports coupled to said first and second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop local area networks and which is capable of learning node addresses from watching flow of Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop primitives arriving at said ports of said bridge coupled to said first and second Fibre Channel primitives arriving at said ports coupled to said first and second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop local area networks and which is capable of performing switching to selectively couple said first Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop local area network to said second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop local area network when an open (OPN) primitive arrives from a source node on either of said first or second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop local area networks with a destination address which indicates destination node is on the other Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop local area network, and said bridge being capable of resolving conflicting OPN situations and preemptively closing losing source node; and

performing backup write transactions between said second memory and a third memory using said second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop local area network while isolating said second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop local area network from said first Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop local area network using said bridge.

12. An apparatus comprising:

a primary memory which is a node on a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop;

a mirrored memory which is a node on a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop;

a backup/archival storage device;

a primary local area network which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop and which is coupled to said primary memory;

a secondary local area network which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop and which is coupled to said mirrored memory;

a bus coupled to said backup/archival storage device;

third local area network which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop;

backup and heirarchical storage management processor which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop node and which is coupled to said third local area network, and is also coupled to said backup/archival storage device via said bus and coupled to said mirrored memory via said secondary local area network, and programmed to carry out read and write transactions between said mirrored memory and said backup/archival storage device via said secondary local area network and said bus without involving said primary local area network;

a transaction processor which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop node which is coupled to said primary memory via said primary local area network and coupled to said backup and heirarchical storage management processor via said third local area network, and programmed to carry out read and write transactions with said primary memory over said primary local area network and, for every write transaction to said primary memory, said transaction processor is programmed to carry out a mirrored write transaction of the same data to said mirrored memory by sending the same data written on said primary memory to said backup and hierarchical storage management processor via said third local area memory via means for carrying Fibre Channel Arbitrated bridging functions to learn node addresses by watching FCAL primitive traffic on said primary and secondary local area networks and to transmit OPNs and RRDYs and other primitives between said primary and secondary local area networks when the source and destination nodes are on different local area networks, and to resolve conflicting OPN situations; and

wherein said backup and heirarchical storage management processor is programmed to receive data transmissions of said mirrored write transactions and write said data to said mirrored memory via said secondary local area network.

13. An apparatus comprising:

a primary memory which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop node (FCAL);

mirrored memory which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop node;

backup/archival storage device;

primary FCAL local area network coupled to said primary memory which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop;

a secondary FCAL local area network coupled to said mirrored memory which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop;

bus coupled to said backup/archival storage device;

transaction processor which has first and second FCAL interface circuits which are Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop nodes and which are coupled, respectively, by said primary FCAL local area network to said primary memory, and via said secondary FCAL local area network to said mirrored memory, and having a first bus interface circuit capable of understanding protocol used on said bus coupled to said backup/archival storage device, said transaction processor programmed to carry out read and write transactions with said primary memory over said primary FCAL local area network and, for every write transaction to said primary memory, said transaction processor being programmed to carry out a mirrored write transaction of the same data to said mirrored memory by sending the same data written on said primary memory to said mirrored memory via said secondary FCAL local area network via a bridging function implemented by the program of said transaction processor, said bridging function controlling said transaction processor to recognize OPN primitives arriving from said primary FCAL local area network directed to a node on said secondary FCAL local area network and connect said primary and secondary FCAL local area networks together as one bigger FCAL local area network for a duration of any loop tenancy started by said OPN primitives, said bridging function also programmed to control said transaction processor to resolve conflicting OPN situations, said transaction processor further programmed to carry out read and write transactions of backup and hierarchical storage management functions between said mirrored memory and said backup/archival storage device using said secondary local area network and said bus without involving said primary local area network.