On-line disk array reconfiguration

• US 6,058,489 A
• Filed: 08/20/1998
• Issued: 05/02/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Compaq Computer Corporation (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Thompson, Mark J., Schultz, Stephen M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoliel, Jr., Robert W.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Elisca, Pierre E.
• Application Number:
  US09/137,801
• Time in Patent Office: 621 Days
• Field of Search: 714/7, 714/2, 714/3, 364/245, 364/245.2, 364/245.31
• US Class Current: 714/6.32
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1096 Parity calculation or recalculation after configuration or reconfiguration of the system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0626 Reducing size or complexity of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0632 by initialisation or re-initialisation of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 29/74 using duplex memories, i.e. using dual copies

Abstract

A system for performing on-line reconfiguration of a disk array in which a source logical volume is reconfigured to a destination logical volume. Disk array configuration is invoked if a new physical drive is inserted, or a drive is removed. Reconfiguration can also be performed if the user desires to change the configuration of a particular logical volume, such as its stripe size. The disk array reconfiguration is run as a background task by firmware on a disk controller board. The reconfigure task first moves data from the source logical volume to a posting memory such as RAM memory. The reconfigure task operates one stripe at a time, with the stripe size being that of the destination logical volume. Once a stripe of data is moved into the posting memory, it is written back to corresponding locations in the destination logical volume. The reconfigure task continues until all data in the source logical volume have been moved into the destination logical volume. While the reconfigure task is working on a particular logical volume, data remains accessible to host write and read requests.

Claims

1. A method of passing host requests to a disk array while reconfiguring the disk array, the disk array having a source logical volume and a destination logical volume, pre-reconfiguration data being associated with the source logical volume and post-reconfiguration data being associated with the destination logical volume, comprising the steps of:

detecting if a host request to the drive array corresponds to post-reconfiguration data or pre-reconfiguration data;

issuing the host request to the source logical volume if the host request corresponds to the pre-reconfiguration data; and

issuing the host request to the destination logical volume if the host request corresponds to post-reconfiguration data.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

detecting if the host request corresponds to post-reconfiguration data and pre-reconfiguration data; and

suspending the host request if the host request corresponds to post-reconfiguration data and pre-reconfiguration data.

3. A disk controller for passing host requests to a drive array while reconfiguring the drive array, the drive array having a source logical volume and a destination logical volume, pre-reconfiguration data being associated with the source logical volume and post-reconfiguration data being associated with the destination logical volume, comprising:

detector logic for detecting if a host request to the disk array corresponds to post-reconfiguration data or pre-reconfiguration data;

issuer logic for issuing the host request to the source logical volume if the host request corresponds to pre-reconfiguration data; and

issuer logic for issuing the host request to the destination logical volume if the host request corresponds to post-reconfiguration data.

4. The disk controller of claim 3, further comprising:

detector logic for detecting if the host request corresponds to post-reconfiguration data and pre-reconfiguration data; and

suspension logic for suspending the host request if the host request corresponds to post-reconfiguration data and pre-reconfiguration data.

5. A computer system, comprising:

a host computer;

a disk drive array, the drive array having a source logical volume and a destination logical volume, pre-reconfiguration data being associated with a source logical volume and post-reconfiguration data being associated with the destination logical volume; and

a disk controller for transferring data between the disk array and the host computer, the disk controller comprising;

detector logic for detecting of a host request to the disk array corresponds to post-reconfiguration data or pre-configuration data;

issuer logic for issuing the host request to the source logical volume if the host request corresponds to pre-reconfiguration data; and

issuer logic for issuing the host request to the destination logical volume if the host request corresponds to post-reconfiguration data.

6. The computer system of claim 5, the disk controller further comprising:

detector logic for detecting if the host request corresponds to post-reconfiguration data and pre-reconfiguration data; and

suspension logic for suspending the host request if the host request corresponds to post-reconfiguration data and pre-reconfiguration data.

7. A processor readable medium storing code for performing the steps comprising:

detecting if a host request to the drive array corresponds to post-reconfiguration data or pre-reconfiguration data;

issuing the host request to a source logical volume if the host request corresponds to the pre-reconfiguration data; and

issuing the host request to a destination logical volume if the host request corresponds to post-reconfiguration data.

8. The processor readable medium of claim 7, the code further performing steps comprising:

detecting if the host request corresponds to post-reconfiguration data and pre-reconfiguration data; and

suspending the host request if the host request corresponds to post-reconfiguration data and pre-reconfiguration data.

9. A processor readable medium, comprising:

detector code for detecting if a host request to a disk array corresponds to post-reconfiguration data or pre-reconfiguration data;

issuer code for issuing the host request to a source logical volume if the host request corresponds to pre-reconfiguration data; and

issuer code for issuing the host request to a destination logical volume if the host request corresponds to post-reconfiguration data.

10. The processor readable medium of claim 9, further comprising:

detector code for detecting if the host request corresponds to post-reconfiguration data or pre-reconfiguration data; and

suspension code for suspending the host request if the host request corresponds to post-reconfiguration data and pre-reconfiguration data.