Storage system for content distribution

• US 7,115,919 B2
• Filed: 03/21/2002
• Issued: 10/03/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Kodama, Shoji
• Primary Examiner(s): MOFIZ, APU M
• Application Number:
  US10/104,779
• Publication Number:
  US 20030236850A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,657 Days
• Field of Search: 707/201, 707/204, 707/10, 707/104.1, 370/222, 370/412, 703/25, 703/27, 709/250, 711/114, 711/162, 714/516, 716/4
• US Class Current: 257/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/184 implemented as replicated file system
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99957 Garbage collection

Abstract

A processing system comprises a primary storage system and a plurality of secondary storage systems. The primary storage system is managed by a contents manager that keeps a file system used to make file level I/O accesses to a controller that translates the file access to block I/O to access the magnetic media for the data. The secondary storage systems are available to and accessed by application servers, also using file level I/O. The content manager may change a file or data on the primary storage system and, if so, will also change the file system accordingly. The file system is then made available to the application servers, after the controller transfers changed files to the secondary storage systems using block level I/O.

Claims

1. A data processing system comprising:

a master storage system, including storage media and a first disk controller for storing and accessing original data on the storage media;

a plurality of secondary storage systems each for storing copies of the original data, each of the secondary storage systems including a second disk controller, and each of the plurality of secondary storage systems being selectively in communication with the master storage system;

the first and second disk controllers operating to receive I/O requests for access to the original data and copies of the original data, respectively, and storing the data using block level I/O;

a manager processor coupled to the master storage system, the master processor having a file system process to respond to file level I/O requests from application programs for accessing the original data, the manager processor maintaining data structures identifying the locations of file data corresponding to the original data stored at the master storage system;

at least two server processors coupled to ones of plurality of secondary storage systems, each of the server processors having copies of at least portions of the data structures for locating file data on the secondary storage systems;

whereby when the manager processor writes changes to file data to make corresponding changes to the original data, the data structure are changed to identify the changed data, and the server processors are notified that the original data structures have been changed; and

whereby copies of the changed original data and changed data structure are sent by the master storage system to the secondary storage systems.

2. A data storage and distribution system, including a manager processor, a local data storage facility for storing a data image and a plurality of remote data facilities each for storing replications of the data image, the system comprising:

a file system executing on the manager processor operating to receive file level access requests to the local and remote data storage facilities;

a block level I/O access to the data image and replicated data images;

a replicator for transferring changes to the data image at the local data storage facility to the plurality of remote storage facilities using block level I/O for making corresponding changes to the replicated data images; and

wherein the local storage facility includes storage media for storing the data image and a controller operating to access the storage media, each of the remote storage facilities include storage media for storing the data image and a controller operating to access the associated storage media, and wherein the controllers each operate to receive and translate file level I/O requests to block level I/O requests to change the data image.

3. The data storage and distribution system of claim 2, each of the plurality of remote storage facilities having coupled thereto at least one server processor for accessing data contained in the replicated data image.

4. The data storage and distribution system of claim 2, wherein the controller in the local storage operates to perform a remote copy operation for each file level I/O request that changes the data image to copy the changes to the plurality of remote storage facilities.

5. The data storage and distribution system of claim 4, including at least one data structure maintained by the manager processor identifying locations of data in the data image.

6. The data storage and distribution system of claim 5, wherein the manager processor operates to change the data structure to identify locations of changes to the data manager.

7. The data storage and distribution system of claim 6, including at least one server processor coupled to each of the remote storage facilities and to the manager processor, the manager processor operating to forward the changed data structure to the server processors when the data image is changed.

8. A data processing system comprising:

a first data center including a master storage for storing original data, the first data center maintaining a first data structure identifying locations of file data in the original data;

a second data center including second storage for storing a copy of a least a portion of the original data, the second data center having a second data structure identifying locations of the portions of the original data;

the first data center operating to perform at least one operation to write new data or to change the original data, changing also the first data structure to reflect such writing or change of the original data; and

the master storage communicating to the second storage the written or changed data and the changed first data structure;

the first data center notifying the second data center of the changed data and changed data structures, and

wherein the communicated changed data structure is in file level I/O format and the written or changed data communicated to the second storage is in block level I/O format.

9. The data processing system of claim 8, wherein the master storage and the second storage comprise magnetic media.

10. The data processing system of claim 8, wherein the master storage and the second storage comprise disk storage.