Method of managing a storage area network

• US 7,136,923 B2
• Filed: 07/01/2004
• Issued: 11/14/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Yamaguchi, Akihiko, Aoshima, Tatsundo
• Primary Examiner(s): Maung, Zarni
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Van Kim T.
• Application Number:
  US10/884,247
• Publication Number:
  US 20050268152A1
• Time in Patent Office: 866 Days
• Field of Search: 709/200, 709/223, 709/230, 710/5, 710/100, 710/105
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3419 by assessing time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3485 for I/O devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2206/1012 Load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0604 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0635 by changing the path, e.g. traffic rerouting, path reconfiguration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0653 Monitoring storage devices or systems
• 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 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• 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 host group which uses a specific port as a data transfer path is retrieved to be detected from data transfer paths of respective hosts, and then such a report of an I/O conflict is generated in which only performance data of the retrieved host group is extracted. As a result, such a condition that I/O loads are concentrated to a specific port employed in an SAN (Storage Area Network) can be easily detected, and such hosts which give the loads can be readily specified.

Claims

1. An SAN managing method which acquires and analyzes performance information in a system where a plurality of hosts are connected to an SAN (storage area network), comprising:

a host volume performance information acquisition step which acquires performance information with respect to respective volumes on the respective hosts;

a data transfer path information acquisition step which acquires identifiers of ports on data transfer paths as to the respective volumes of the respective hosts;

a bottleneck port detection step which detects a specific port based on a load on the port; and

an extracted host volume performance information output step which extracts only a host volume which uses the specific port on the data transfer paths, which has been acquired in the data transfer path information acquisition step, and which outputs performance information of the extracted host volume.

2. An SAN managing method as claimed in claim 1,

wherein, in the extracted host volume performance information output step, only a host volume is extracted which uses a specific path on the data transfer paths, which has been acquired in the data transfer path information acquisition step, and then, performance information of the extracted host volume is outputted.

3. An SAN managing method as claimed in claim 1,

wherein the specific port is a port whose load is the highest load within ports of a data transfer path of a specified host volume based upon the data transfer path information acquired in the data transfer path information acquisition step.

4. An SAN managing method as claimed in claim 3 wherein:

only such a host volume which uses the port detected in the bottleneck port detecting step is extracted, and performance information of the extracted host volume is outputted.

5. An SAN managing method as claimed in claim 1,

wherein the extracted host volume performance information output step changes a display subject along the data transfer path based upon the data transfer path information acquired by the data transfer path information acquisition step.

6. An SAN managing method as claimed in claim 1,

wherein, in the extracted host volume performance information acquisition step, performance information is historically acquired, and further, the performance information of the extracted host is historically outputted in the extracted host volume performance output step.

7. An SAN managing system which acquires and analyzes performance information in a system where a plurality of hosts are connected to an SAN (storage area network), comprising:

host volume performance information acquisition means which acquires performance information with respect to respective volumes on the respective hosts;

data transfer path information acquisition means which acquires identifiers of ports on data transfer paths as to the respective volumes of the respective hosts;

a bottleneck port detection step which detects a specific port based on a load on the port; and

extracted host volume performance information output means which extracts only a host volume which uses the specific port on the data transfer paths, which has been acquired by the data transfer path information acquisition means, and which outputs performance information of the extracted host volume.

8. An SAN managing system which acquires and analyzes performance information in a system where a plurality of hosts are connected to an SAN (storage area network), comprising:

host volume performance information acquisition means which acquires performance information with respect to respective volumes on the respective hosts;

data transfer path information acquisition means which acquires identifiers of ports on data transfer paths as to the respective volumes of the respective hosts;

a bottleneck port detection step which detects a specific port based on a load on the port; and

extracted host volume performance information output means which extracts only a host volume as a conflicting host which uses the specific port on the data transfer paths, which has been acquired by the data transfer path information acquisition means, and which outputs all of performance information of the extracted host volume.

9. An SAN managing system which acquires and analyzes performance information in a system where a plurality of hosts are connected to an SAN (storage area network), comprising:

host volume performance information acquisition means which acquires performance information with respect to respective volumes on the respective hosts;

data transfer path information acquisition means which acquires identifiers of ports on data transfer paths as to the respective volumes of the respective hosts;

bottleneck port detection means which detects such a port whose load is the highest load within ports of a data transfer path of a specific host volume in order to detect a specific port on the data transfer paths, which has been acquired by the data transfer path information acquisition means; and

extracted host volume performance information output means which extracts only a host volume which uses the specific port detected by the bottleneck port detection means, and for outputting all of performance information of the extracted host volume.

10. An SAN managing system containing ports and switches between hosts and storages, comprising:

host volume performance information acquisition means which acquires performance information of the ports with respect to respective volumes on the respective hosts;

data transfer path information acquisition means which acquires identifiers of ports on data transfer paths as to the respective volumes of the respective hosts;

bottleneck port detection means which detects such a port whose load is the highest load within ports of a data transfer path of a specific host volume in order to detect a specific port on the data transfer paths, which has been acquired by the data transfer path information acquisition means; and

extracted host volume performance information output means which extracts only a host volume which uses the specific port detected by the bottleneck port detection means, and for outputting all of performance information of the extracted host volume.

11. An SAN managing system containing ports and switches between hosts and storages comprises:

a management server connected to the hosts and the switches via Local Area Network,

wherein the management server comprises a memory; and

wherein the memory comprises the functions of;

a host volume performance information acquisition unit which acquires performance information of the ports with respect to respective volumes on the respective hosts;

a data transfer path information acquisition unit which acquires identifiers of ports on data transfer paths as to the respective volumes of the respective hosts;

a bottleneck port detection unit which detects such a port whose load is the highest load within ports of a data transfer path of a specific host volume in order to detect a specific port on the data transfer paths, which has been acquired by the data transfer path information acquisition unit; and

an extracted host volume performance information output unit which extracts only a host volume which uses the specific port detected by the bottleneck port detection unit, and for outputting all of performance information of the extracted host volume.