Storage management method and storage management system

• US 7,185,142 B2
• Filed: 05/20/2004
• Issued: 02/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Fujii, Kozue, Murakami, Tatsuya, Yagi, Shuichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Sough; Hyung
• Assistant Examiner(s): Doan; Duc T.
• Application Number:
  US10/849,482
• Publication Number:
  US 20050210217A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,013 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 711/112
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0637 Permissions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5016 the resource being the memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455

Abstract

There is provided a storage management system capable of utilizing division management with enhanced flexibility and of enhancing security of the entire system, by providing functions by program products in each division unit of a storage subsystem. The storage management system has a program-product management table stored in a shared memory in the storage subsystem and showing presence or absence of the program products, which provide management functions of respective resources to respective SLPRs. At the time of executing the management functions by the program products in the SLPRs of users in accordance with instructions from the users, the storage management system is referred to and execution of the management function having no program product is restricted.

Claims

1. A storage management method partitioning a physical resource and a logical resource in a storage subsystem, allocating a management user per partition unit, and performing partition management of each of said resources, the storage subsystem having a plurality of channel adapters coupled to a host computer and receiving data from the host computer, a cache memory temporarily storing data sent from the channel adapters, a plurality of disk adapters receiving data stored in the cache memory, a plurality of physical disks connected to said disk adapters and storing data sent from the disk adapters, a shared memory, and a switch for connecting said plurality of channel adapters, said plurality of disk adapters, said shared memory, and said cache memory, the storage management method comprising the steps of:

storing, in said shared memory in said storage subsystem, a program-product management table showing presence or absence of a program product that provides a configuration-changing function for each of said resources, said resources including partitioned channel adapters, a partitioned cache memory, and a logical disk drive group relating to a storage area of the physical disks, in a partition unit;

referring to said program-product management table at the time of executing the configuration-changing function by said program product of each of said resources in the partition unit of said management user in accordance with an instruction from said management user;

restricting execution of the configuration-changing function of a resource without said program product; and

at the time of having an instruction of a configuration-changing request for each of said resources from said management user, returning, to said management user, a configuration-unchangeable error if a resource of the configuration-changing request is not a resource in the partition unit of said management user.

2. A storage management system partitioning a physical resource and a logical resource in a storage subsystem, allocating a management user per partition unit, and performing partition management of each of said resources, the storage subsystem having a plurality of channel adapters coupled to a host computer and receiving data from the host computer, a cache memory temporarily storing data sent from the channel adapters, a plurality of disk adapters receiving data stored in the cache memory, a plurality of physical disks connected to said disk adapters and storing data sent from the disk adapters, a shared memory, and a switch for connecting said plurality of channel adapters, said plurality of disk adapters, said shared memory and said cache memory, the storage management system comprising:

a program-product management table stored in said shared memory in said storage subsystem and showing presence or absence of a program product that provides a configuration-changing function of each of said resources, said resources including partitioned channel adapters, a partitioned cache memory, and a logical disk drive group relating to a storage area of the physical disks, in a partition unit, and

a management client connected to said storage subsystem, said management user performing management for each of the resources in said partition unit by using the management client,

wherein, at the time of displaying, from said management client, an operation screen of a configuration-changing function by said program product, said program-product management table is referred to and the operation screen of only the configuration-changing function having said program product is displayed,

wherein, at the time of executing the configuration-changing function by said program product of each of said resources in the partition unit of said management user in accordance with an instruction from said management user, said program-product management table is referenced to restrict execution of the configuration-changing function of a resource without said program-product management table, and

wherein, at the time of having an instruction of a configuration-changing request for each of said resources from via management client, if a resource of the instructed configuration-changing request is not a resource in the partition unit of said user, a configuration-unchangeable error is returned to said user.

3. A storage management system partitioning a physical resource and a logical resource in a storage subsystem, allocating a management user per partition unit, and performing partition management of each of said resources, the storage subsystem having a plurality of channel adapters coupled to a host computer and receiving data from the host computer, a cache memory temporarily storing data sent from the channel adapters, a plurality of disk adapters receiving data stored in the cache memory, a plurality of physical disks connected to said disk adapters and storing data sent from the disk adapters, a shared memory, and a switch for connecting said plurality of channel adapters, said plurality of disk adapters, said shared memory, and said cache memory, the storage management system comprising:

a program-product management table stored in said shared memory in said storage subsystem and showing presence or absence of a program product that provides a configuration-changing function of each of said resources, said resources including partitioned channel adapters, a partitioned cache memory, and a logical disk drive group relating to a storage area of the physical disks, in a partition unit,

wherein, at the time of executing the configuration-changing function by said program product of each of said resources in the partition unit of said management user in accordance with an instruction from said management user, said program-product management table is referenced to restrict execution of the configuration-changing function of a resource without said program-product management table, and

wherein, at the time of having an instruction of a configuration-changing request for each of said resources from a host computer of said management user, the host computer being connected to the partition unit of said storage subsystem, if a resource of the instructed configuration-changing request is not a resource in the partition unit to which said host computer is connected, a configuration-unchangeable error is returned to said host computer.