Self-configuration of source-to-target mapping

• US 7,269,701 B2
• Filed: 10/10/2003
• Issued: 09/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Shackelford, David Michael, Blea, David Randall, Schlomer, Todd B., McBride, Gregory Edward, Brundidge, Jimmie Lee, Calder, Errol Jay
• Primary Examiner(s): Peugh; Brian R.
• Application Number:
  US10/683,179
• Publication Number:
  US 20050081006A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,432 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 711/162
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2069 Management of state, configuration or failover

Abstract

A computer program for automatically pairing target resources 20 such as volumes or logical units to source resources 20 containing data to be copied. Available target pools 48, 50, 52, 54 of target volumes are determined eligible for copying based on a technical compatibility and a user-defined metric such as recovery point or recovery time. User defined metrics and a policy to implement the metrics may be stored in a medium and selected by a user. The source volumes are prioritized, and progressively larger segments of the eligible target pools are searched for a target volume that satisfies the technical compatibility and user-defined metric. Where subgroups such as nested volumes are present in the source volumes, subgroups are also prioritized for searching. Where no target volume can be paired, the corresponding source volume is marked as processed and a search begins for the next source volume. An output report includes pairings of source to target volumes and source volumes for which no pairing was made.

Claims

1. A data processing system comprising:

a data storage subsystem;

selection logic, responsive to a detection that a copy command has been invoked, for

automatically identifying at least one target pool comprising eligible target volumes,

for each source volume of a source group, said selection logic further for one of determining that a pairing cannot be made, and automatically pairing the source volume to one of the eligible target volumes that satisfies at least one technical compatibility parameter of the source volume and a user defined metric; and

circuitry for automatically returning a message listing each source volume for which a pairing to an eligible target volume was not made;

wherein the user-defined metric is stored on a computer-readable medium from which a user may select from among at least a recovery point objective, a recovery time objective, a location, a consistency of underlying data, and an application impact.

2. The data processing system of claim 1 wherein the user-defined metric comprises at least two metrics and a user policy to implement the at least two metrics.

3. The data processing system of claim 1 wherein the selection logic for determining and automatically pairing further comprises logic for indexing the source volumes in each of a plurality of source groups, and wherein the selection logic iteratively executes the one of determining and automatically pairing for each indexed source volume of one of the source groups before executing for each indexed volume of another of the source groups.

4. A data processing system as in claim 1 further comprises at least one host data processor coupled to said data storage subsystem through a bus, and where said host data processor comprises said selection logic.

5. A data processing system comprising:

a data storage subsystem;

selection logic, responsive to a detection that a copy command has been invoked, for

automatically identifying at least one target pool comprising eligible target volumes,

for each source volume of a source group, said selection logic further for one of determining that a pairing cannot be made, and automatically pairing the source volume to one of eligible target volume that satisfies at least one technical compatibility parameter of the source volume; and

circuitry for automatically returning a message listing each source volume for which a pairing to an eligible target volume was not made;

wherein the selection logic further comprises

a volume search loop whereby the source volumes are prioritized, and for each source volume, at least two weeks subsets of all eligible target volumes are searched for pairing using the parameter and a user defined metric; and

a subgroup loop whereby subgroups of source volumes are prioritized, and for each searched for pairing using the subgroup, a subset of potential target pools for use therewith is identified.

6. A computer program product embodied in a computer readable media for causing a computer to execute program instructions resulting in execution of a method of selecting a target device to which data may be copied, comprising:

determining a source group comprising source devices from which data is to be copied;

automatically selecting at least one target pool comprising at least one target device that is eligible for copying based on at least one technical compatibility with at least one of the source devices;

prioritizing subgroups of the source devices;

dividing the subgroups into local sets, the local sets comprising;

subgroups fully contained in an existing replica;

subgroups partially contained in an existing replica; and

subgroups not at all contained in an existing replica;

for each of the prioritized subgroups in at least one of the local sets, determining which of the target pools are eligible for pairing with a source device within the subgroup;

individually prioritizing the source devices;

for each prioritized source device of the subgroups in at least one of the local sets, one of automatically pairing said source device to one of said at least one target device from the selected at least one target pool, and determining that a pairing cannot be made; and

outputting a message indicating one of;

all source group devices are paired, and

not all source group devices are paired.

7. The computer program of claim 6 further comprising assessing connectivity from at least one of the source devices to potential pools of target devices and considering only those connected to at least one of the source devices via a data pathway.

8. The computer program of claim 6 further comprising generating an output report that lists at least one of pairings that were generated and source devices for which a pairing could not be generated.

9. The computer program of claim 6 wherein automatically selecting at least one target pool is additionally based on a user-defined metric.

10. The computer program of claim 9 wherein the user-defined metric comprises at least one of a recovery point objective, a recovery time objective, a location, a consistency among underlying data, and an application impact.

11. The computer program of claim 9 wherein the user-defined metric comprises at least two user-defined metrics that comprise a user policy.

12. The computer program of claim 11 wherein automatically pairing one target device comprises pairing a target device that is optimized according to the user policy.

13. A computer program product embodied in a computer readable media for causing a computer to execute program instructions resulting in execution of a method of selecting a target device to which data may be copied, comprising:

determining a source group comprising at least one source device from which data is to be copied;

automatically selecting at least one target pool comprising at least one target device that is eligible for copying based on at least one technical compatibility with the at least one source device;

for each said source device of the source group, one of automatically pairing said source device to one of the target devices from the selected target pool, and determining that a pairing cannot be made; and

outputting a message indicating one of;

all source groups devices are paired, and not all source group devices are paired;

wherein automatically pairing comprises searching for a target device within a first subset of the at least one pool of target devices, and if no match is found within the first subset, searching within a second subset of the at least one pool of target devices, and wherein the second subset excludes the pools of target devices that are within the first subset.

14. The computer program of claim 13 wherein the second subset comprises all pools of target devices within which at least one target device has already been paired to any source device.

15. The computer program of claim 13 wherein the first subset comprises all pools of target devices within which at least one target device has already been paired to a source device within a subgroup of source devices in which a current source device is a part.

16. The computer program of claim 13 wherein automatically pairing further comprises, if no match is found within the second subset of the at least one pool of target devices, searching for a target device within a third subset of the at least one pool of target devices.

17. The computer program of claim 16 wherein the third subset comprises all of the selected at least one target pools that are not within at least one of the first and second subsets.

18. A computer program product embodied in a computer readable media for causing a computer to execute program instructions resulting in execution of a method of selecting a target device to which data may be copied, comprising:

determining a source group comprising at least one source device from which data is to be copied;

automatically selecting at least one target pool comprising at least one target device that is eligible for copying based on at least one technical compatibility with the at least one source device;

for each said source device of the source group, one of automatically pairing said source device to one of the target devices from the selected target pool, and determining that a pairing cannot be made; and

outputting a message indicating one of;

all source groups devices are paired, and not all source group devices are paired;

wherein automatically pairing comprises;

determining all matching target devices that are eligible for copying;

prioritizing said all matching target devices according to closeness of the match, wherein closeness is determined from at least one of technical compatibility and a user-defined metric; and

selecting the closest match to pair with the source device.

19. A method of using a computer to select a target resource that matches a host resource comprising:

determining at least one technical compatibility attribute of a host resource;

accessing at least one user-defined metric stored in a computer readable memory;

identifying pools of potential target resources that are connected to the host resource via a data pathway;

searching all of the identified pools for a matching target resource that satisfies the at least one technical compatibility attribute and the at least one user-defined metric; and

one of selecting the matching target resource and outputting a message indicating that no matching target resource was found;

wherein searching all of the identified pools comprises searching a first subset of the pools and, and if the matching target resource is not found within the first subset, searching a second subset of the pools wherein the first subset is excluded from the second subset, and further wherein selecting the matching target resource comprises selecting a matching target resource from at least two matching target resources that best matches the host resource.