Method and apparatus for seamless management for disaster recovery

• US 7,290,167 B2
• Filed: 06/19/2006
• Issued: 10/30/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Fujibayashi, Akira
• Primary Examiner(s): DUNCAN, MARC M
• Application Number:
  US11/471,118
• Publication Number:
  US 20060248382A1
• Time in Patent Office: 498 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 714/6.22
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/008 Reliability or availability analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/20 using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2069 Management of state, configuration or failover
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/275 Synchronous replication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/22 using redundant apparatus to increase reliability
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

A method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and system are presented for establishing redundant computer resources. According to one embodiment, in a system including a plurality of processor devices and a plurality of storage devices, the processor devices, the storage devices and the management server being connected via a network, the method comprises storing device information relating to the processor devices and the storage devices and topology information relating to topology of the network, identifying at least one primary computer resource, selecting at least one secondary computer resource suitable to serve as a redundant resource corresponding to the at least one primary computer resource based on the device information and the topology information, and assigning the at least one secondary computer resource as a redundant resource corresponding to the at least one primary computer resource.

Claims

1. In a system including a management server, a plurality of processor devices, and a plurality of storage devices, the processor devices and the storage devices being coupled via a network, a method for the management server to establish clustering system comprising:

storing mapping information between application programs being executed by the processor devices and portions of storage implemented in the storage devices being utilized by the application programs, and storage device information relating to each of the storage devices;

receiving a command, from a user interface, identifying a primary processor device and an application program executed by the primary processor device;

specifying at least one portion of storage implemented in at least one primary storage device utilized by the identified application program from the storage devices based on the identified primary processor device, the identified application program and the mapping information, the at least one portion of storage implemented in at least one primary storage device and the primary processor device being configured to be a primary computer resource;

specifying at least one portion of storage implemented in at least one secondary storage device to which data stored in the specified at least one portion of storage implemented in at least one primary storage device can be copied based on the storage device information, the at least one portion of storage implemented in the at least one secondary storage device and a secondary processor device corresponding to the specified primary processor being configured to be at least one secondary computer resource, the secondary processor device being configured to be a member of a cluster of which the primary processor device is a member, the at least one portion of storage implemented in the at least one secondary storage device being accessible from the secondary processor device; and

presenting, to the user interface, the at least one portion of storage implemented in at least one secondary storage device and the secondary processor device to select a redundant computer resource corresponding to the primary computer resource from the at least one secondary computer resource.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein if the at least one primary storage device has storage-based remote mirroring function, the at least one secondary computer resource is specified such that the at least one secondary storage device also has storage-based remote mirroring function and is accessible from the at least one primary storage device.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said at least one primary computer resource includes a first network interface device for the network;

and

wherein said at least one secondary computer resource includes a second network interface device for the network.

4. In a system including a management server, a plurality of processor devices and a plurality of storage devices, the processor devices and the storage devices being coupled to the management server via a network, a method for the management server to establish a clustering system, said method comprising:

storing mapping information between application programs being executed by the processor devices and storage volumes in the storage devices being utilized by the application programs, and storage device information relating to each of the storage devices;

receiving a command from a user interface for presenting at least one candidate of secondary storage devices to which data stored in a primary storage device can be copied, the command identifying a primary processor device and an application program executed by the primary processor device so that the management server specifies the primary storage device having at least one storage volume utilized by the identified application program from the storage devices based on the identified primary processor device, the identified application program and the mapping information, the primary storage device and the primary processor device being configured to be a primary computer resource;

specifying the at least one candidate of secondary storage devices corresponding to the specified primary storage device based on the storage device information, the at least one candidate of secondary storage devices and at least one candidate of secondary processor devices corresponding to the primary processor being configured to be at least one secondary computer resource; and

presenting the at least one candidate of secondary storage devices to which data stored in the primary storage device can be copied and the at least one candidate of secondary processor devices to the user interface to select a redundant computer resource corresponding to the primary computer resource from the at least one secondary computer resource.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said at least one candidate of secondary processor devices is selected from the plurality of processor devices having processing capability equal to the primary processor.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the user interface includes GUI.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the storage device information includes storage capability information.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the storage capability information includes throughput, cache size, and RAID level of the storage devices.

9. In a system including a management server, a plurality of processor devices, and a plurality of storage devices, the processor devices and the storage devices being coupled via a network, an article of manufacture comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program embodied therein for the management server to establish a clustering system, the computer readable program in said article of manufacture comprising:

code for storing mapping information between application programs being executed by the processor devices and portions of storage implemented in the storage devices being utilized by the application programs, and storage device information relating to each of the storage devices;

code for receiving a command, from a user interface, identifying a primary processor device and an application program executed by the primary processor device;

code for specifying at least one portion of storage implemented in at least one primary storage device utilized by the identified application program from the storage devices based on the identified primary processor device, the identified application program and the mapping information, the at least one portion of storage implemented in at least one primary storage device and the primary processor device being configured to be a primary computer resource;

code for specifying at least one portion of storage implemented in at least one secondary storage device to which data stored in the specified at least one portion of storage implemented in at least one primary storage device can be copied based on the storage device information, the at least one portion of storage implemented in the at least one secondary storage device and a secondary processor device corresponding to the specified primary processor being configured to be at least one secondary computer resource, the secondary processor device being configured to be a member of a cluster of which the primary processor device is a member, the at least one portion of storage implemented in the at least one secondary storage device being accessible from the secondary processor device; and

code for presenting, to the user interface, the at least one portion of storage implemented in at least one secondary storage device and the secondary processor device to select a redundant computer resource corresponding to the primary computer resource from the at least one secondary computer resource.

10. In a system including a management server, a plurality of processor devices, and a plurality of storage devices, the processor devices and the storage devices being coupled via a network, a system for a management server to establish a clustering system, said system comprising:

means for storing mapping information between application programs being executed by the processor devices and portions of storage implemented in the storage devices being utilized by the application programs, and storage device information relating to each of the storage devices;

means for receiving a command, from a user interface, identifying a primary processor device and an application program executed by the primary processor device;

means for specifying at least one portion of storage implemented in at least one primary storage device utilized by the identified application program from the storage devices based on the identified primary processor device, the identified application program and the mapping information, the at least one portion of storage implemented in at least one primary storage device and the primary processor device being configured to be a primary computer resource;

means for specifying at least one portion of storage implemented in at least one secondary storage device to which data stored in the specified at least one portion of storage implemented in at least one primary storage device can be copied based on the storage device information, the at least one portion of storage implemented in the at least one secondary storage device and a secondary processor device corresponding to the specified primary processor being configured to be at least one secondary computer resource, the secondary processor device being configured to be a member of a cluster of which the primary processor device is a member, the at least one portion of storage implemented in the at least one secondary storage device being accessible from the secondary processor device; and

means for presenting, to the user interface, the at least one portion of storage implemented in at least one secondary storage device and the secondary processor device to select a redundant computer resource corresponding to the primary computer resource from the at least one secondary computer resource.

11. In a system including a management server, a plurality of processor devices, and a plurality of storage devices, the processor devices and the storage devices being coupled to the management server via a network, a method for the management server to establish a clustering system, said method comprising:

storing storage device information relating to each of the storage devices;

receiving a command from a user interface for establishing a clustering system, the command having information for identifying a primary processor device which is configured to be a part of a primary computer resource; and

specifying at least one candidate of primary storage devices, at least one candidate of secondary storage devices corresponding to the at least one candidate of primary storage devices, and at least one candidate of secondary processor devices corresponding to the primary processor device based on the storage device information, the at least one candidate of secondary processor devices and the at least one candidate of secondary storage devices being configured to be at least one secondary computer resource for the primary computer resource,

wherein the storage device information includes a RAID level of the storage devices.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein if the primary storage device has storage-based remote mirroring function, then the at least one candidate of secondary storage devices is specified from one or more of the plurality of storage devices, the at least one candidate of secondary storage devices having a storage-based remote mirroring function and being accessible from the primary storage device.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the primary computer resource includes a first network interface device for the network, wherein the at least one secondary computer resource includes a second network interface device for the network.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the at least one candidate of secondary processor devices is selected from one or more of the plurality of processor devices having processing capability equal to the primary processor.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the user interface includes a GUI.