Method and system for strategy driven provisioning of storage in a storage area network

• US 7,370,172 B2
• Filed: 05/31/2006
• Issued: 05/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Original Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Inventors: Patel, Dipam, Manbert, Rush, Prasad, Chandra
• Primary Examiner(s): Ellis; Kevin L.
• Application Number:
  US11/421,470
• Publication Number:
  US 20060206682A1
• Time in Patent Office: 706 Days
• Field of Search: 711/170, 711/171, 711/172, 711/173
• US Class Current: 711/170
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0608 Saving storage space on storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0644 Management of space entities, e.g. partitions, extents, pools
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0665 at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• 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 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]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A method and system for provisioning storage from a storage area network is provided. The provisioning includes receiving a request for a storage size and storage configuration from a storage area network according to a storage profile, identifying a storage device pool of storage devices according to a storage device candidate strategy, selecting a media unit provisioning strategy based upon the type of storage configuration specified in the storage request, generating media unit solutions using the media unit provisioning strategy and sequence of storage devices in the storage pool, determining if the media unit provisioning strategy produced a solution for the requested storage configuration and provisioning a media unit solution in response to the determination.

Claims

1. A method of provisioning storage from a storage area network, comprising:

receiving a request for a storage size and storage configuration from a storage area network according to a storage profile;

identifying a storage device pool of storage devices;

selecting a media unit provisioning strategy based upon the type of storage configuration specified in the storage request;

generating media unit solutions using the media unit provisioning strategy; and

provisioning a media unit solution from the identified storage device pool of storage devices.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the storage device pool of storage devices are identified according to a storage device candidate strategy.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein provisioning the media unit solution further includes determining if the media unit provisioning strategy produced a solution for the requested storage configuration.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the storage device candidate strategy identifies a set of storage devices having at least one media unit that satisfies the storage profile.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the storage device candidate strategy further includes sorting the storage device candidates in order of decreasing provisional storage amounts.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the storage device candidate strategy further includes using a predetermined sequence of selected storage devices to identify and place the storage devices in a sequence.

7. The method of claim 4 wherein the storage device candidate strategy further includes ordering the set of storage devices in a least-recently-used sequence.

8. The method of claim 4 wherein the storage device candidate strategy further includes ordering the set of storage devices according to a least-cost sequence.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the media unit provisioning strategy for provisioning media unit solutions from a storage device is selected from a set of media unit provisioning strategies including determining if a media unit provides the requested storage size solution, a media unit closely matches the requested storage size solution, a media unit exceeds the requested storage size solution and can be sliced and a concatenation of media units in the storage device from large to small exists that satisfies the storage size request.

10. A computer program product for provisioning storage from a storage area network, tangibly stored on a computer-readable medium, comprising instructions operable to cause a programmable processor to:

receive a request for a storage size and storage configuration from a storage area network according to a storage profile;

identify a storage device pool of storage devices;

select a media unit provisioning strategy based upon the type of storage configuration specified in the storage request;

generate media unit solutions using the media unit provisioning strategy; and

provision a media unit solution from the identified storage device pool of storage devices.

11. The computer program product of claim 10 wherein the storage device pool of storage devices are identified according to a storage device candidate strategy.

12. The computer program product of claim 10 wherein the media unit solutions generated further depends on the sequence of storage devices in the storage pool.

13. The computer program product of claim 10 wherein provisioning the media unit solution further includes determining if the media unit provisioning strategy produced a solution for the requested storage configuration.

14. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein the storage device candidate strategy identifies a set of storage devices having at least one media unit that satisfies the storage profile.

15. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the storage device candidate strategy further includes sorting the storage device candidates in order of decreasing provisional storage amounts.

16. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the storage device candidate strategy further includes using a predetermined sequence of selected storage devices to identify and place the storage devices in a sequence.

17. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the storage device candidate strategy further includes ordering the set of storage devices in a least-recently-used sequence.

18. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the storage device candidate strategy further includes ordering the set of storage devices according to a least-cost sequence.

19. The computer program product of claim 10 wherein the media unit provisioning strategy for provisioning media unit solutions from a storage device is selected from a set of media unit provisioning strategies including determining if a media unit provides the requested storage size solution, a media unit closely matches the requested storage size solution, a media unit exceeds the requested storage size solution and can be sliced and a concatenation of media units in the storage device from large to small exists that satisfies the storage size request.

20. An apparatus for provisioning storage from a storage area network, comprising:

a processor capable of executing instructions;

a memory containing instructions when executed on the processor that receive a request for a storage size and storage configuration from a storage area network according to a storage profile, identify a storage device pool of storage devices, select a media unit provisioning strategy based upon the type of storage configuration specified in the storage request, generate media unit solutions using the media unit provisioning strategy and provision a media unit solution from the identified storage device pool of storage devices.

21. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein the storage device pool of storage devices are identified according to a storage device candidate strategy.

22. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein provisioning the media unit solution further includes determining if the media unit provisioning strategy produced a solution for the requested storage configuration.

23. The apparatus of claim 21 wherein the storage device candidate strategy identifies a set of storage devices having at least one media unit that satisfies the storage profile.

24. The apparatus of claim 21 wherein the storage device candidate strategy further includes sorting the storage device candidates in order of decreasing provisional storage amounts.

25. The apparatus of claim 21 wherein the storage device candidate strategy further includes using a predetermined sequence of selected storage devices to identify and place the storage devices in a sequence.

26. The apparatus of claim 21 wherein the storage device candidate strategy further includes ordering the set of storage devices in a least-recently-used sequence.

27. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein the media unit provisioning strategy for provisioning media unit solutions from a storage device is selected from a set of media unit provisioning strategies including determining if a media unit provides the requested storage size solution, a media unit closely matches the requested storage size solution, a media unit exceeds the requested storage size solution and can be sliced and a concatenation of media units in the storage device from large to small exists that satisfies the storage size request.