Management method and apparatus for storage apparatus

• US 7,512,888 B2
• Filed: 11/13/2002
• Issued: 03/31/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Taninaka, Dai, Fujii, Kozue, Kishimoto, Toshimichi, Sugino, Shoji
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong; Stephen S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pitaro; Ryan F
• Application Number:
  US10/294,468
• Publication Number:
  US 20030093619A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,330 Days
• Field of Search: 715736-740, 715/853, 714/47, 711/170, 711/114
• US Class Current: 715/734
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/32 with visual or acoustical indication of the functioning of the machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/323 Visualisation of programs or trace data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3457 Performance evaluation by simulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3485 for I/O devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0653 Monitoring storage devices or systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

Abstract

A method for performing a system reconfiguration of a storage system includes displaying a configuration window visually showing a configuration of a plurality of components in the storage system within an operation screen. An input area is displayed within the operation screen, the input area being provided for entering one or more components to be reconfigured. A performance window is displayed within the operation screen, the preference window providing bandwidth utilization information of one or more of the components in the storage system. The configuration window, performance window, and the input area are all viewable at the same time without activating another operation screen.

Claims

1. A management method for a storage system including a storage subsystem configured to store data, a host computer configured to communicate data with the storage subsystem, and a system management device configured to provide management functions to the storage system, the storage subsystem including a plurality of components, the method comprising:

displaying a configuration window on a display area of the system management device, the configuration window providing a view of a configuration of the plurality of components in the storage subsystem and load information for each of the plurality of components, and allowing a user to enter proposed adjustments to configuration information for at least one of a logical or physical configuration of said storage system and an operational status;

displaying a performance window on the display area of the system management device together with the configuration window, the performance window providing bandwidth utilization information relating to at least one of the plurality of components in the storage subsystem, the performance window allowing the user to enter proposed adjustments in performance through a setting of various performance parameters;

displaying at least one of a real-time mode graph and a performance history mode graph of the at least one component whose bandwidth utilization information is being displayed on the performance window, the displayed graph being dependent upon a selection of the user, the real-time mode dynamically providing the bandwidth utilization information and the performance history mode providing the bandwidth utilization information for a given period in the past, the configuration window, the performance window, and the graph being displayed together on the same display area to be viewed by a user at the same time;

simulating performance of at least one of the plurality of components in the storage subsystem based on the proposed adjustments to the configuration parameters and performance parameters, whereby the user is able to compare simulated performance using the proposed adjustments to past performance as displayed in the graph, such that the user is able to alter the proposed adjustments and view the simulated results in real-time before applying the proposed adjustments to the storage subsystem;

displaying a setting window on the display area of the system management device, said setting window including a configuration change screen comprising a configuration area for displaying configuration information for storage volumes among the plurality of components, a list area for displaying a correspondence relationship that the user is able to indicate between a source volume and a target volume for data migration, and a graph area for displaying a performance graph able to show performance of at least one of a prior and a present source and target volume and a simulating graph able to show a simulated performance of at least one of the prior and the present source and target volume based on applying the correspondence relationship; and

indicating a candidate target volume that is able to migrate the data stored in the selected source volume and a non-candidate target volume with a different identifier.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration information is provided in a hierarchical format.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the plurality of components are one of the following:

magnetic disk drives, optical disk drives, logical volumes, logical units, parity groups, and one or more communication connections linking the storage subsystem and the host computer.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage subsystem is a disk-array apparatus including a plurality of magnetic disk drives.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage system is a storage area network including a client and a server, wherein the host computer is the server.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the plurality of components for which the bandwidth utilization information is displayed on the performance window is selected by selecting the at least one of the plurality of components from the configuration window using a drag-and-drop operation.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing bandwidth utilization information for the plurality of components of the storage subsystems;

selecting a component for which a system reconfiguration is to be performed;

calculating an effect of implementing the selected system reconfiguration on performance of the selected component using the stored bandwidth utilization information; and

displaying a result of the calculated effect of implementing the selected system reconfiguration.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the displaying-a-result step includes providing a graphical view of the bandwidth utilization information before and after the system reconfiguration implementation.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage subsystem is a disk-array apparatus having at least 1000 magnetic disk drives.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of components displayed are a plurality of logical volumes defined in the storage subsystem, the method further comprising:

selecting a first logical volume displayed in the configuration window, the first logical volume being associated with a first parity group experiencing a first utilization rate;

selecting a second logical volume displayed in the configuration window, the second logical volume being associated with a second parity group experiencing a second utilization rate that is lower than the first utilization rate; and

displaying simulated bandwidth utilization information of at least the first parity group if the first and second logical volumes are reconfigured to be associated with the second parity group and the first parity group, respectively,

wherein the storage subsystem includes location information that provides information about logical volumes associated with the first parity group and logical volumes associated with the second parity group, wherein the logical volume reconfiguration involves modifying the logical information.

14. A management method according to claim 1, wherein the configuration information includes at least pass information that associates the logical volumes with a corresponding logical unit and location information that associates a particular parity group with one or more logical volumes.

15. A management method according to claim 1, wherein if all ports have substantially the same number of input/output processes performed per second, a threshold value of a specific port is settable to a higher limit than for the other ports via said performance window.

16. A management method according to claim 1, wherein if a rate of utilization is different between parity groups, logical volumes included in a parity group having a high rate of utilization are moveable to logical volumes included in a parity group having a low rate of utilization via said configuration window.

11. A method for performing a system reconfiguration of a storage system, the method comprising:

displaying a configuration window visually showing a configuration of a plurality of components in the storage system and load information for each of the plurality of components within an operation screen, the operation screen allowing a user to select one or more components to be reconfigured;

displaying a performance window within the operation screen, the performance window providing bandwidth utilization information of one or more of the components in the storage system that has been selected using the configuration window, the configuration window, performance window, and the input area all being viewable at the same time and on the same display area without activating another operation screen;

receiving at least one of a proposed change in performance through a setting of various performance parameters and a proposed change in configuration information for at least one of a logical or physical configuration of said storage system and an operational status; and

simulating performance of the storage system using the proposed changes and allowing the user to compare the simulated performance with past performance, whereby the user is able to adjust the proposed changes and view the simulated results in real-time before applying the proposed changes to the storage system;

displaying a setting window including a configuration change screen comprising a configuration area for displaying configuration information for storage volumes among the plurality of components, a list area for displaying a correspondence relationship that the user is able to indicate between a source volume and a target volume for data migration, and a graph area for displaying a performance graph able to show performance of at least one of a prior and a present source and target volume and a simulating graph able to show a simulated performance of at least one of the prior and the present source and target volume based on applying the correspondence relationship; and

indicating a candidate target volume that is able to migrate the data stored in the selected source volume and a non-candidate target volume with a different identifier.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

selecting one of the plurality of components to be reconfigured from the configuration window; and

indicating, in the configuration window, one or more candidate components that are capable of cooperating with the selected component to implement the reconfiguration.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the operation screen is displayed in a display area of a service processor provided proximate to a storage subsystem of the storage system or a display area of a remote control terminal that is provided remote from the storage subsystem.

17. A management method according to claim 11, wherein the configuration information includes at least pass information that associates the logical volumes with a corresponding logical unit and location information that associates a particular parity group with one or more logical volumes.

18. A management method according to claim 11, wherein if all ports have substantially the same number of input/output processes performed per second, a threshold value of a specific port is settable to a higher limit than for the other ports via said performance window.

19. A management method according to claim 11, wherein if a rate of utilization is different between parity groups, logical volumes included in a parity group having a high rate of utilization are moveable to logical volumes included in a parity group having a low rate of utilization via said configuration window.