Disk array apparatus and disk-array control method

• US 7,525,749 B2
• Filed: 04/28/2006
• Issued: 04/28/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Murano, Shoichi, Maejima, Mitsuru
• Primary Examiner(s): WONG, KIN C
• Application Number:
  US11/412,956
• Publication Number:
  US 20070171562A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,096 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 360/69
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/004 Error avoidance G06F11/07 and subgroups take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1662 the resynchronized component or unit being a persistent storage device re-synchronization of failed mirror storage G06F11/2082; rebuild or reconstruction of parity RAID storage G06F11/1008
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2143 Clearing memory, e.g. to prevent the data from being stolen
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/18 Error detection or correction; Testing , e.g. of drop-outs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2020/1893 using linear replacement to relocate data from a defective block to a non-contiguous spare area, e.g. with a secondary defect list [SDL]
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2516 Hard disks
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/415 Redundant array of inexpensive disks [RAID] systems
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/002 Programmed access in sequence to a plurality of record carriers or indexed parts, e.g. tracks, thereof, e.g. for editing; transfer of record carriers from magazine G11B15/68, G11B17/10; G11B17/22
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/36 Monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing for digital recording G11B20/00 and s.gr.; for monitoring, testing or measuring of TV recorders of the type covered by H04N5/76 and subgroups, see H04N17/06

Abstract

A failure predicting unit predicts a failure in a hard disk device that forms a disk array. A data transferring unit transfers data from a failure-predicted hard disk device for which the failure is predicted by the failure predicting unit to a spare disk. A data deleting unit deletes the data from the failure-predicted hard disk device after the data transferring unit completes transferring the data.

Claims

1. A disk array apparatus comprising:

a failure predicting unit that predicts a failure in a hard disk device arranged in a disk array;

a data transferring unit that transfers data from a failure-predicted hard disk device for which the failure is predicted by the failure predicting unit to a spare disk; and

a data recovering unit that copies the data from the spare disk to a new hard disk device that replaced the failure-predicted hard disk device; and

a data deleting unit that deletes the data stored on the failure-predicted hard disk device after the data transferring unit completes transferring the data, and deletes the data stored on the spare disk after the data recovering unit completes copying the data.

2. The disk array apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a disk-removal control unit that prohibits, when the data transferring unit starts transferring the data, removal of the failure-predicted hard disk device until the data deleting unit completes deleting the data stored on the failure-predicted hard disk device.

3. The disk array apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the disk-removal control unit prohibits, before the data transferring unit starts transferring the data, removal of the spare disk.

4. The disk array apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a disk-removal control unit that prohibits, when the data recovering unit starts copying the data, removal of the spare disk until the data deleting unit completes deleting the data stored on the spare hard disk device.

5. The disk array apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the disk-removal control unit prohibits, before the data recovering unit starts copying the data, removal of the new hard disk device.

6. The disk array apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the data deleting unit deletes the data by formatting the failure-predicted hard disk device.

7. The disk array apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the data deleting unit deletes management information of a file system stored in the failure-predicted hard disk device prior to formatting the failure-predicted hard disk device.

8. A disk-array control method comprising:

predicting a failure in a hard disk device arranged in a disk array;

transferring data from a failure-predicted hard disk device for which the failure is predicted during the predicting to a spare disk;

copying the data from the spare disk to a new hard disk device that replaced the failure-predicted hard disk device; and

deleting the data stored on the failure-predicted hard disk device after transferring the data completed during the transferring, and deleting the data stored on the spare disk after the copying the data is completed during the copying.