Data migration using temporary volume to migrate high priority data to high performance storage and lower priority data to lower performance storage

• US 7,581,061 B2
• Filed: 12/18/2006
• Issued: 08/25/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Miyagaki, Atsushi, Yasuta, Koji
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah; Sanjiv
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ayash; Marwan
• Application Number:
  US11/640,324
• Publication Number:
  US 20080104343A1
• Time in Patent Office: 981 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 711/114
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0613 in relation to throughput
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0625 Power saving in storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0634 by changing the state or mode of one or more devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0649 Lifecycle management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

The storage control device of the present invention uses a temporary volume to move data rapidly between volume groups. The storage control device forms a plurality of volume groups by grouping volumes of the same performance. At least one or more temporary volumes are each pre-provided in the respective volume groups. The control section calculates and manages the priority levels of the respective data. The data with the highest priority level in the lower volume group are copied beforehand to the temporary volume in the upper volume group at a time when the data are not being accessed by the host. As a result, data can be moved rapidly when data migration is executed and so forth.

Claims

1. A storage control device that comprises a plurality of storage drives for storing data used by a higher level device and a controller that controls data inputs and outputs between each of the storage drives and the higher level device, comprising:

a plurality of logical volumes formed on the basis of physical storage regions of the respective storage drives;

a plurality of volume groups each formed by grouping a plurality of each of the respective logical volumes;

a priority level management section that is provided in the controller and that detects and manages each of the priority levels of the data stored in the respective logical volumes on the basis of an access request issued by the higher level device; and

a data migration section provided in the controller that moves the data between the respective volume groups on the basis of the respective priority levels managed by the priority level management section,

wherein, among the respective logical volumes in the respective volume groups, at least one or more of the logical volumes is established as a temporary volume which is used for the migration of the data;

wherein the respective storage drives are classified as storage drives of a plurality of types each of which has a different performance, and the respective volume groups are ranked from a volume group with the highest rank to a volume group with the lowest rank in accordance with the type of the storage drive in which the respective logical volumes constituting the respective volume groups are provided, and

wherein the data migration section selects data with the highest priority level among the respective data contained in a migration source volume group of a relatively low rank as the migration target data and copies the migration target data beforehand to the temporary volume contained in a migration destination volume group that is one rank higher,

wherein the data migration section uses the temporary volume to move the migration target data between the respective volume groups before the migration destination of the migration target data has been determined.

2. The storage control device according to claim 1, wherein the respective volume groups are ranked in accordance with the types of the respective logical volumes that constitute the respective volume groups.

3. The storage control device according to claim 2, wherein the data migration section uses the temporary volume to move the migration target data between the respective volume groups so that the data of a high priority level are located in a volume group of a higher rank and data of a low priority level are located in a volume group of a lower rank.

4. The storage control device according to claim 1, wherein the priority level management section detects and manages the priority levels of each of the data on the basis of the last time the higher level device accessed the respective data and the frequency with which the higher level device has accessed the respective data.

5. The storage control device according to claim 1, wherein the priority level management section detects and manages the priority level for each of the respective data on the basis of the last time the higher level device accessed the respective data, the frequency with which the higher level device has accessed the respective data, and a priority level hold time that is preset for the respective data.

6. The storage control device according to claim 1, wherein the data migration section uses the migration target data copied to the temporary volume in the migration destination volume group to process an access request issued by the higher level device to the migration target data.

7. The storage control device according to claim 6, wherein the data migration section manages the differences between the temporary volume in the migration destination volume group and a migration source logical volume in the migration source volume group with respect to the migration target data.

8. The storage control device according to claim 7, wherein the data migration section reflects the differences in the migration source logical volume when the priority level of the migration target data is lowered by the priority level management section and copies other data set at the highest priority level in the migration source volume group to the temporary volume in the migration destination volume group.

9. The storage control device according to claim 1, wherein the data migration section copies beforehand backup target data stored in a backup target logical volume that exists in a higher ranking volume group to a temporary volume in a lower ranking volume group.

10. The storage control device according to claim 9, wherein the data migration section manages differences between the backup target logical volume and the temporary volume in the lower ranking volume group with respect to the backup target data and ends the backup by reflecting the differences in the temporary volume when an instruction to execute a backup is issued.

11. The storage control device according to claim 1, wherein the controller controls each of (1) an access path management level that manages access points accessed by the higher level device, (2) a volume management level that manages the respective logical volumes, (3) an intermediate management level that manages management information related to the data stored in the volume management level and associations between the access points and the logical volumes.

12. The storage control device according to claim 11, wherein the intermediate management level is constituted comprising a first level that manages the management information, a second level that manages the relationship between the access points and the first level, and a third level that manages the association between the first level and the volume management level.

13. The storage control device according to claim 1, wherein at least one specified volume group among the respective volume groups is constituted by a virtual logical volume that is associated with another logical volume that exists in a plurality of different storage control devices;

and the controller allocates cache memory in the controller when the virtual logical volume has been set to the online state and does not allocate the cache memory when the virtual logical volume has been set to the offline state.

14. The storage control device according to claim 13, wherein the controller stores low priority level data in the specified virtual logical volumes associated with the other logical volumes in the specified other storage control device and, when the specified virtual logical volumes have all been set to the offline state, reports the fact that the supply of power to the specified other storage control device can be stopped or automatically stops the supply of power to the specified other storage control device.

15. A data migration method that uses a storage control device that comprises a plurality of storage drives for storing data used by a higher level device and a controller that controls data inputs and outputs between each of the storage drives and the higher level device,

wherein the controller executes:

a step of generating each of a plurality of volume groups by grouping a plurality of each of a plurality of logical volumes formed on the basis of the physical storage regions of the respective storage drives according to the performance of the respective storage drives and setting at least one or more logical volumes among the respective logical volumes in the respective volume groups as a temporary volume for moving data;

a step of detecting and managing each of a plurality of priority levels of the data stored in the respective logical volumes on the basis of an access request issued by the higher level device;

a step of classifying the respective storage drives as storage drives of a plurality of types each of which has a different performance, and ranking the respective volume groups from a volume group with the highest rank to a volume group with the lowest rank in accordance with the type of the storage drive in which the respective logical volumes constituting the respective volume groups are provided; and

a step of selecting data with the highest priority level among the respective data contained in a migration source volume group of a relatively low rank as the migration target data and copying the migration target data beforehand to the temporary volume contained in a migration destination volume group that is one rank higher,

a step of using the temporary volume to move migration target data between the respective volume groups before data migration is determined so that the high priority level data are stored in a volume group associated with a higher performance storage drive and the low priority level data are stored in a volume group associated with a lower performance storage drive.