Access environment construction system and method

• US 7,603,538 B2
• Filed: 01/17/2007
• Issued: 10/13/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Kitayama, Takashi, Shobayashi, Hiroyuki, Nagashima, Yuichiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim; Hong
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dinh; Ngoc V
• Application Number:
  US11/653,880
• Publication Number:
  US 20080114955A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,000 Days
• Field of Search: 711/202, 711/203, 711/111
• US Class Current: 711/202
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0635 by changing the path, e.g. traffic rerouting, path reconfiguration
• 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]

Abstract

Host environment information of the host is acquired from an environment management section that manages the host environment information, a designation of a volume condition constituting a condition related to the logical volume is received from the user, a logical volume that conforms to the designated condition among a plurality of logical volumes is sought, an internal path which is a logical path in the storage system is constructed by allocating the logical volume thus found to any of the plurality of communication ports, and the acquired host environment information is allocated to at least one of the communication ports and logical volumes in the internal path thus constructed.

Claims

1. An access environment construction system that can be implemented by a computer system that comprises a host and a storage system, the storage system comprising a plurality of communication ports, a plurality of logical volumes, and a storage controller section such that host environment information which is information related to a host environment can be allocated to at least either at least one of the plurality of communication ports or at least one of the plurality of logical volumes;

when a certain communication port among the plurality of communication ports receives a request from the host, the controller section accepts the request if host environment information related to a transmission source host of the request is allocated to the certain communication port and/or the logical volume specified by the request but does not accept the request if no such allocation has been made, the access environment construction system comprising;

an access environment construction control section;

a host environment information acquisition section that acquires the host environment information from an environment management section that manages the host environment information of the host and reports the host environment information thus acquired to the access environment construction control section; and

a storage setting section that constructs an internal path which is a logical path in the storage system by allocating any of the plurality of logical volumes to any of the plurality of communication ports of the storage system and allocates host environment information to at least one of the communication port and logical volume of the constructed path,

the access environment construction control section;

receiving a designation of a volume condition which is a logical volume-related condition from a user,

searching for a logical volume that matches the designated condition among the plurality of logical volumes,

instructing the storage setting section to construct the internal path by allocating the logical volume thus found to any of the plurality of communication ports, and

instructing the storage setting section to allocate host environment information from the host environment information acquisition section to at least one of the communication port and logical volume of the constructed internal path such that,

if the host transmits a request for volume information which is logical volume-related information to the storage system and the host environment information of the host is adapted to the host environment information that is allocated to the communication port receiving the request and/or the logical volume of the internal path containing the communication port, volume information for the logical volume is received from the communication port, and the logical volume is identified.

2. The access environment construction system according to claim 1, wherein

a path management section that can manage a plurality of paths to the identified logical volume as alternative paths is installed in the host and,

the access environment construction control section receives a port designation related to the communication port from the user, and

instructs the storage setting section to associate each of the logical volumes thus found with two or more communication ports specified by the port designation among the plurality of communication ports and,

therefore, if the host transmits a volume information request to the storage system, the same logical volume is identified as two or more devices because volume information related to the same logical volume is received from each of the two or more communication ports;

and

as a result of a multipath setting command being issued to the path management section, the path management section is made to construct a multipath environment for identifying the two or more devices as one logical volume.

3. The access environment construction system according to claim 2, wherein

in the port designation, a port group is designated and two or more ports belonging to the designated port group are specified.

4. The access environment construction system according to claim 2, wherein

the multipath setting command contains information expressing a path switching rule related to switching of a plurality of paths with respect to the same logical volume and, as a result, the path management section can be made to perform path switching control that conforms to the path switching rule.

5. The access environment construction system according to claim 1, wherein

when the host environment information changes, the host environment information acquisition section re-acquires host environment information and transmits the re-acquired host environment information same to the access environment construction control section.

6. The access environment construction system according to claim 1, wherein

the volume condition is a logical volume capacity;

and

the access environment construction control section prepares a logical volume that conforms to the volume condition by combining two or more logical volumes among the plurality of logical volumes when a logical volume that conforms to the volume condition is not found.

7. The access environment construction system according to claim 1, wherein

the access environment construction control section reserves a logical volume for a virtual host and seeks, from one or more logical volumes reserved for the host corresponding with the virtual host, a logical volume that conforms to the volume condition.

8. The access environment construction system according to claim 7, wherein

the access environment construction control section virtually prepares a host by receiving, from the user, an input of second information which is information of a different type from that of the host environment information.

9. The access environment construction system according to claim 7, wherein

when host environment information is received, the access environment construction control section associates the received host environment information with the second information.

10. The access environment construction system according to claim 1, wherein

the host environment information is at least one of OS (Operating System) information which is information related to the OS of the host and communication device information which is information related to the communication device that allows the host to communicate with the storage system.

11. The access environment construction system according to claim 10, wherein

the communication device information is a WWN (World Wide Name) or iSCSI (Internet Small Computer System Interface) name that corresponds with the port of a host bus adapter.

12. The access environment construction system according to claim 1, wherein

the storage setting section constitutes a host group which is a set of two or more LDEV (Logical Device) allocated to the same communication port.

13. The access environment construction system according to claim 12, wherein

as a result of the storage setting section setting OS (Operating System) information that is contained in the host environment information for the constituted host group, security that does not allow access to a logical volume belonging to the host group by a host that does not possess an OS that conforms to the OS information can be executed for the storage system.

14. The access environment construction system according to claim 1, wherein

the host environment management section is an Operating System (OS) of the host;

and

the host environment information acquisition section is a host agent prepared to be capable of communicating with the OS of the host.

15. The access environment construction system according to claim 1, wherein

a path management section capable of managing a plurality of paths to the identified logical volume as alternative paths are installed in the host;

the access environment construction control section prepares a host virtually by receiving, from the user, an input of second information which is information of a different type from that of the host environment information and, upon receiving host environment information, makes the virtual host a substantive host by associating the received host environment information with the second information,

reserves a logical volume for the virtual host and searches for a logical volume that conforms to the volume condition from one or more logical volumes reserved for the substantive host corresponding with the virtual host,

receives a port designation related to the communication port from the user, and

instructs the storage setting section to associate each of the logical volumes thus found with two or more communication ports specified by the port designation among the plurality of communication ports and,

therefore, if the host transmits a volume information request to the storage system, the same logical volume is identified as two or more devices because volume information related to the same logical volume is received from each of the two or more communication ports; and

as a result of a multipath setting command being issued to the-path management section, the path management section is made to construct a multipath environment for identifying the two or more devices as one logical volume.

16. An access environment construction method of a computer system that comprises a host and a storage system, the storage system comprising a plurality of communication ports, a plurality of logical volumes, and a storage controller section such that host environment information which is information related to a host environment can be allocated to at least either at least one of the plurality of communication ports or at least one of the plurality of logical volumes;

when a certain communication port among the plurality of communication ports receives a request from the host, the controller section accepts the request if host environment information related to a transmission source host of the request is allocated to the certain communication port and/or the logical volume specified by the request but does not accept the request if no such allocation has been made, the method comprising the steps of;

acquiring the host environment information from the environment management section that manages the host environment information of the host;

receiving a designation of a volume condition which is a logical volume-related condition from a user;

searching for a logical volume that matches the designated condition among the plurality of logical volumes;

constructing an internal path which is a logical path in the storage system by allocating the logical volume thus found to any of the plurality of communication ports of the storage system; and

allocating the acquired host environment information to at least one of the communication port and logical volume of the constructed internal path, such that,

if the host transmits a request for volume information which is logical volume-related information to the storage system and the host environment information of the host is adapted to the host environment information that is allocated to the communication port receiving the request and/or the logical volume of the internal path containing the communication port, volume information for the logical volume is received from the communication port, and the logical volume is identified.