Method and apparatus for seamless management for disaster recovery

• US 7,661,019 B2
• Filed: 09/25/2007
• Issued: 02/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Fujibayashi, Akira
• Primary Examiner(s): DUNCAN, MARC M
• Application Number:
  US11/904,061
• Publication Number:
  US 20080092053A1
• Time in Patent Office: 868 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 714/38.14
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/008 Reliability or availability analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/20 using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2069 Management of state, configuration or failover
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/275 Synchronous replication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/22 using redundant apparatus to increase reliability
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

A method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and system are presented for establishing redundant computer resources. According to one embodiment, in a system including a plurality of processor devices and a plurality of storage devices, the processor devices, the storage devices and the management server being connected via a network, the method comprises storing device information relating to the processor devices and the storage devices and topology information relating to topology of the network, identifying at least one primary computer resource, selecting at least one secondary computer resource suitable to serve as a redundant resource corresponding to the at least one primary computer resource based on the device information and the topology information, and assigning the at least one secondary computer resource as a redundant resource corresponding to the at least one primary computer resource.

Claims

1. In a system including a management server, a plurality of processor devices, and a plurality of storage devices, the processor devices and the storage devices being coupled to the management server via a network, a method for the management server to establish a clustering system comprising:

storing processor device information relating to each of the processor devices;

receiving a command from a user interface for establishing a clustering system, the command having information for identifying a primary processor device which is configured to be a part of a primary computer resource with a primary storage device; and

specifying at least one candidate of secondary processor devices corresponding to the primary processor device and at least one candidate of secondary storage devices corresponding to the primary storage device based on the processor device information, the at least one candidate of secondary processor devices and the at least one candidate of secondary storage devices being configured to be at least one secondary computer resource for the primary computer resource,

wherein the processor device information includes LUN binding information indicating logical connections between the processor devices where application programs are executed and the storage devices utilized by the application programs.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein if a DB application is executed in the primary processor device, then the at least one candidate of secondary processor devices is specified such that the at lease one candidate of secondary processor devices also has a DB application executed therein.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein if the primary storage device has a storage-based remote mirroring function, then the at least one candidate of secondary storage devices is specified such that the at least one candidate of secondary storage devices also has a storage-based remote mirroring function.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one candidate of secondary processor devices is selected from the plurality of processor devices having processing capability equal to the primary processor device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interface includes GUI.

6. A cluster management server comprising:

communication paths to a plurality of processor devices;

communication paths to a plurality of storage devices;

data storage having stored therein processor device information relating to each of the processor devices; and

a connection to a user interface to receive a cluster command for establishing a clustering system, the cluster command including information identifying one of the processor devices as a primary processor device and one of the storage devices as a primary storage device, wherein the primary processor device and the primary storage device comprise a primary computer resource,

wherein the processor device information comprises binding information indicating logical connections between the processor devices executing respective application programs and the storage devices utilized by the respective application programs,

wherein, in response to receiving the cluster command, the cluster management server is configured to;

identify, based on the processor device information, at least one of the processor devices as a secondary processor device corresponding to the primary processor device;

identify at least one of the storage devices as a secondary storage device corresponding to the primary storage device,

the secondary processor device and secondary storage device comprising a secondary computer resource corresponding to the primary computer resource.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the secondary processor device is identified from among the processor devices based at least on processing capability of the primary processing device.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the secondary processor device is identified from among the processor devices based on one or more applications executing on the primary processing device.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the secondary storage device is identified from among the storage devices based at least on storage capability of the primary storage device.

10. The system of claim 6, wherein if the primary storage device has a storage-based remote mirroring function, then the secondary storage devices also has a storage-based remote mirroring function.

11. A clustering system comprising:

communication paths to a plurality of processor devices;

communication paths to a plurality of storage devices;

data storage having stored therein storage device information relating to each of the storage devices; and

a connection to a user interface to receive a cluster command for establishing a clustering system, the cluster command including information identifying one of the processor devices as a primary processor device and one of the storage devices as a primary storage device, wherein the primary processor device and the primary storage device comprise a primary computer resource,

wherein the processor device information comprises binding information indicating logical connections between the processor devices executing respective application programs and the storage devices utilized by the respective application programs,

wherein, in response to receiving the cluster command, the cluster management server is configured to;

identify at least one of the processor devices as a secondary processor device corresponding to the primary processor device;

identify, based on the storage device information, at least one of the storage devices as a secondary storage device corresponding to the primary storage device,

the secondary processor device and secondary storage device comprising a secondary computer resource corresponding to the primary computer resource.

12. In a system including a management server, a plurality of processor devices, and a plurality of storage devices, the processor devices and the storage devices being coupled via a network, a system for a management server to establish a clustering system, said system comprising:

a data store having stored therein mapping information that maps application programs being executed by the processor devices and portions of storage implemented in the storage devices being utilized by the application programs, and storage device information relating to each of the storage devices; and

a connection to a user interface to receive a command that identifies a primary processor device and an application program executed by the primary processor device,

wherein, in response to receipt of the command, the system is configured to;

identify at least one portion of storage implemented in at least one primary storage device utilized by the application program from the storage devices based on the primary processor device, the application program and the mapping information, the at least one portion of storage implemented in at least one primary storage device and the primary processor device being configured to be a primary computer resource;

identify at least one portion of storage implemented in at least one secondary storage device to which data stored in the at least one portion of storage implemented in at least one primary storage device can be copied based on the storage device information, the at least one portion of storage implemented in the at least one secondary storage device and a secondary processor device corresponding to the primary processor being configured to be at least one secondary computer resource, the secondary processor device being configured to be a member of a cluster of which the primary processor device is a member, the at least one portion of storage implemented in the at least one secondary storage device being accessible from the secondary processor device; and

send data to the user interface indicative of the at least one portion of storage implemented in at least one secondary storage device and the secondary processor device to select a redundant computer resource corresponding to the primary computer resource from the at least one secondary computer resource.