Preemptive data protection for copy services in storage systems and applications

• US 7,676,702 B2
• Filed: 08/14/2006
• Issued: 03/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Latif, Michael M., Grimes, Andrew W., Khandelwal, Nikhil, Basham, Robert Beverley
• Primary Examiner(s): GUYTON, PHILIP A
• Application Number:
  US11/464,320
• Publication Number:
  US 20080126857A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,303 Days
• Field of Search: 714/47, 709/224, 711/162
• US Class Current: 714/47.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/004 Error avoidance G06F11/07 and subgroups take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring

Abstract

A common interface and communication methodology are provided for interaction between the components of a storage area network for them to activate “triggers” that cause actions to be taken by the devices to utilize copy service functions to create additional copies of data, and to potentially route load to other resources. The actions can be taken by any of the elements of the storage area network to mitigate the impact of the pending failure. The advantage of this system over current methods is that it can detect both failure and impending failure in any component in the system and use resources in any other component to mitigate the failure. This creates a much more comprehensive recovery strategy and the potential to save more data than in current systems.

Claims

1. A computer program product comprising a computer recordable medium having a computer readable program, wherein the computer readable program, when executed within a first component within a plurality of components of a storage area network, causes the first component to:

receive a status message from a second component within the plurality of components of the storage area network through a plurality of levels of the storage area network, wherein the status message reports a pending failure;

responsive to receiving the status message at the first component, determine a mitigating action to be performed by the first component;

perform the mitigating action at the first component;

report the mitigating action to the plurality of components; and

report the mitigating activity to a user with relevant information, wherein the mitigating action comprises a peer-to-peer remote copy and wherein the relevant information comprises time, date, and backup copy location.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the computer readable program causes the first component to perform predictive failure analysis and responsive to detecting a pending failure in the first component, send a second status message from the first component to one or more of the plurality of other components through a plurality of levels of the storage area network, wherein the second status message reports the pending failure.

3. The computer program product of claim 2, wherein sending the second status message from the first component to at least one or more of the plurality of other components in the storage area network comprises passing the second status message through one or more intermediate components in the storage area network.

4. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the first component is a host system and wherein the mitigating action comprises flushing cache, disabling write caching, forcing volumes read-only, forcing a file system into a safe mode, or beginning a failover to a redundant host system.

5. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the first component is a storage device and wherein the mitigating action comprises forcing the peer-to-peer remote copy as an asynchronous peer-to-peer remote copy or converting the peer-to-peer remote copy from an asynchronous peer-to-peer remote copy to a synchronous peer-to-peer remote copy.

6. An apparatus in a first component within a plurality of components of a storage area network, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory contains instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

receive a status message from a second component within the plurality of components of the storage area network through a plurality of levels of the storage area network, wherein the status message reports the pending failure;

responsive to receiving the status message at the first component, determine a mitigating action to be performed by the first component; and

perform the mitigating action at the first component,

wherein the first component is a storage device component and wherein the mitigating action comprises forcing an asynchronous peer-to-peer remote copy or converting an asynchronous peer-to-peer remote copy to synchronous.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the first component is a host system component and wherein the mitigating action comprises flushing cache, disabling write caching, forcing volumes read-only, forcing a file system into a safe mode, or beginning a failover to a redundant host system.

15. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the instructions which further cause the processor to:

report the mitigating activity to the plurality of components.

16. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the instructions which further cause the processor to:

report the mitigating activity to a user with relevant information, wherein the mitigating action comprises a peer-to-peer remote copy and wherein the relevant information comprises time, date, and backup copy location.

8. A method for detecting pending failures and performing mitigating actions a first component within a plurality of components of a storage area network, the method comprising:

receiving a status message from a second component within the plurality of components of the storage area network through a plurality of levels of the storage area network, wherein the status message reports the pending failure;

responsive to receiving the status message at the first component, determining a mitigating action to be performed by the first component;

performing the mitigating action at the first component

reporting the mitigating action to a user with relevant information, wherein the mitigating action comprises a peer-to-peer remote copy and wherein the relevant information comprises time, date, and backup copy location.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

performing predictive failure analysis; and

responsive to detecting a pending failure in the first component, sending a second status message from the first component to one or more of the plurality of other components through a plurality of levels of the storage area network, wherein the second status message reports the pending failure.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein sending the second status message from the first component to at least one or more of the plurality of other components in the storage area network comprises passing the second status message through one or more intermediate components in the storage area network.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the first component is a host system and wherein the mitigating action comprises flushing cache, disabling write caching, forcing volumes read-only, forcing a file system into a safe mode, or beginning a failover to a redundant host system.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the first component is a storage device and wherein the mitigating action comprises forcing an asynchronous peer-to-peer remote copy or converting an asynchronous peer-to-peer remote copy to synchronous.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

reporting the mitigating activity to the plurality of components.

14. A method for providing a data protection and copy service in a storage area network, the method comprising:

configuring a first component within a plurality of components of the storage area network to detect a pending failure in the first component and to send a first status message from the first component to one or more of the plurality of other components through a plurality of levels of the storage area network, wherein the first status message reports the pending failure;

configuring the first component to determine a mitigating action to be performed by the first component responsive to receiving a second status message from a second component within the plurality of components of the storage area network, to perform the mitigating action at the first component, and to report the mitigating action to the plurality of components; and

report the mitigating activity to a user with relevant information, wherein the mitigating action comprises a peer-to-peer remote copy and wherein the relevant information comprises time, date, and backup copy location.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the first component is a storage device and wherein the mitigating action comprises forcing the peer-to-peer remote copy as an asynchronous peer-to-peer remote copy or converting the peer-to-peer remote copy from an asynchronous peer-to-peer remote copy to a synchronous peer-to-peer remote cony.