Intelligent logical unit provisioning

• US 7,721,053 B2
• Filed: 10/24/2005
• Issued: 05/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Cochran, Robert A., Schultz, Jay, Long, Woodson B.
• Primary Examiner(s): BATAILLE, PIERRE MICHE
• Application Number:
  US11/256,912
• Publication Number:
  US 20070094393A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,667 Days
• Field of Search: 711/148, 711/114, 711/112, 711/154, 711/202, 711/203, 711/170
• US Class Current: 711/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3414 Workload generation, e.g. scripts, playback
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3485 for I/O devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0653 Monitoring storage devices or systems
• 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

In one embodiment, a storage controller comprises a first I/O port that provides an interface to a host computer, a second I/O port that provides an interface to a storage device, a processor that receives I/O requests generated by the host computer and, in response to the I/O requests, generates and transmits I/O requests to the storage device, and a memory module communicatively connected to the processor. The memory module comprises logic instructions which, when executed by the processor, configure the processor to collect performance data and availability data for a plurality of logical devices (LDEVS) managed by the storage controller, and present the performance data and availability data to a reporting interface.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

collecting, in a storage controller, performance data and availability data for a plurality of logical devices (LDEVS) managed by the storage controller, wherein the availability data is based, at least in part, on a number of communication paths to each of the plurality of logical devices; and

presenting the performance data and availability data to a reporting interface.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising using the performance data and the availability data to select a LDEV to provision as a host viewable LU.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein performance data and availability data are collected on a periodic basis.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the performance data comprises at least one of results from an online transaction performance (OLTP) test or results from a data warehouse workload test.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the availability data comprises at least one of:

a minimum number of physical paths to an external storage volume;

a minimum number of paths per external controller;

an array identifier;

or

a disk drive characteristic.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the availability data comprises at least one of:

a disk drive characteristic;

or a disk controller characteristic.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising using the performance data and the availability data as keys in a sorting routine implemented in the reporting interface.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the performance data comprises at least one of results from a performance test in which a predetermined number of blocks are written to and read from a logical device in a predetermined time period.

9. A storage controller, comprising:

a first I/O port that provides an interface to a host computer;

a second I/O port that provides an interface a storage device; and

means for collecting performance data and availability data for a plurality of logical devices (LDEVS) managed by the storage controller before assigning a logical unit number to a logical device, wherein the availability data is based, at least in part, on a number of communication paths to each of the plurality of logical devices.

10. The storage controller of claim 9, further comprising means for presenting the performance data and availability data to a reporting interface.

11. The storage controller of claim 9, further comprising means for using the performance data and the availability data to select a LDEV to provision as a host viewable LU.

12. The storage controller of claim 9, wherein the performance data comprises at least one of results from an online transaction performance (OLTP) test or results from a data warehouse workload test.

13. The storage controller of claim 9, wherein the availability data comprises at least one of:

a minimum number of physical paths to an external storage volume;

a minimum number of paths per external controller;

an array identifier;

or

a disk drive characteristic.

14. The storage controller of claim 9, wherein the availability data comprises at least one of:

a disk drive characteristic;

or

a disk controller characteristic.

15. The storage controller of claim 9, wherein the performance data comprises at least one of results from a performance test in which a predetermined number of blocks are written to and read from a logical device in a predetermined time period.

16. A storage controller, comprising:

a first I/O port that provides an interface to a host computer;

a second I/O port that provides an interface a storage device;

a processor that receives I/O requests generated by the host computer and, in response to the I/O requests, generates and transmits I/O requests to the storage device; and

a memory module communicatively connected to the processor and comprising logic instructions which, when executed by the processor, configure the processor to;

collect performance data and availability data for a plurality of logical devices (LDEVS) managed by the storage controller; and

present the performance data and availability data to a reporting interface, wherein the availability data is based, at least in part, on a number of communication paths to each of the plurality of logical devices.

17. The storage controller of claim 16, further comprising using the performance data and the availability data to select a LDEV to provision as a host viewable LU.

18. The storage controller of claim 16, wherein performance data and availability data are collected on a periodic basis.

19. The storage controller of claim 16, wherein the performance data comprises at least one of results from an online transaction performance (OLTP) test or results from a data warehouse workload test.

20. The storage controller of claim 16, wherein the availability data comprises at least one of:

a minimum number of physical paths to an external storage volume;

a minimum number of paths per external controller;

an array identifier;

or

a disk drive characteristic.

21. The storage controller of claim 16, wherein the availability data comprises at least one of:

a disk drive characteristic;

or

a disk controller characteristic.

22. The storage controller of claim 16, further comprising logic instructions which, when executed by the processor, configure the processor to use the performance data and the availability data as keys in a sorting routine implemented in the reporting interface.

23. The storage controller of claim 16, wherein the performance data comprises at least one of results from a performance test in which a predetermined number of blocks are written to and read from a logical device in a predetermined time period.

24. A computer program product comprising logic instructions stored on a computer-readable medium which, when executed by a processor, configure the processor to:

collect performance data and availability data for a plurality of logical devices (LDEVS) managed by a storage controller before assigning a logical unit number to a logical device, wherein the availability data is based, at least in part, on a number of communication paths to each of the plurality of logical devices; and

use the performance data and availability data to allocate a resources to provision a logical unit.

25. The computer program product of claim 24, further comprising using the performance data and the availability data to select a LDEV to provision as a host viewable LU.

26. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein performance data and availability data are collected on a periodic basis.

27. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein the performance data comprises at least one of results from an online transaction performance (OLTP) test or results from a data warehouse workload test.

28. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein the availability data comprises at least one of:

a minimum number of physical paths to an external storage volume;

a minimum number of paths per external controller;

an array identifier;

or

a disk drive characteristic.

29. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein the availability data comprises at least one of:

a disk drive characteristic;

or a disk controller characteristic.

30. The computer program product of claim 24, further comprising logic instructions which, when executed by the processor, configure the processor to use the performance data and the availability data as keys in a sorting routine implemented in the reporting interface.

31. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein the performance data comprises at least one of results from a performance test in which a predetermined number of blocks are written to and read from a logical device in a predetermined time period.