Data replication among storage systems
First Claim
1. A storage system, outside of a host computer, coupled to another storage system, the storage system comprising:
- a plurality of disk drives;
a plurality of first replication volumes, provided from areas of said plurality of drives, allocated to a first group, and storing a plurality of replicated data, corresponding to a plurality of data to be stored in a plurality of first volumes of the another storage system, wherein a consistency of the plurality of replicated data of the plurality of first replication volumes is maintained;
a first journal volume provided from areas of said plurality of drives and storing a plurality of journal data, received from the another storage system and related to the first group, the plurality of journal data stored in the first journal volume used to update a plurality of replicated data to be stored in at least one of the plurality of first replication volumes;
a plurality of second replication volumes, provided from areas of said plurality of drives, allocated to a second group, and storing replicated data, corresponding to data to be stored in a plurality of second volumes of the another storage system, wherein a consistency of the plurality of replicated data of the plurality of second replication volumes is maintained; and
a second journal volume provided from areas of said plurality of drives and storing a plurality of journal data, received from the another storage system and related to the second group, the plurality of journal data stored in the second journal volume used to update a plurality of replicated data to be stored in at least one of the plurality of second replication volumes,wherein an oldest journal data stored in the first journal volume is read from the first journal volume,wherein a replicated data corresponding to the oldest journal data stored in the first journal volume is written to one of the plurality of first replication volumes,wherein an oldest journal data stored in the second journal volume is read from the second journal volume, andwherein a replicated data corresponding to the oldest journal data stored in the second journal volume is written to one of the plurality of second replication volumes.
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Abstract
A first storage system stores information relating to the updating of data stored in that system as a journal. More specifically, the journal is composed of a copy of data that was used for updating and update information such as a write command used during updating. Furthermore, the second storage system acquires the journal via a communication line between the first storage system and the second storage system. The second storage system holds a duplicate of the data held by the first storage system and updates the data corresponding to the data of the first storage system in the data update order of the first storage system by using the journal.
166 Citations
49 Claims
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1. A storage system, outside of a host computer, coupled to another storage system, the storage system comprising:
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a plurality of disk drives; a plurality of first replication volumes, provided from areas of said plurality of drives, allocated to a first group, and storing a plurality of replicated data, corresponding to a plurality of data to be stored in a plurality of first volumes of the another storage system, wherein a consistency of the plurality of replicated data of the plurality of first replication volumes is maintained; a first journal volume provided from areas of said plurality of drives and storing a plurality of journal data, received from the another storage system and related to the first group, the plurality of journal data stored in the first journal volume used to update a plurality of replicated data to be stored in at least one of the plurality of first replication volumes; a plurality of second replication volumes, provided from areas of said plurality of drives, allocated to a second group, and storing replicated data, corresponding to data to be stored in a plurality of second volumes of the another storage system, wherein a consistency of the plurality of replicated data of the plurality of second replication volumes is maintained; and a second journal volume provided from areas of said plurality of drives and storing a plurality of journal data, received from the another storage system and related to the second group, the plurality of journal data stored in the second journal volume used to update a plurality of replicated data to be stored in at least one of the plurality of second replication volumes, wherein an oldest journal data stored in the first journal volume is read from the first journal volume, wherein a replicated data corresponding to the oldest journal data stored in the first journal volume is written to one of the plurality of first replication volumes, wherein an oldest journal data stored in the second journal volume is read from the second journal volume, and wherein a replicated data corresponding to the oldest journal data stored in the second journal volume is written to one of the plurality of second replication volumes. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A storage system coupled to another storage system coupled to a host computer, the storage system comprising:
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a plurality of disk drives; a plurality of first replication volumes, provided from areas of said plurality of drives, assigned to a first group in which a data consistency is maintained across the plurality of first replication volumes, for storing a plurality of replicated data, corresponding to a plurality of data stored in a plurality of first volumes of the another storage system; a first journal volume provided from areas of said plurality of drives and storing a plurality of first journal data, received from the another storage system and related to the first group, the plurality of first journal data used to update a plurality of replicated data to be stored in at least one of the plurality of first replication volumes; a plurality of second replication volumes, provided from areas of said plurality of drives, assigned to a second group in which a data consistency is maintained across the plurality of second replication volumes, for storing replicated data, corresponding to data stored in a plurality of second volumes of the another storage system; and a second journal volume provided from areas of said plurality of drives and storing a plurality of second journal data, received from the another storage system and related to the second group, the plurality of second journal data used to update a plurality of replicated data to be stored in at least one of the plurality of second replication volumes, wherein an oldest journal data stored in the first journal volume is read from the first journal volume, wherein a replicated data corresponding to the oldest journal data stored in the first journal volume is written to one of the plurality of first replication volumes, wherein an oldest journal data stored in the second journal volume is read from the second journal volume, and wherein a replicated data corresponding to the oldest journal data stored in the second journal volume is written to one of the plurality of second replication volumes. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A storage system coupled to another storage system coupled to a host computer, the storage system comprising:
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a plurality of disk drives; a first journal volume provided from areas of said plurality of drives and storing a plurality of journal data received from the another storage system; a plurality of first replication volumes provided from areas of said plurality of drives and storing a plurality of replicated data, corresponding to the plurality of journal data stored in the first journal volume and corresponding to a plurality of data stored in a plurality of first volumes of the another storage system, and the plurality of first replication volumes allocated to a first group in which a consistency of the plurality of replicated data of the plurality of first replication volumes is maintained; a second journal volume provided from areas of said plurality of drives and storing a plurality of journal data received from the another storage system; and a plurality of second replication volumes provided from areas of said plurality of drives and storing a plurality of replicated data, corresponding to the plurality of journal data stored in the second journal volume and corresponding to a plurality of data stored in a plurality of second volumes of the another storage system, and the plurality of second replication volumes allocated to a second group in which a consistency of the plurality of replicated data of the plurality of second replication volumes is maintained, wherein an oldest journal data stored in the first journal volume is read from the first journal volume, wherein a replicated data corresponding to the oldest journal data stored in the first journal volume is written to one of the plurality of first replication volumes, wherein an oldest journal data stored in the second journal volume is read from the second journal volume, and wherein a replicated data corresponding to the oldest journal data stored in the second journal volume is written to one of the plurality of second replication volumes. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. Controller used in a storage system, the controller comprising:
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a memory; at least one first port coupled to another storage system coupled to a host computer; and at least one second port coupled to a plurality of first replication volumes, a first journal volume, a plurality of second replication volumes and a second journal volume, each of which is provided from areas of a plurality of disk drives, wherein the plurality of first replication volumes are allocated to a first group and store a plurality of replicated data, corresponding to a plurality of data to be stored in a plurality of first volumes of the another storage system, wherein a consistency of the plurality of replicated data of the plurality of first replication volumes is maintained, wherein the first journal volume store a plurality of journal data, received from the another storage system and related to the first group, the plurality of journal data stored in the first journal volume used to update a plurality of replicated data to be stored in at least one of the plurality of first replication volumes, wherein the plurality of second replication volumes are allocated to a second group and store replicated data, corresponding to data to be stored in a plurality of second volumes of the another storage system, wherein a consistency of the plurality of replicated data of the plurality of second replication volumes is maintained, wherein the second journal volume store a plurality of journal data, received from the another storage system and related to the second group, the plurality of journal data stored in the second journal volume used to update a plurality of replicated data to be stored in at least one of the plurality of second replication volumes, wherein an oldest journal data stored in the first journal volume is read from the first journal volume, wherein a replicated data corresponding to the oldest journal data stored in the first journal volume is written to one of the plurality of first replication volumes, wherein an oldest journal data stored in the second journal volume is read from the second journal volume, and wherein a replicated data corresponding to the oldest journal data stored in the second journal volume is written to one of the plurality of second replication volumes. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. A controller used in a storage system, the controller comprising:
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a memory; at least one first port coupled to another storage system coupled to a host computer; and at least one second port coupled to a plurality of first replication volumes, a first journal volume, a plurality of second replication volumes and a second journal volume, each of which is provided from areas of a plurality of disk drives, wherein the plurality of first replication volumes are assigned to a first group in which a data consistency is maintained across the plurality of first replication volumes, and are used for storing a plurality of replicated data, corresponding to a plurality of data stored in a plurality of first volumes of the another storage system, wherein the first journal volume is used for storing a plurality of first journal data, received from the another storage system and related to the first group, the plurality of first journal data used to update a plurality of replicated data to be stored in at least one of the plurality of first replication volumes, wherein the plurality of second replication volumes are assigned to a second group in which a data consistency is maintained across the plurality of second replication volumes, and are used for storing replicated data, corresponding to data stored in a plurality of second volumes of the another storage system, wherein the second journal volume is used for storing a plurality of second journal data, received from the another storage system and related to the second group, the plurality of second journal data used to update a plurality of replicated data to be stored in at least one of the plurality of second replication volumes, wherein an oldest journal data stored in the first journal volume is read from the first journal volume, wherein a replicated data corresponding to the oldest journal data stored in the first journal volume is written to one of the plurality of first replication volumes, wherein an oldest journal data stored in the second journal volume is read from the second journal volume, and wherein a replicated data corresponding to the oldest journal data stored in the second journal volume is written to one of the plurality of second replication volumes. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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36. A controller used in a storage system and coupled to another storage system coupled to a host computer, the controller comprising:
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a computer program stored on a computer readable storage medium and implemented in the controller, said computer program comprising; code controlling to transfer at least one journal data, received from the another storage system, to a first journal volume provided from areas of a plurality of disk drives; code controlling to read the at least one journal data, transferred to the first journal volume, from the first journal volume; code controlling to transfer at least one replicated data, corresponding to the at least one journal data read from the first journal volume and corresponding to at least one data stored in at least one of a plurality of first volumes of the another storage system, to at least one of a plurality of first replication volumes, the plurality of first replication volumes provided from areas of said plurality of drives and allocated to a first group in which a consistency of a plurality of replicated data of the plurality of first replication volumes is maintained; code controlling to transfer at least one journal data, received from the another storage system, to a second journal volume provided from areas of said plurality of drives; code controlling to read the at least one journal data, transferred to the second journal volume, from the second journal volume; and code controlling to transfer at least one replicated data, corresponding to the at least one journal data read from the second journal volume and corresponding to at least one data stored in at least one of a plurality of second volumes of the another storage system, to at least one of a plurality of second replication volumes, the plurality of second replication volumes provided from areas of said plurality of drives and allocated to a second group in which a consistency of a plurality of replicated data of the plurality of second replication volumes is maintained, wherein an oldest journal data stored in the first journal volume is read from the first journal volume, wherein a replicated data corresponding to the oldest journal data stored in the first journal volume is written to one of the plurality of first replication volumes, wherein an oldest journal data stored in the second journal volume is read from the second journal volume, and wherein a replicated data corresponding to the oldest journal data stored in the second journal volume is written to one of the plurality of second replication volumes. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
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43. A computer program stored on a computer readable storage medium and implemented in a controller, the controller used in a storage system and coupled to another storage system coupled to a host computer, the computer program comprising:
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code controlling to transfer at least one journal data, received from the another storage system, to a first journal volume provided from areas of a plurality of disk drives; code controlling to read the at least one journal data, transferred to the first journal volume, from the first journal volume; code controlling to transfer at least one replicated data, corresponding to the at least one journal data read from the first journal volume and corresponding to at least one data stored in at least one of a plurality of first volumes of the another storage system, to at least one of a plurality of first replication volumes, the plurality of first replication volumes provided from areas of said plurality of drives and allocated to a first group in which a consistency of a plurality of replicated data of the plurality of first replication volumes is maintained; code controlling to transfer at least one journal data, received from the another storage system, to a second journal volume provided from areas of said plurality of drives; code controlling to read the at least one journal data, transferred to the second journal volume, from the second journal volume; and code controlling to transfer at least one replicated data, corresponding to the at least one journal data read from the second journal volume and corresponding to at least one data stored in at least one of a plurality of second volumes of the another storage system, to at least one of a plurality of second replication volumes, the plurality of second replication volumes provided from areas of said plurality of drives and allocated to a second group in which a consistency of a plurality of replicated data of the plurality of second replication volumes is maintained, wherein an oldest journal data stored in the first journal volume is read from the first journal volume, wherein a replicated data corresponding to the oldest journal data stored in the first journal volume is written to one of the plurality of first replication volumes, wherein an oldest journal data stored in the second journal volume is read from the second journal volume, and wherein a replicated data corresponding to the oldest journal data stored in the second journal volume is written to one of the plurality of second replication volumes. - View Dependent Claims (44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49)
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Specification