Information system and information storage method of information system

• US 7,725,631 B2
• Filed: 01/09/2008
• Issued: 05/25/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Yamamoto, Akira, Ogawa, Yukio, Kimura, Shinji, Ogawa, Junji
• Primary Examiner(s): Tsai; Henry W. H.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Oberly; Eric T
• Application Number:
  US11/971,527
• Publication Number:
  US 20080307120A1
• Time in Patent Office: 867 Days
• Field of Search: 710/74, 711161-162
• US Class Current: 710/74
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1461 Backup scheduling policy
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1466 to make the backup process non-disruptive

Abstract

Provided is an information system for preserving data of a storage device in a computer that repeats the connection to and disconnection from a communication network. The computer acquires data to be written into the storage device and manages the update status of the storage device, transfers the data written into the storage device to the storage controller independent from the writing of data into the storage device when the computer is in a communicable state with the storage controller, and discontinues the transfer of data written into the storage device to the storage controller and manages the transfer status when the computer is not in a communicable state with the storage controller.

Claims

1. An information system comprising:

a computer comprising a first storage device having one or more logical volumes, an application program, a volume management table, a block area management table, a write data management table, an I/O capture function, and a remote copy function; and

a storage controller comprising a second storage device having one or more logical volumes,

wherein the storage controller is connected to the computer via a network,

wherein a logical volume in the first storage device and a logical volume in the second storage device form a pair in which the logical volume in the first storage device being a primary volume and the logical volume in the second storage device being a secondary volume,

wherein the volume management table comprises fields indicating the type of a logical volume, a status of the pair, a latest copy time representing the time of the latest copy of the logical volume, and a last copy block ID representing the identifier of a last block area to which the latest copy has been performed, blocks being units obtained by partitioning a logical volume,

wherein the status of the pair comprises a PAIR status, a SUSPEND status and a SIMPLEX status,

wherein the PAIR status indicates where the content of the primary volume is reflected in the secondary volume, the SUSPEND status indicates where a copy source manages a difference between the primary volume and the secondary volume, and the SIMPLEX status indicates where the logical volume is not taking part in the remote copy,

wherein the block area management table comprises fields indicating a block ID representing an identifier of a block area in the secondary volume, bit information representing, with a bit, whether there is a difference between the secondary volume and the primary volume, a block update time representing the update time based on the writing to the block area, and a write data management information address representing the storage position of the entry in the write data management table associated with the block area,

wherein the write data management table comprises fields indicating the block ID, the write data management information address, a top address representing the top position of a small block area which is obtained by partitioning the block, and an area length representing the size of the small block area,

wherein when the application program writes data into the first storage device, the I/O capture function captures the writing of the data by filtering the data on the path from the application program to the first storage device,

wherein when triggered by the I/O capture function capturing the writing of the data, the remote copy function updates the block area management table, updates the write data management table, and executes a first determination whether a communication can be made with the storage controller,

wherein when it is determined in the first determination that a communication cannot be made, the remote copy function updates the latest copy time and the copy block ID in the volume management table, changes the status of the pair in the volume management table to SUSPEND, and performs the data writing in block units until a communication can be made with the storage controller,

wherein when it is determined in the first determination that a communication can be made, the remote copy function performs the data, writing in small block units, refers, independently of the data writing, to the volume management table, the block area management table, and the write data management table to perform remote copy to the second storage device in small block units, and

wherein each time the remote copy in small block units is executed, the remote copy function updates the block area management table and the write data management table, executes a second determination whether a communication can be made with the storage controller and, when it is determined in the second determination that a communication cannot be made with the storage controller, executes the processing that is performed when it is determined in the first determination that a communication cannot be made.

2. The information system according to claim 1, wherein the processing by the remote copy function triggered by the I/O capture function capturing the writing of data is executed each time the I/O capture function captures the writing of data or each time it captures a fixed count.

3. The information system according to claim 1, wherein the remote copy function executes the remote copy processing at predetermined intervals, instead of when triggered by the I/O capture function capturing the writing of data.

4. The information system according to claim 1,

wherein the remote copy function executes the remote copy processing when a computational resources usage per predetermined unit time falls below a predetermined value, instead of when triggered by the I/O capture function capturing the writing of data, and

wherein the computational resources usage refers to:

the usage, number of sleds of processor queues, or number of hardware interruptions in a CPU in the computer;

available physical memory size or number of file system caches used in a memory in the computer, unused areas, access time, read/write operation count and number of read/write requests in the queue in the first storage device; and

band usage, number of sent and received bytes and number of sent and received packets in a communication interface in the computer.

5. The information system according to claim 4, wherein the predetermined value is, instead of the computational resource usage per predetermined unit time, a value obtained by smoothing a time fluctuation of the computational resource usage by taking the moving average in the time direction.

6. The information system according to claim 1,

wherein, the remote copy function executes the remote copy processing when a temporal integration value of a computational resource usage per predetermined unit time reaches a predetermined value, instead of when triggered by the I/O capture function capturing the writing of data, and

wherein the computational resources usage refers to:

the usage, number of sleds of processor queues, or number of hardware interruptions in a CPU in the computer;

available physical memory size or number of file system caches used in a memory in the computer, unused areas, access time, read/write operation count and number of read/write requests in the queue in the first storage device; and

band usage, number of sent and received bytes and number of sent and received packets in a communication interface in the computer.

7. The information system according to claim 1,

wherein the remote copy function executes the remote copy processing when a user workload per predetermined unit time falls below a predetermined value, instead of when triggered by the I/O capture function capturing the writing of data, and

wherein the user workload refers to an input count using a keyboard or a mouse in the computer.

8. The information system according to claim 7,

wherein, the predetermined value is, instead of the user workload per predetermined unit time, a value obtained by smoothing a time fluctuation of the user workload by taking the moving average in the time direction.

9. The information system according to claim 1,

wherein, the remote copy function executes the remote copy processing when a temporal integration value of the user workload per predetermined unit time reaches a predetermined value, instead of when triggered by the I/O capture function capturing the writing of data, and

wherein the user workload refers to an input count using a keyboard or a mouse in the computer.

10. The information system according to claim 9 wherein, the first determination and the second determination are made by determining whether a delay time or available band in the communication between the computer and the storage controller exceeds a predetermined value.