Device for performance tuning in a system

• US 7,809,906 B2
• Filed: 05/28/2004
• Issued: 10/05/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Satoyama, Ai, Yamamoto, Yasutomo, Eguchi, Yoshiaki, Shimada, Akinobu
• Primary Examiner(s): Chace; Christian P
• Assistant Examiner(s): BRADLEY, MATTHEW A
• Application Number:
  US10/855,356
• Publication Number:
  US 20050193167A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,321 Days
• Field of Search: 711/162
• US Class Current: 711/162
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3485 for I/O devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2206/1012 Load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0635 by changing the path, e.g. traffic rerouting, path reconfiguration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0647 Migration mechanisms
• 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]

Abstract

In a storage subsystem, performance tuning is performed with respect to whole logical devices including external storage subsystems that are not directly connected to host computers.

Physical storage units presented by the external storage subsystems are defined as logical devices of the storage subsystem itself, and I/O processing requests from the host computers are relayed to those logical devices. At the time of relaying, I/O processing conditions are monitored. When there exists an external storage subsystem whose load is high, then, operating conditions of ports and processors are examined. In the case where the load can be reduced by changing the configuration of those ports and processors, the configuration is changed to reduce the load. In the case where the load can not be reduced, data is migrated from a logical device having a high load to a logical device having a sufficient performance.

Claims

1. A storage control device coupled to a computer and a first storage system, the first storage system including a plurality of storage units, one of which is assigned to a logical unit in the storage control device, the storage control device comprising:

a first port coupled to the computer;

a second port coupled to the first storage system; and

a control unit, coupled to the first port and the second port, which provides the logical unit, converts a first access request for the logical unit received by the first port into a second access request for a first storage unit of the plurality of storage units based on a relationship information including a first relation between the logical unit and the first storage unit, sends the second access request to the first storage system via the second port, and calculates performance of the second access request in the storage control device,

wherein the first storage unit of the plurality of storage units is selected by the storage control device based on the relationship information and wherein it is determined whether a conflict over the second port or the control unit exists, whereby the storage control device determines performance of the logical unit in the storage control device.

2. The storage control device according to claim 1,

wherein the performance of the second access request sent from the second port includes information of response time of the second access request between the second port in the storage control device and the first storage system.

3. The storage control device according to claim 2,

wherein the control unit issues a request to the first storage system via the second port so that the storage control device gets configuration information of the first storage unit in the first storage system.

4. The storage control device according to claim 3, further comprising a third port which is coupled to a second storage system,

wherein the storage control device receives data stored into the first storage unit from the first storage system via the second port, and sends the data to a second storage unit in the second storage system via the third port if the response time of the second access request is greater than a threshold,

wherein, if the response time is greater than the threshold, the control unit modifies the relationship information to change the first relation into a second relation between the logical unit and the second storage unit whereby the storage control device assigns the logical unit to the second storage unit in the second storage system instead of the first storage unit in the first storage system, the control unit converts the first access request to a third access request to the second storage unit in the second storage system based on the second relation in the relationship information and sends the third access request to the second storage system via the third port.

5. The storage control device according to claim 4,

wherein the control unit creates a first I/O request that is unrelated to any access request from the computer to the first storage system, sends the first I/O request to the first storage unit in the first storage system via the second port, and calculates performance of the first I/O request sent from the second port of the storage control device so that the control unit recognizes the performance of the logical unit through monitoring the performance of the first storage unit in the first storage system.

6. The storage control device according to claim 5,

wherein the control unit creates a second I/O request that is unrelated to any access request from the computer to the second storage system, sends the second I/O request to the second storage unit in the second storage system via the third port, and calculates performance of the second I/O request sent from the third port of the storage control device so that the control unit determines the performance of the second storage unit in the second storage system.

7. The storage control device according to claim 1,

wherein the performance of the second access request sent from the second port includes information of throughput related to the second access request between the second port and the first storage system.

8. The storage control device according to claim 7,

wherein the control unit issues a request from the computer to the first storage system via the second port so that the control unit gets configuration information of the first storage unit of the plurality of storage units in the first storage system.

9. The storage control device according to claim 8, further comprising a third port which is coupled to a second storage system,

wherein the control unit receives data stored into the first storage unit from the first storage system via the second port, and sends the data to a second storage unit in the second storage system via the third port if the throughput related to the second access request is less than a threshold,

wherein, if the throughput is less than the threshold, the control unit modifies the relationship information to change the first relation into a second relation between the logical unit and the second storage unit whereby the storage control device assigns the logical unit to the second storage unit in the second storage system instead of the first storage unit in the first storage system, the control unit converts the first access request to a third access request to the second storage unit in the second storage system based on the second relation in the relationship information, and sends the third access request to the second storage system via the third port.

10. The storage control device according to claim 9,

wherein the control unit creates a first I/O request that is unrelated to any access request from the computer to the first storage system, sends the first I/O request to the first storage unit in the first storage system via the second port, and calculates performance of the first I/O request sent from the second port in the storage control device so that the control unit recognizes the performance of the logical unit through monitoring the performance of the first storage unit in the first storage system.

11. The storage control device according to claim 10,

wherein the control unit creates a second I/O request that is unrelated to any access request from the computer to the second storage system, sends the second I/O request to the second storage unit in the second storage system via the third port, and calculates performance of the second I/O request sent from the third port in the storage control device so that the control unit determines the performance of the second storage unit in the second storage system.

12. The storage control device according to claim 1,

wherein the performance information of the second access request sent from the second port includes information of number of I/O requests of the second access request between the second port and the first storage system.

13. The storage control device according to claim 12, further comprising a third port which is coupled to a second storage system,

wherein the control unit receives data stored into the first storage unit in the first storage system via the second port, and sends the data to a second storage unit in the second storage system via the third port if the number of I/O requests is less than a threshold,

wherein, if the number of I/O requests is less than the threshold, the control unit modifies the relationship information to change the first relation into a second relation between the logical unit and the second storage unit whereby the storage control device assigns the logical unit to the second storage unit in the second storage system instead of the first storage unit in the first storage system, the control unit converts the first access request to a third access request to the second storage unit in the second storage system based on the second relation in the relationship information and sends the third access request to the second storage system via the third port.

14. The storage control device according to claim 13,

wherein the control unit creates a first I/O request that is unrelated to any access request from the computer to the first storage system, sends the first I/O request to the first storage unit in the first storage system via the second port, and calculates performance of the first I/O request sent from the second port of the storage control device so that the control unit recognizes the performance of the logical device through monitoring the performance of the first storage unit in the first storage system.

15. The storage control device according to claim 14,

wherein the control unit creates a second I/O request that is unrelated to any access request from the computer to the second storage system, sends the second I/O request to the second storage unit in the second storage system via the third port, and calculates performance of the second I/O request sent from the third port of the storage control device so that the control unit determines the performance of the second storage unit in the second storage system.

16. The storage control device according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of second ports are provided and wherein the storage control device determines whether to increase or decrease the number of the second ports.