Quick deployment method

• US 7,958,503 B2
• Filed: 12/03/2009
• Issued: 06/07/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Tameshige, Takashi, Takamoto, Yoshifumi
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen; Wei Y
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wu; Junchun
• Application Number:
  US12/630,047
• Publication Number:
  US 20100077389A1
• Time in Patent Office: 551 Days
• Field of Search: 717/168
• US Class Current: 717/168
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/63 Image based installation; Cloning; Build to order

Abstract

Provided is a deployment method for a server system that includes a storage system having logical disks where disk images are stored and plural servers connected to the storage system via a storage network, the method including the step of causing a deploy management module to copy the logical disks which store the disk images to a free area of the storage system before a deployment command is received. According to this invention, disk images are quickly deployed to servers.

Claims

1. A deployment method for a server system that comprises a storage system having storage areas where disk images containing operating systems are stored and plural servers connected to the storage system via a storage network, the method comprising the steps of:

causing a deploy management module, having a storage area management table to manage capacity and priority of copies of the storage area which store the disk image, to copy each disk image stored in at least one of a plurality of storage areas to a free area of the storage system before a deployment command, which requests deployment, is received;

causing the deploy management module to receive the deployment command;

causing the deploy management module to consult, upon reception of the deployment command, the storage area management table in order to judge whether or not the copies of the storage area that store disk images to be deployed by the command are in a free area of the storage system;

causing the deploy management module to copy the disk image to be deployed by the command to the area of the storage system when the copies of the disk image are not in the free area of the storage system;

causing the deploy management module to consult, when there is a shortage of the free area of the storage system, the storage area management table in order to select a disk image copy of low priority; and

causing the deploy management module to delete the selected disk image copy.

2. The deployment method of claim 1, wherein a number of copies of the disk image is determined based on usage amount of the server.

3. The deployment method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

causing the deploy management module to receive the deployment command;

causing the deploy management module to set, upon reception of the deployment command, paths between the servers in which disk images are to be deployed by the command and copies of the storage areas that store the disk images; and

causing the deploy management module to set server-specific information to the copies of the logical disks.

4. The deployment method according to claim 1, wherein the deploy management module has a license management table to manage licenses of contents contained in the disk images, and

wherein the method further comprises the steps of:

causing the deploy management module to consult, prior to the step of copying the storage areas which store the disk images, the license management table in order to judge whether or not there are unused licenses of contents contained in the disk images;

causing the deploy management module to notify a shortage of license when there are no unused licenses; and

causing the deploy management module to copy the storage areas that store the disk images to the free area of the storage system when there are unused licenses.

5. The deployment method according to claim 1, wherein the deploy management module has a policy table which shows timing of executing the step of copying the storage areas which store the disk images, and

wherein the method further comprises the step of:

causing the deploy management module to consult the policy table in order to judge whether or not the storage areas should be copied to the free area of the storage system.

6. The deployment method according to claim 5, wherein the method further comprises the steps of:

causing the deploy management module to obtain information on the servers; and

causing the deploy management module to change the policy table in accordance with the obtained information on the servers.

7. The deployment method according to claim 1, wherein the deploy management module has a patch management table to manage patches related to the disk images, and

wherein the method further comprises the steps of:

causing the deploy management module to retrieve from the patch management table the disk images that have no patches applied; and

causing the deploy management module to apply patches to the logical disks that store the retrieved disk images.

10. The deployment method according to claim 1, wherein the number of the copies of the storage areas corresponding to each disk image is capable to change by computing resource operation rate.

11. The deployment method according to claim 1, wherein the number of the copies of the storage areas corresponding to each disk image is capable to change by service application type.

8. A server system comprising:

a storage system having a storage area where disk images containing operating systems are stored;

a plurality of servers connected to the storage system via a storage area network; and

a deploy management module to deploy the disk images in the servers,

wherein the deploy management module comprises;

a communication module which receives a deployment command, and

a storage area management module, having a storage area management table to manage capacity and priority of copies of the storage areas which store disk images, which copies the storage areas so that a copy of each disk image is stored in at least one of a plurality of storage areas to a free area of the storage system before a deployment command, which requests deployment, is received,

wherein the storage area management module consults, upon reception of the deployment command, the storage area management table in order to judge whether or not copies of the storage areas that store disk images to be deployed by the command are in a free area of the storage system, and the storage area management module copies the storage area that store the disk images to be deployed by the command to the free area of the storage system when copies of the storage area are not in the free area of the storage system,

wherein the storage area management module consults, when there is a shortage of the free area of the storage system, the storage area management table in order to select a storage area copy of low priority, and the storage area management module deletes the selected storage area copy.

9. The server system according to claim 8, wherein the deploy management module sets, upon reception of the deployment command, paths between the servers in which disk images are to be deployed by the command and copies of the storage areas that store the disk images, and

wherein the deploy management module further sets server-specific information to the copies of the storage areas.

12. The server system according to claim 8, wherein the number of the copies of storage areas corresponding to each disk image is capable to change by computing resource operation rate.

13. The server system according to claim 8, wherein the number of the copies of storage areas corresponding to each disk image is capable to change by service application type.