Storage system and method of changing monitoring condition thereof

• US 8,060,478 B2
• Filed: 06/20/2008
• Issued: 11/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Maki, Nobuhiro, Emaru, Hironori
• Primary Examiner(s): LIE, ANGELA M
• Application Number:
  US12/213,524
• Publication Number:
  US 20090271445A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,243 Days
• Field of Search: 714/1, 714/2, 714/3, 714/13, 711/154, 711/162, 707/640, 707/644, 707/648, 707/654
• US Class Current: 707/654
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2069 Management of state, configuration or failover
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2071 using a plurality of controllers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3485 for I/O devices

Abstract

The management burden of a replication administrator is alleviated and the monitoring burden is reduced in a storage system. In a large-scale storage system configured across a plurality of sites, a management computer managing the storage system collects configuration information of a volume group such as the copy pair status information from a host computer of the respective sites including a primary site and a remote site, and analyzes the collected information. When a failure or a disaster occurs and the primary site and the remote site are switched and the management computer detects a change in the configuration of the volume group, and appropriate switches the monitoring configuration upon determining the configuration of the detected change.

Claims

1. A storage system, comprising:

one or more storage apparatuses;

one or more host computers for reading and writing data from and into the one or more storage apparatuses; and

a management computer for managing the one or more host computers;

wherein the one or more storage apparatuses respectively include;

one or more disk devices for storing data; and

a plurality of volumes configured from a storage area provided by the one or more disk devices;

wherein the one or more host computers manage configuration information of a volume group configured from a prescribed number of volumes among the plurality of volumes;

wherein the management computer detects the status of a configuration change of a volume group by using the configuration information of the volume group and, upon detecting a configuration change, changes the configuration of a monitoring condition of the volume group based on the configuration of the monitoring condition according to the pre-set configuration of the volume group;

wherein the configuration of the volume group is a copy pair configuration where one volume among the plurality of volumes is set as a primary volume to be subject to data writing from one of the one or more host computers, and a volume that is not the primary volume is set as a secondary volume to become a copy destination of the data written into the primary volume;

wherein the configuration information includes status information showing the status of the copy pair;

wherein the status information includes information concerning a threshold value for restricting the accumulation of data of a journal volume to be used in temporarily accumulating data upon performing the copy asynchronously; and

wherein the management computer changes the threshold value of the journal volume upon detecting the configuration change.

2. The storage system according to claim 1, wherein, upon changing the status of the copy pair based on a predetermined schedule, the management computer changes the configuration of a monitoring condition of the copy pair based on the copy pair status to be changed and the configuration of the monitoring condition.

3. The storage system according to claim 2, wherein the management computer changes a monitoring condition based on the monitoring condition if the change in the configuration of the detected copy pair is within a pre-set range, and notifies an administrator of the management computer if the change in the configuration of the detected copy pair is not within a pre-set range.

4. The storage system according to claim 1, wherein the primary volume and the secondary volume are provided in one storage apparatus among the one or more storage apparatuses.

5. The storage system according to claim 1, wherein the primary volume and the secondary volume are respectively provided in different storage apparatuses among the one or more storage apparatuses.

6. The storage system according to claim 1, wherein the configuration of the volume group is the configuration of a copy group configured from a prescribed number of volumes among the plurality of volumes.

7. The storage system according to claim 1, further comprising a plurality of sites configured including one or more storage apparatuses among the one or more storage apparatuses and one or more host computers among the one or more host computers;

and wherein the volumes contained in the volume group are respectively provided in one site and another site among the plurality of sites.

8. The storage system according to claim 7, wherein the one site and the other site among the plurality of sites are installed at geographically distant locations.

9. The storage system according to claim 1, wherein the one or more host computers include a plurality of virtual host computers which operate as a virtual host computer in a single physical host computer.

10. A monitoring condition change method of a storage system including one or more storage apparatuses, one or more host computers for reading and writing data from and into the one or more storage apparatuses, and a management computer for managing the one or more host computers,

wherein the one or more storage apparatuses respectively include one or more disk devices for storing data, and a plurality of volumes configured from a storage area provided by the one or more disk devices;

and

wherein the storage system;

manages configuration information of a volume group configured from a prescribed number of volumes among the plurality of volumes;

detects the status of a configuration change of a volume group by using the configuration information of the volume group; and

upon detecting a configuration change, changes the configuration of a monitoring condition of the volume group based on the configuration of the monitoring condition according to the pre-set configuration of the volume group;

wherein the configuration of the volume group is a copy pair configuration where one volume among the plurality of volumes is set as a primary volume to be subject to data writing from one of the one or more host computers, and a volume that is not the primary volume is set as a secondary volume to become a copy destination of the data written into the primary volume;

wherein the configuration information includes status information showing the status of the copy pair;

wherein the status information includes information concerning a threshold value for restricting the accumulation of data of a journal volume to be used in temporarily accumulating data upon performing the copy asynchronously; and

wherein the storage system changes the threshold value of the journal volume according to the detected configuration change upon changing the configuration of the monitoring condition.

11. The management condition changing method of a storage system according to claim 10, wherein, when the setting is configured to change the status of the copy pair based on a predetermined schedule, the storage system changes the configuration of a monitoring condition of the copy pair based on the copy pair status to be changed and the configuration of the monitoring condition when the copy pair status is to be changed based on the schedule.

12. A management computer for managing one or more host computers in a storage system comprising:

one or more storage apparatuses respectively including one or more disk devices for storing data, and a plurality of volumes configured from a storage area provided by the one or more disk devices; and

one or more host computers for reading and writing data from and into the one or more storage apparatuses, and managing configuration information of a volume group configured from a prescribed number of volumes among the plurality of volumes;

wherein the management computer detects the status of a configuration change of a volume group by using the configuration information of the volume group and, upon detecting a configuration change, changes the configuration of a monitoring condition of the volume group based on the configuration of the monitoring condition according to the pre-set configuration of the volume group;

wherein the configuration of the volume group is a copy pair configuration where one volume among the plurality of volumes is set as a primary volume to be subject to data writing from one of the one or more host computers, and a volume that is not the primary volume is set as a secondary volume to become a copy destination of the data written into the primary volume;

wherein the configuration information includes status information showing the status of the copy pair;

wherein the status information includes information concerning a threshold value for restricting the accumulation of data of a journal volume to be used in temporarily accumulating data upon performing the copy asynchronously; and

wherein the management computer changes the threshold value of the journal volume upon detecting the configuration change.

13. The management computer according to claim 12, wherein, when the setting is configured to change the status of the copy pair based on a predetermined schedule, the management computer changes the configuration of a monitoring condition of the copy pair based on the copy pair status to be changed and the configuration of the monitoring condition when the copy pair status is to be changed based on the schedule.