Control apparatus and control method

• US 8,862,808 B2
• Filed: 02/22/2012
• Issued: 10/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Tsukamoto, Nina, Hanaoka, Yuji, Haneda, Terumasa, Uchida, Atsushi, Kawano, Yoko
• Primary Examiner(s): Rones, Charles
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chang, Tian-Pong
• Application Number:
  US13/402,274
• Publication Number:
  US 20120254636A1
• Time in Patent Office: 965 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 711/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/30 Means for acting in the event of power-supply failure or interruption, e.g. power-supply fluctuations for resetting only G06F1/24
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1441 Resetting or repowering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0868 Data transfer between cache memory and other subsystems, e.g. storage devices or host systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/1032 Reliability improvement, data loss prevention, degraded operation etc
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/262 configured as RAID
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A control apparatus includes a capacitor to store electric power supplied from the power supply unit and to supply the stored electric power to the control apparatus when the power supply from the power supply unit is stopped, a first nonvolatile memory, a second nonvolatile memory, a first controller, and a second controller. The first controller writes the data, stored in the cache memory, into the first nonvolatile memory when the external power supply is stopped verifies whether the data stored in the first nonvolatile memory is normal, and sends information of area where the data in the first nonvolatile memory is not normal when the verification indicates that the writing is not normal. And the second controller writes the information sent from the first controller into the second nonvolatile memory.

Claims

1. A control apparatus that saves data which is stored in a cache memory of a storage when a power supply from a power supply unit to the storage is stopped, the control apparatus comprising:

a capacitor to store electric power supplied from the power supply unit and to supply the stored electric power to the control apparatus when the power supply from the power supply unit is stopped;

a first nonvolatile memory;

a second nonvolatile memory;

a first controller; and

a second controller coupled to the first controller,

the first controller to;

write the data, stored in the cache memory, into the first nonvolatile memory when the external power supply is stopped,

verify whether the data stored in the first nonvolatile memory is normal, and

send, to the second controller, log information for an address of the first nonvolatile memory in which writing of the data fails when the verification indicates that the writing to the address of the first nonvolatile memory is failure, and

the second controller to write the log information for the address of the first nonvolatile memory sent from the first controller into the second nonvolatile memory.

2. The control apparatus, according to claim 1, wherein the log information includes an elapsed time from detection of the stoppage of the power supply from the power supply unit, for the address of the first nonvolatile memory in which the writing of the data fails.

3. The control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the second controller stops the power supply to the control apparatus when a predetermined amount of time has elapsed after detection of the stoppage of the power supply from the power supply unit.

4. The control apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a management memory,

wherein the first controller

generates a management table that identifies the address of the first nonvolatile memory in which writing of the data fails when the verification indicates that the writing is failure,

stores the generated management table into the management memory, and

sends, to the second controller, the generated management table,

wherein the second controller writes the generated management table received from the first controller into the second nonvolatile memory.

5. A control method for saving data, by a control apparatus, which is stored in a cache memory of a storage when a power supply from a power supply unit to the storage is stopped, the control apparatus including a first nonvolatile memory, a second nonvolatile memory, a first controller, a second controller, and a capacitor to store electric power supplied from the power supply unit and to supply the stored electric power to the control apparatus when the power supply from the power supply unit is stopped, the control method comprising:

writing, by the first controller, the data stored in the cache memory into the first nonvolatile memory when the external power supply is stopped,

verifying, by the first controller, whether the data stored in the first nonvolatile memory is normal, and

sending to the second controller, by the first controller, log information for an address of the first nonvolatile memory in which writing of the data fails when the verification indicates that the writing to the address of the first nonvolatile memory is failure; and

writing, by the second controller, the sent log information for the address of the first nonvolatile memory into the second nonvolatile memory.

6. The control method according to claim 5, further comprising

stopping, by the second controller, the power supply to the control apparatus when a predetermined amount of time has elapsed after detection of the stoppage of the external power supply.

7. The control method according to claim 5, further comprising

generating, by the first controller, a management table that identifies the address of the first nonvolatile memory in which writing of the data fails when the verification indicates that the writing is failure;

and

storing, by the first controller, the generated management table into management memory,

wherein the sending sends to the second controller the generated management table,

wherein the second controller writes the generated management table received from the first controller into the second nonvolatile memory.