Storage apparatus and load distribution method

• US 8,863,145 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2012
• Issued: 10/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Watanabe, Koji, Sugimoto, Sadahiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Puente, Emerson
• Assistant Examiner(s): PATEL, HIREN P
• Application Number:
  US13/421,347
• Publication Number:
  US 20120174118A1
• Time in Patent Office: 943 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 718/105
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5022 Workload threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/505 considering the load

Abstract

A storage apparatus having plural control processors that interpret and process requests sent from a host computer includes a distribution judgment unit for judging, after a control processor receives a request sent from the host computer, whether or not to allocate processing relevant to the request from the control processor that received the request to another control processor, and a control processor selection unit for selecting an allocation target control processor if the distribution judgment unit judges to allocate the processing to another control processor.

Claims

1. A storage system comprising:

a plurality of disk devices configured to store data; and

a controller including a plurality of channel adapters, each of the plurality of channel adapters comprising one or more interfaces for receiving a request from a host computer and a plurality of processors for processing the request from the host computer, each of the plurality of processors of the plurality channel adapters configured to;

process a processing relevant to the request;

distribute the processing to another processor of the plurality of processors of the plurality channel adapters;

determine whether or not to distribute the processing in accordance with a ratio between a number of the processing processed by an own processor and a number of the processing that is distributed by the own processor to said another processor and processed by said another processor;

receive a notification that the processing is finished from said another processor if the process is distributed to said another processor; and

notify the host computer that the processing is finished,

wherein the each of the plurality of processors of the plurality channel adapters is further configured to;

manage an average response time of the own processor and an average response time of other processors of the plurality of processors;

determine the ratio according to whether or not a current entire average response time of the own processor and the other processors is shorter than a previous entire average response time;

when the current entire average response time is shorter than the previous entire average response time, increase a number of distributing the processing to the other processors of the plurality of processors;

when the current entire average response time is longer than the previous entire average response time, reduce the number of distributing the processing to the other processors of the plurality of processors, and

wherein an entire average response time is calculated based on a regular write average external response time, a remote copy write average external response time, and an average external response time of the other processors.

2. The storage system according to claim 1, wherein the ratio is increased by a predetermined ratio of the number of the distribution.

3. The storage system according to claim 1, wherein the ratio is reduced by a predetermined ratio of the number of the distribution.

4. A load distribution method for a storage system, wherein the storage system includes a plurality of disk devices configured to store data and a controller, wherein the controller includes a plurality of channel adapters, each of the plurality of channel adapters comprising one or more interfaces for receiving a request from a host computer and a plurality of processors for processing the request from the host computer, the method comprising:

processing, by a processor of the plurality of the processors of the plurality of channel adapters, a processing relevant to the request;

distributing, by the processor, the processing to another processor of the plurality of processors of the plurality of channel adapters;

determining, by the processor, whether or not to distribute the processing in accordance with a ratio between a number of the processing processed by an own processor and a number of the processing that is distributed by the own processor and processed by said another processor;

managing, by the processor, an average response time of the processor and an average response time of other processors of the plurality of processors of the plurality of channel adapters;

determining, by the processor, the ratio according to whether or not a current entire average response time of the processor and the other processors of the plurality of channel adapters is shorter than a previous entire average response time;

increasing a number of distributing the processing to the other processors of the plurality of processors when the current entire average response time is shorter than the previous entire average response time;

reducing the number of distributing the processing to the other processors of the plurality of processors when the current entire average response time is longer than the previous entire average response time;

receiving, by the processor, a notification that the processing is finished from said another processor if the processing is distributed to said another processor;

notifying, by the processor, the host computer that the processing is finished, and

wherein an entire average response time is calculated based on a regular write average external response time, a remote copy write average external response time, and an average external response time of the other processors.

5. The load distribution method according to claim 4, wherein the ratio is increased by a predetermined ratio of the number of the distribution.

6. The load distribution method according to claim 4, wherein the ratio is reduced by a predetermined ratio of the number of the distribution.