Management system and information acquisition method

• US 9,130,880 B2
• Filed: 07/11/2012
• Issued: 09/08/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Kono, Misako, Maki, Nobuhiro, Okada, Wataru, Shibayama, Tsukasa
• Primary Examiner(s): Gillis, Brian J
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lee, Gil H.
• Application Number:
  US13/805,582
• Publication Number:
  US 20140019620A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,154 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2056 by mirroring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3034 where the computing system component is a storage system, e.g. DASD based or network based digital input from or digital output to record carriers G06F3/06; digital recording or reproducing G11B20/18; for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3055 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction by redundancy in operation G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual middleware or OS functionality using virtual machines to implement generic software techniques for error detection or fault masking G06F11/1484
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/83 based on usage prediction
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

A management system for managing an acquisition of information on multiple resources by multiple information acquisition apparatuses configured to acquire information on the multiple resources based on an information acquisition indication, is configured. The management system stores information for specifying a resource group, which is a group of multiple resources targeted for acquiring information at the same time points. The management system sends to each of multiple information acquisition apparatuses, which acquire information on multiple resources of a certain resource group, an information acquisition indication defining a timing for acquiring information from the resource of the certain resource group so that the information acquired from the multiple resources of the certain resource group are information at approximately the same time points. The information acquisition apparatus receives the information acquisition indication, and is able to acquire information on the resource of the certain resource group based on this information acquisition indication.

Claims

1. A management system, which manages information acquisition for a plurality of resources, comprising:

a plurality of information acquisition apparatuses, each configured to independently acquire information on one or more of the resources;

a storage device; and

a control device coupled to the storage device, and to the information acquisition apparatuses,

wherein the storage device stores information specifying a resource group, which is a group of the resources targeted for acquiring information at approximately the same time points,

wherein the control device is configured to;

send to each of the information acquisition apparatuses, which are configured to acquire information on the resources of the specified resource group, an information acquisition indication which defines a timing for acquiring information from the resources of the specified resource group so that the information from the resources of the specified resource group is acquired at approximately the same time points,

determine whether or not differences between information acquisition time points of the resources of the specified resource group from the information acquisition apparatuses are each within a prescribed acceptable deviation, and

in a case where one or more of the differences are not within the prescribed acceptable deviation, adjust a timing at which the information acquisition indication is sent to the information acquisition apparatuses so as to reduce the difference between the information acquisition time points of the resources of the specified resource group.

2. A management system according to claim 1, wherein in a case where there is a time difference between the information acquisition apparatuses in acquisition preparation times from receipt of the information acquisition indication until the acquisition of information from the resources is actually started, the control device is configured to adjust the timing at which the information acquisition indications are sent to the information acquisition apparatuses so as to cancel a deviation in the time points at which information acquisition from the resources starts resulting from the time difference in the acquisition preparation times.

3. A management system according to claim 1, wherein the control device is configured to measure a time required for acquisition, which is a time required by the information acquisition apparatus to acquire information on the resources of the specified resource group, and in a case where the time required for acquisition is not within the prescribed acceptable deviation, the control device partitions the specified resource group into multiple resource groups.

4. A management system according to claim 1, wherein in a case where the difference between the information acquisition time points of the resources of the specified resource group is not within the prescribed acceptable deviation, the control device is configured to display a warning.

5. A management system according to claim 1, wherein in a case where the difference between the information acquisition time points of the resources of the specified resource group is not within the prescribed acceptable deviation, the control device is configured to re-execute the acquisition of information on the resources of the specified resource group.

6. A management system according to claim 1, wherein the information acquisition apparatus is configured to start to acquire information on the resource of the specified resource group upon receiving the information acquisition indication.

7. A management system according to claim 1, wherein the information acquisition indication includes time point information defining a time point for acquiring the resources, and

the information acquisition apparatus is configured to start to acquire information on the resources of the specified resource group when the time point corresponds to the time point information of the information acquisition indication.

8. A management system according to claim 1, wherein the control device executes processing for sending the information acquisition indications to the information acquisition apparatuses on a regular basis.

9. A management system according to claim 1, wherein upon detecting the occurrence of a prescribed action, the control device is configured to specify a resource group related to the event, and regard the resource group related to the event as the specified resource group.

10. A management system according to claim 1, wherein the resource group has been designated by a user.

11. A management system according to claim 1,

wherein one or more of the resources is one or more storage subsystems having multiple logical volumes, and

wherein the resource group includes the resources related to a copy pair of the storage subsystems.

12. A management system according to claim 1, wherein the resource group includes resources related to an application executed on a host computer.

13. A method for managing information acquisition for a plurality of resources, the method comprising:

configuring a plurality of information acquisition apparatuses to independently acquire information on one or more of the resources;

storing information specifying a resource group, which is a group of the resources targeted for acquiring information at approximately the same time points;

sending to each of the information acquisition apparatuses, which are configured to acquire information on the resources of the specified resource group, an information acquisition indication which defines a timing for acquiring information from the resources of the specified resource group so that the information from the resources of the specified resource group is acquired at approximately the same time points;

determining whether or not differences between information acquisition time points of the resources of the specified resource group from the information acquisition apparatuses are each within a prescribed acceptable deviation, and

in a case where one or more of the differences are not within the prescribed acceptable deviation, adjusting a timing at which the information acquisition indication is sent to the information acquisition apparatuses so as to reduce the difference between the information acquisition time points of the resources of the specified resource group.