Computer system, computer and method for performing thin provisioning capacity management in coordination with virtual machines

• US 9,411,746 B2
• Filed: 05/08/2015
• Issued: 08/09/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/05/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Yamamoto, Masayuki, Innan, Masataka, Ando, Nobuhiko, Kusama, Takato, Beniyama, Nobuo, Fukui, Yoshiki, Asaki, Katsutoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): BATAILLE, PIERRE MICHE
• Application Number:
  US14/707,545
• Publication Number:
  US 20150242329A1
• Time in Patent Office: 459 Days
• Field of Search: 711/170, 711/6, 711/114, 711/112, 711/202, 711/203, 711/167, 711/E12.014, 711/E12.016, 711/E12.017, 711/E12.002, 711/E12.068
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/1044 Space efficiency improvement
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/152 Virtualized environment, e.g. logically partitioned system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/657 Virtual address space management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/064 Management of blocks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0665 at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5016 the resource being the memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455

Abstract

In the computer system, a storage system provides a storage level virtual volume based on thin provisioning technology, to a physical server on which a virtual machine is defined. The storage system releases the area of the logical volume corresponding to the storage level virtual volume accessed by a virtual machine which is specified to be deleted, on the basis of storage level virtual volume conversion information which is managed by the storage system.

Claims

1. A computer system comprising:

a storage system including a storage device and a storage controller; and

a server computer providing a virtual machine,

wherein the storage controller is configured to;

manage a storage area of the storage device as a pool of a plurality of low-level storage areas,

provide a storage level virtual volume to the server computer, and

allocate at least one of the plurality of low-level storage areas from the pool to a part of the storage level virtual volume as certain low-level address areas in response to a write request, and

wherein the storage system is configured to;

receive a clear request specifying a block address range from the server computer,

identify a low-level address area corresponding to the block address range included in the clear request,

clear data corresponding to the identified low-level address area on the storage level virtual volume,

specify a low-level storage area corresponding to the identified low-level address area, and

release the specified low-level storage area to the pool.

2. The computer system according to claim 1,

wherein the storage controller is configured to send a completion report of the clear request to the server computer after releasing the specified low-level storage area to the pool.

3. The computer system according to claim 1,

wherein the block address range included in the clear request is a SCSI address.

4. The computer system according to claim 1,

wherein upon releasing the specified low-level storage area to the pool, the storage controller is further configured to change a status of the specified low-level storage area as an unallocated storage area in the pool.

5. The computer system according to claim 1,

wherein the block address range included in the clear request is a SCSI address.

6. The computer system according to claim 1,

wherein upon releasing the specified low-level storage area to the pool, the processor is further configured to change a status of the specified low-level storage area as an unallocated storage area in the pool.

7. A computer system comprising:

a storage device and a processor; and

wherein the processor is configured to;

manage a storage area of the storage device as a pool of a plurality of low-level storage areas,

manage a storage level virtual volume, and

allocate at least one of the plurality of low-level storage areas from the pool to a part of the storage level virtual volume as certain low-level address areas in response to a write request, and

wherein the computer storage system is configured to;

receive a clear request specifying a block address range,

identify a low-level address area corresponding to the block address range included in the clear request,

clear data corresponding to the identified low-level address area on the storage level virtual volume,

specify a low-level storage area corresponding to the identified low-level address area, and

release the specified low-level storage area to the pool.