Storage apparatus and hierarchy control method
First Claim
1. A storage apparatus coupled to a host computer, the storage apparatus comprising:
- a plurality of storage devices configured with a plurality of storage tiers including a first tier corresponding to storage devices with high performance, a second tier corresponding to storage devices with middle performance, and a third tier corresponding to storage devices with low performance; and
a controller configured to;
define two levels of storage areas in each of the plurality of storage tiers, which correspond to a long-term storage area and a short-term storage area,provide a virtual volume including a plurality of virtual areas to the host computer;
allocate a page from a pool of the plurality of storage devices to a certain virtual area of the plurality of the virtual areas according to a write request from the host computer dynamically;
upon allocating a page, determine one of the plurality of storage tiers from the first tier, the second tier, or the third tier and the long-term storage area or the short-term storage area in the determined storage tier as an appropriate storage tier and a storage area, by comparing two access frequencies on a basis of virtual area of the plurality of virtual areas with a plurality of thresholds, in which the two access frequencies are measured as a long-term access frequency and a short-term access frequency;
reallocate the page by migrating data corresponding to the virtual area from a current page belonging to a current storage tier and storage area to a new page belonging to the appropriate storage tier and storage area, if the appropriate storage tier and storage area is different from the current storage tier and storage area,wherein the controller is configured to;
determine whether the virtual area corresponds to the long-term storage area in any of the first, second, or third storage tiers,if the determination is positive, compare the long-term access frequency of the virtual area with a first threshold of the plurality of thresholds,if the long-term access frequency of the virtual area is larger than the first threshold, compare the short-term access frequency of the virtual area with a second threshold of the plurality of thresholds,if the short-term access frequency of the virtual area is larger than the second threshold, determine the long-term storage area of the first storage tier as the appropriate storage tier and the storage area.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Proposed are a storage apparatus and a hierarchy control method capable of reducing the workload of system operation and the workload of performance investigation.
An access frequency of each of a plurality of measurement cycles for each unit area in a virtual volume is measured in a storage apparatus loaded with a hierarchy control function, the storage hierarchy which is proper as a placement destination of data written in each of the unit areas of the virtual volume is determined based on a measurement result, and the data written in a necessary unit area in the virtual volume is relocated to the storage area to which belongs the storage hierarchy that was determined as being proper based on a determination result.
20 Citations
15 Claims
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1. A storage apparatus coupled to a host computer, the storage apparatus comprising:
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a plurality of storage devices configured with a plurality of storage tiers including a first tier corresponding to storage devices with high performance, a second tier corresponding to storage devices with middle performance, and a third tier corresponding to storage devices with low performance; and a controller configured to; define two levels of storage areas in each of the plurality of storage tiers, which correspond to a long-term storage area and a short-term storage area, provide a virtual volume including a plurality of virtual areas to the host computer; allocate a page from a pool of the plurality of storage devices to a certain virtual area of the plurality of the virtual areas according to a write request from the host computer dynamically; upon allocating a page, determine one of the plurality of storage tiers from the first tier, the second tier, or the third tier and the long-term storage area or the short-term storage area in the determined storage tier as an appropriate storage tier and a storage area, by comparing two access frequencies on a basis of virtual area of the plurality of virtual areas with a plurality of thresholds, in which the two access frequencies are measured as a long-term access frequency and a short-term access frequency; reallocate the page by migrating data corresponding to the virtual area from a current page belonging to a current storage tier and storage area to a new page belonging to the appropriate storage tier and storage area, if the appropriate storage tier and storage area is different from the current storage tier and storage area, wherein the controller is configured to; determine whether the virtual area corresponds to the long-term storage area in any of the first, second, or third storage tiers, if the determination is positive, compare the long-term access frequency of the virtual area with a first threshold of the plurality of thresholds, if the long-term access frequency of the virtual area is larger than the first threshold, compare the short-term access frequency of the virtual area with a second threshold of the plurality of thresholds, if the short-term access frequency of the virtual area is larger than the second threshold, determine the long-term storage area of the first storage tier as the appropriate storage tier and the storage area. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A storage apparatus coupled to a host computer, the storage apparatus comprising:
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a plurality of storage devices configured with a plurality of storage tiers including a first tier corresponding to storage devices with high performance, a second tier corresponding to storage devices with middle performance, and a third tier corresponding to storage devices with low performance; and a controller configured to; define two levels of storage areas in each of the plurality of storage tiers, which correspond to a long-term storage area and a short-term storage area, provide a virtual volume including a plurality of virtual areas to the host computer; allocate a page from a pool of the plurality of storage devices to a certain virtual area of the plurality of the virtual areas according to a write request from the host computer dynamically; upon allocating a page, determine one of the plurality of storage tiers from the first tier, the second tier, or the third tier and the long-term storage area or the short-term storage area in the determined storage tier as an appropriate storage tier and a storage area, by comparing two access frequencies on a basis of virtual area of the plurality of virtual areas with a plurality of thresholds, in which the two access frequencies are measured as a long-term access frequency and a short-term access frequency; reallocate the page by migrating data corresponding to the virtual area from a current page belonging to a current storage tier and storage area to a new page belonging to the appropriate storage tier and storage area, if the appropriate storage tier and storage area is different from the current storage tier and storage area, wherein the controller is further configured to measure a middle-term access frequency on a basis of virtual area, wherein the controller is configured to determine whether the virtual area corresponds to the long-term storage area in any of the first, second, or third storage tiers, wherein, if the determination is negative, the controller is configured to determine whether the virtual area corresponds to the short-term storage area in the first storage tiers, wherein, if the determination is positive, the controller is configured to compare the middle-term access frequency of the virtual area with a seventh threshold of the plurality of thresholds, wherein, if the middle-term access frequency of the virtual area is larger than the seventh threshold, the controller is configured to determine the long-term storage area of the first storage tier as the appropriate storage tier and the storage area. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A storage apparatus coupled to a host computer, the storage apparatus comprising:
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a plurality of storage devices configured with a plurality of storage tiers including a first tier corresponding to storage devices with high performance, a second tier corresponding to storage devices with middle performance, and a third tier corresponding to storage devices with low performance; and a controller configured to; define two levels of storage areas in each of the plurality of storage tiers, which correspond to a long-term storage area and a short-term storage area, provide a virtual volume including a plurality of virtual areas to the host computer; allocate a page from a pool of the plurality of storage devices to a certain virtual area of the plurality of the virtual areas according to a write request from the host computer dynamically; upon allocating a page, determine one of the plurality of storage tiers from the first tier, the second tier, or the third tier and the long-term storage area or the short-term storage area in the determined storage tier as an appropriate storage tier and a storage area, by comparing two access frequencies on a basis of virtual area of the plurality of virtual areas with a plurality of thresholds, in which the two access frequencies are measured as a long-term access frequency and a short-term access frequency; reallocate the page by migrating data corresponding to the virtual area from a current page belonging to a current storage tier and storage area to a new page belonging to the appropriate storage tier and storage area, if the appropriate storage tier and storage area is different from the current storage tier and storage area, wherein the controller is further configured to define a fixed storage area other than the long-term storage area and the short-term storage area in each of the storage tiers, and allocate a page to the fixed storage area in any of the storage tiers based on user instruction.
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Specification