Flexibly storing defined presets for configuration of storage controller

• US 9,575,660 B2
• Filed: 03/17/2014
• Issued: 02/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Clifton, John M., Fairhurst, Matthew J., Jewell, Colin R., Mulcahy, James
• Primary Examiner(s): Rojas, Midys
• Assistant Examiner(s): Villanueva, Leandro
• Application Number:
  US14/215,189
• Publication Number:
  US 20140304484A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,072 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0632 by initialisation or re-initialisation of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0664 at device level, e.g. emulation of a storage device or system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0674 Disk device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files

Abstract

Storing defined presets for configuration of a storage controller may include providing a storage controller interface to define a preset associated with an action of the storage controller; receiving preset parameter values for the preset via the interface; validating the preset parameter values to check that the preset is valid; storing the preset within the storage controller, and creating one or more preset objects from the preset, the preset object being accessible by the storage controller at run time. The preset may include a human-readable name; an action name indicating to which associated storage controller action the preset applies, and a set of parameter name-value pairs.

Claims

1. A method for storing defined presets for configuration of a storage controller, comprising:

providing a storage controller interface to define a preset associated with an action of the storage controller;

receiving preset parameter values for the preset via the interface;

validating the preset parameter values to check that the preset is valid;

storing the preset within the storage controller, and;

creating one or more preset objects within the storage controller from the preset, the preset object being accessible by the storage controller at run time, wherein a first preset object is a virtual disk upon one or more disk drives within the storage controller, and

wherein the preset comprises;

a human-readable name, an action name indicating to which associated storage controller action the preset applies, and a set of parameter name-value pairs stored in alphabetical order, wherein a first name-value pair specifies a size key and size value of the virtual disk and a second name-value pair specifies a name key and name value of the virtual disk.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting an input action of the received preset parameter values for the preset;

locating a definition of the input action, and;

using a validation code associated with the input action to validate the received preset parameter values.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more created preset objects each comprise a plurality of key pairs of parameter values, wherein the key pairs are stored in alphabetical order.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

updating the one or more preset objects if the storage controller'"'"'s software is upgraded.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

modifying parameter values associated with the one or more preset objects; and

re-validating the parameter values to check that the preset is still valid.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

merging at least two preset objects associated with the same storage controller action by creating one or more combined parameter value lists with defined control of a dominant preset object.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

tagging the one or more created preset objects so that a change in the preset can be passed to the one or more preset objects created from the preset.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

creating a new preset object based on an pre existing preset object by querying the preset parameter values of the pre existing preset and creating the new preset object from the pre existing preset.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein a second preset object is a volume configuration upon redundant array of independent disks (RAID) within the storage controller.

9. A system for storing defined presets for configuration of a storage controller, comprising:

a storage controller preset setup component for providing a storage controller interface to define a preset associated with an action of the storage controller, and for receiving preset parameter values for the preset via the interface;

a storage controller preset validation component for validating the received parameter values as part of the preset creation to check that the preset is valid;

a storage controller memory component for storing the preset within the storage controller, and;

a storage controller preset object creating component for creating one or more preset objects within the storage controller from the preset, the preset object being accessible by the storage controller at run time, wherein a first preset object is a virtual disk upon one or more disk drives within the storage controller, and

wherein the preset comprises;

a human-readable name, an action name indicating to which associated storage controller action the preset applies, and a set of parameter name-value pairs stored in alphabetical order, wherein a first name-value pair specifies a size key and size value of the virtual disk and a second name-value pair specifies a name key and name value of the virtual disk.

10. The system as claimed in claim 9, wherein the one or more created preset objects each comprise a plurality of key pairs of parameter values, wherein the key pairs are stored in alphabetical order.

11. The system as claimed in claim 9, further comprising:

a storage controller preset edit component for updating the one or more preset objects when upgrading the storage controller software;

a storage controller preset merge component for merging two or more presets for the same action by combining their parameter lists with defined control of the dominance of one of the preset objects, and;

a storage controller tag and update component for persistent tagging of object instances created with a preset so that a change in the preset can be passed to an object created from the preset.

12. The system as claimed in claim 11, wherein the storage controller preset edit component modifies preset parameters associated with the one or more preset objects;

and wherein the storage controller preset validation component re-validates the parameter values to check that the modified parameter values of the preset are valid.

13. The system as claimed in claim 9, wherein the storage controller preset object creating component creates the one or more preset objects based on an existing preset object by querying the preset parameter values of the pre existing preset and creating the new preset object from the pre existing preset;

and wherein the storage controller preset setup component receives parameter values as a sub-set of preset parameters and creates additional preset parameters for the creation of the preset object.

19. The system as claimed in claim 9, wherein a second preset object is a volume configuration upon redundant array of independent disks (RAID) within the storage controller.

14. A computer program product for storing defined presets for configuration of a storage controller, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions readable by a processor to cause the processor to:

provide a storage controller interface to define a preset associated with an action of the storage controller;

receive preset parameter values for the preset via the interface;

validate the preset parameter values to check that the preset is valid;

store the preset within the storage controller, and;

create one or more preset objects within the storage controller from the preset, the preset object being accessible by the storage controller at run time, wherein a first preset object is a virtual disk upon one or more disk drives within the storage controller, and

wherein the preset comprises;

a human-readable name, an action name indicating to which associated storage controller action the preset applies, and a set of parameter name-value pairs stored in alphabetical order, wherein a first name-value pair specifies a size key and size value of the virtual disk and a second name-value pair specifies a name key and name value of the virtual disk.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the program instructions readable by a processor further cause the processor to:

detect an input action of the received preset parameter values for the preset;

locate a definition of the input action, and;

use a validation code associated with the input action to validate the received preset parameter values.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the one or more created preset objects each comprise a plurality of key pairs of parameter values, wherein the key pairs are stored in alphabetical order.

17. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the program instructions readable by a processor further cause the processor to:

modify parameter values associated with the one or more preset objects;

re-validate the parameter values to check that the preset is still valid;

merge at least two preset objects associated with the same storage controller action by creating one or more combined parameter value lists with defined control of a dominant preset object;

tag the one or more created preset objects so that a change in the preset can be passed to the one or more preset objects created from the preset, and;

create a new preset object based on an pre existing preset object by querying the preset parameter values of the pre existing preset and creating the new preset object from the pre existing preset.

20. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein a second preset object is a volume configuration upon redundant array of independent disks (RAID) within the storage controller.