System, method, and computer program product for physical drive failure identification, prevention, and minimization of firmware revisions

• US 9,672,086 B2
• Filed: 05/01/2014
• Issued: 06/06/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Barajas, Felipe A.
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, DIEU MINH T
• Application Number:
  US14/267,440
• Publication Number:
  US 20140245072A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,132 Days
• Field of Search: 714 61, 714 62, 714 632, 714 633
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/008 Reliability or availability analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0727 in a storage system, e.g. in a DASD or network based storage system drivers for digital recording or reproducing units G06F3/06; circuits for error detection or correction within digital recording or reproducing units 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

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method for managing DDM failures includes analyzing, using a hardware processor, information stored in a data repository and relating to DDM failures to identify problems in an installed base of DDM, the analysis comprising analyzing comparative DDM failure data.

Claims

1. A computer program product for managing disk drive media (DDM) failures, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions being executable by a processor to cause the processor to:

store, by the processor, information relating to DDM failures in a data repository by at least one of;

creating data entries comprising the information relating to the DDM failures in the data repository, and

updating existing data entries in the data repository with the information relating to the DDM failures; and

analyze, by the processor, information relating to the DDM failures and stored in the data repository to identify problems in an installed base of DDM, the analysis comprising analyzing comparative DDM failure data.

2. The computer program product as recited in claim 1, wherein the comparative DDM failure data comprises vectors generated from the information relating to the DDM failures.

3. The computer program product as recited in claim 1, wherein the comparative DDM failure data comprises vectors generated from the information relating to the DDM failures, wherein the analyzing comprises analyzing the vectors for determining whether to perform a firmware and/or hardware update on at least one of the DDM.

4. The computer program product as recited in claim 1, wherein the DDM failures are in virtual tape servers.

5. The computer program product as recited in claim 1, comprising computer readable program code configured to decide whether to update microcode of a virtual tape server with firmware based on the problems in the installed base of the at least one DDM.

6. The computer program product as recited in claim 1, wherein the information relating to the DDM failures comprises at least one failure type, and wherein the at least one failure type comprises:

a hard failure;

a soft failure; and

a manual failure.

7. A method for managing disk drive media (DDM) failures, the method comprising:

analyzing, using a hardware processor, information relating to DDM failures to identify problems in an installed base of DDM, the analysis comprising analyzing comparative DDM failure data;

storing the information relating to the DDM failures, wherein the storing comprises, for each of the DDM failures, at least one of;

creating a data entry comprising the information relating to the DDM failure in the data repository, and

updating an existing data entry in the data repository with the information relating to the DDM failure.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the DDM failures are in virtual tape servers.

9. The method as recited in claim 7, comprising deciding whether to update microcode of at least one virtual tape server with firmware based on the problems in the installed base of DDM.

10. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the information relating to the DDM failures comprises at least one failure type, and wherein the at least one failure type comprises:

a hard failure;

a soft failure; and

a manual failure.

11. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the comparative DDM failure data comprises vectors generated from the information relating to the DDM failures.

12. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the comparative DDM failure data comprises vectors generated from the information relating to the DDM failures, wherein the analyzing comprises analyzing the vectors for determining whether to perform a firmware and/or hardware update on at least one of the DDM.

13. A system, comprising:

a processor and logic integrated with the processor, executable by the processor, or integrated with and executable by the processor, the logic being configured to;

analyze information relating to DDM to identify problems in an installed base of DDM, the analysis comprising analyzing comparative DDM failure data; and

store information relating to the DDM failures in the data repository by at least one of;

creating data entries comprising the information relating to the DDM failures in the data repository, and

updating existing data entries in the data repository with the information relating to the DDM failures.

14. The system as recited in claim 13, wherein the DDM failures are in virtual tape servers.

15. The system as recited in claim 13, comprising logic configured to decide whether to update microcode of a virtual tape server with firmware based on the problems in the installed base of the at least one DDM.

16. The system as recited in claim 13, wherein the information relating to the DDM failures comprises at least one failure type, and wherein the at least one failure type comprises:

a hard failure;

a soft failure; and

a manual failure.