Non-disruptive file system element reconfiguration on disk expansion

• US 9,678,980 B2
• Filed: 06/14/2016
• Issued: 06/13/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Clifton, John Mark, O'Leary, Nicholas
• Primary Examiner(s): Shanmugasundaram, Kannan
• Application Number:
  US15/182,512
• Publication Number:
  US 20160292180A1
• Time in Patent Office: 364 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/178 Techniques for file synchronisation in file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/275 Synchronous replication
• 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 3/0643 Management of files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0644 Management of space entities, e.g. partitions, extents, pools
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0647 Migration mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0665 at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0683 Plurality of storage devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

Abstract

An apparatus is operable with a host and a data storage component for controlling expansion of storage, and comprises: an allocating component responsive to a user input for allocating an expanded target storage space to a file system element to thereby make an expanded file system element; a file system metadata component for maintaining file system metadata including metadata for said expanded file system element; a file system I/O component responsive to said file system metadata component for controlling file system I/O between said host and said storage component; and a synchronizing component responsive to said file system metadata component for synchronizing data between a source storage space and said expanded target storage space; wherein said file system I/O component is operable to use said file system metadata component to access said expanded file system element prior to completion of action of said synchronizing component.

Claims

1. An apparatus operable with a host and a data storage component, comprising:

a computational device, comprising;

a processor;

an allocating component to allocate an expanded target storage space to a file system to create an expanded file system;

a file system metadata component to maintain file system metadata including metadata for the expanded file system; and

a synchronizing component for synchronizing data between a source storage space and an expanded target storage space, wherein the synchronizing component updates a bitmap that indicates whether a data item has been copied, wherein a determination is made that a source storage device is a boot device, and a master boot record is copied to a target storage device and the master boot record is altered to reflect expanded partitions, wherein a first user selectable option is provided to determine how the expanded target storage space is to be distributed across existing file systems, wherein a second user selectable option is provided to determine a rate at which the synchronization of the data occurs via background operations, and wherein an indication is provided to a user that the source storage device is no longer being used, and the user is prompted to remove the source storage device.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein synchronizing of data comprises:

sending, any selected write that is addressed to a block of a file system stored in the source storage device, to both the source storage device and the target storage device.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein synchronizing of data comprises:

sending any selected read or write that is addressed to a block of an expanded file system stored in the target storage device but not in the source storage device, to the target storage device.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein synchronizing of data comprises:

sending any selected read that is addressed to a block of a file system stored in the source storage device, to the source storage device to be satisfied from the source storage device.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a data structure records a progress of synchronization of data between the source storage device and the target storage device.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the data structure is stored on the target storage device in a reserved area that is not available to a user, and wherein if the computational device is shut down by the user, synchronizing of data between the source storage device and the target storage device is continued at a later time that is subsequent to a time at which the computational device is shut down.

7. A method performed by a computational device coupled to a host and a data storage component, the method comprising:

allocating, via an allocating component, an expanded target storage space to a file system to create an expanded file system;

maintaining, via a file system metadata component, file system metadata including metadata for the expanded file system; and

synchronizing data, via a synchronizing component, between a source storage space and an expanded target storage space, wherein the synchronizing component updates a bitmap that indicates whether a data item has been copied, wherein a determination is made that a source storage device is a boot device, and a master boot record is copied to a target storage device and the master boot record is altered to reflect expanded partitions, wherein a first user selectable option is provided to determine how the expanded target storage space is to be distributed across existing file systems, wherein a second user selectable option is provided to determine a rate at which the synchronization of the data occurs via background operations, and wherein an indication is provided to a user that the source storage device is no longer being used, and the user is prompted to remove the source storage device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein synchronizing of data comprises:

sending, any selected write that is addressed to a block of a file system stored in the source storage device, to both the source storage device and the target storage device.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein synchronizing of data comprises:

sending any selected read or write that is addressed to a block of an expanded file system stored in the target storage device but not in the source storage device, to the target storage device.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein synchronizing of data comprises:

sending any selected read that is addressed to a block of a file system stored in the source storage device, to the source storage device to be satisfied from the source storage device.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein a data structure records a progress of synchronization of data between the source storage device and the target storage device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the data structure is stored on the target storage device in a reserved area that is not available to a user, and wherein if the computational device is shut down by the user, synchronizing of data between the source storage device and the target storage device is continued at a later time that is subsequent to a time at which the computational device is shut down.

13. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored therein computer program code, wherein the computer program code when loaded into a computational device and executed thereon, causes the computational device to perform:

allocate, via an allocating component, an expanded target storage space to a file system to create an expanded file system;

maintain, via a file system metadata component, file system metadata including metadata for the expanded file system; and

synchronizing data between a source storage space and an expanded target storage space, via a synchronizing component, wherein the synchronizing component updates a bitmap that indicates whether a data item has been copied, wherein a determination is made that a source storage device is a boot device, and a master boot record is copied to a target storage device and the master boot record is altered to reflect expanded partitions, wherein a first user selectable option is provided to determine how the expanded target storage space is to be distributed across existing file systems, wherein a second user selectable option is provided to determine a rate at which the synchronization of the data occurs via background operations, and wherein an indication is provided to a user that the source storage device is no longer being used, and the user is prompted to remove the source storage device.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein synchronizing of data comprises:

sending, any selected write that is addressed to a block of a file system stored in the source storage device, to both the source storage device and the target storage device.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein synchronizing of data comprises:

sending any selected read or write that is addressed to a block of an expanded file system stored in the target storage device but not in the source storage device, to the target storage device.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein synchronizing of data comprises:

sending any selected read that is addressed to a block of a file system stored in the source storage device, to the source storage device to be satisfied from the source storage device.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein a data structure records a progress of synchronization of data between the source storage device and the target storage device.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the data structure is stored on the target storage device in a reserved area that is not available to a user, and wherein if the computational device is shut down by the user, synchronizing of data between the source storage device and the target storage device is continued at a later time that is subsequent to a time at which the computational device is shut down.