Efficient flashcopy backup target volume allocation

• US 9,690,500 B2
• Filed: 04/02/2014
• Issued: 06/27/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kishi, Gregory T., Dain, Joseph W., Zaremba, Christopher, Shasha, Osnat
• Primary Examiner(s): Bragdon, Reginald
• Assistant Examiner(s): Namazi, Mehdi
• Application Number:
  US14/243,244
• Publication Number:
  US 20150286425A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,182 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0608 Saving storage space on storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0647 Migration mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0655 Vertical data movement, i.e. input-output transfer; data movement between one or more hosts and one or more storage devices
• 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 3/0688 Non-volatile semiconductor memory arrays
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

Abstract

For efficient FlashCopy backup target volume allocation, a target volume is dynamically allocated for a new FlashCopy backup by reusing an existing FlashCopy target volume containing older FlashCopy backups that have been previously ingested into a repository and are not currently being used as a source for at least one of a mount task, a clone task, and a restore task.

Claims

1. A method for efficient point-in-time copy backup target volume allocation by a processor device in a computing environment, the method comprising:

dynamically allocating a target volume for a new point-in-time copy backup by reusing an existing point-in-time copy target volume containing older point-in-time copy backups that have been previously ingested into a repository and are not currently being used as a source for at least one of a mount task, a clone task, and a restore task.

2. The method of claim 1, further including determining whether the older point-in-time copy backups are currently being ingested into the repository and are currently being used as the source for at least one of the mount task, the clone task, and the restore task.

3. The method of claim 2, further including dynamically allocating a new target volume for the new point-in-time copy backup.

4. The method of claim 3, further including dynamically allocating the new target volume for the new point-in-time copy backup if the existing point-in-time copy target volume contains the older point-in-time copy backups that are currently being ingested into the repository and are currently being used as the source for at least one of the mount task, the clone task, and the restore task.

5. The method of claim 4, further including performing at least one of:

dynamically creating the new target volume for the new point-in-time copy backup in a pool of existing point-in-time copy target volumes,

dynamically allocating the new target volume for a next new point-in-time copy backup from the pool of the existing point-in-time copy target volumes,

dynamically allocating the new target volume for the point-in-time copy backup from the pool of the existing point-in-time copy target volumes while simultaneously ingesting into a repository the existing point-in-time copy target volume containing the older point-in-time copy backups.

6. The method of claim 5, further including creating or deleting a mapping of all stored point-in-time copy backups between the new target volume and the existing point-in-time copy target volumes.

7. The method of claim 6, further including dynamically cleaning at least one of the new target volume and the existing point-in-time copy target volumes.

8. A system for efficient point-in-time copy backup target volume allocation in a computing storage environment, the system comprising:

at least one processor device operable in the computing storage environment, wherein processor device;

dynamically allocates a target volume for a new point-in-time copy backup by reusing an existing point-in-time copy target volume containing older point-in-time copy backups that have been previously ingested into a repository and are not currently being used as a source for at least one of a mount task, a clone task, and a restore task.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one processor device determines whether the older point-in-time copy backups are currently being ingested into the repository and are currently being used as the source for at least one of the mount task, the clone task, and the restore task.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor device dynamically allocates a new target volume for the new point-in-time copy backup.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one processor device dynamically allocates the new target volume for the new point-in-time copy backup if the existing point-in-time copy target volume contains the older point-in-time copy backups that are currently being ingested into the repository and are currently being used as the source for at least one of the mount task, the clone task, and the restore task.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the at least one processor device performs at least one of:

dynamically creating the new target volume for the new point-in-time copy backup in a pool of existing point-in-time copy target volumes,

dynamically allocating the new target volume for a next new point-in-time copy backup from the pool of the existing point-in-time copy target volumes,

dynamically allocating the new target volume for the point-in-time copy backup from the pool of the existing point-in-time copy target volumes while simultaneously ingesting into a repository the existing point-in-time copy target volume containing the older point-in-time copy backups.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one processor device creates or deletes a mapping of all stored point-in-time copy backups between the new target volume and the existing point-in-time copy target volumes.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one processor device dynamically cleans at least one of the new target volume and the existing point-in-time copy target volumes.

15. A computer program product for efficient point-in-time copy backup target volume allocation in a computing environment by a processor device, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code portions stored therein, the computer-readable program code portions comprising:

a first executable portion that dynamically allocates a target volume for a new point-in-time copy backup by reusing an existing point-in-time copy target volume containing older point-in-time copy backups that have been previously ingested into a repository and are not currently being used as a source for at least one of a mount task, a clone task, and a restore task.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, further including a second executable portion that determines whether the older point-in-time copy backups are currently being ingested into the repository and are currently being used as the source for at least one of the mount task, the clone task, and the restore task.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, further including a third executable portion that dynamically allocates a new target volume for the new point-in-time copy backup.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, further including a fourth executable portion that allocates the new target volume for the new point-in-time copy backup if the existing point-in-time copy target volume contains the older point-in-time copy backups that are currently being ingested into the repository and are currently being used as the source for at least one of the mount task, the clone task, and the restore task.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, further including a fifth executable portion that performs at least one of:

dynamically creating the new target volume for the new point-in-time copy backup in a pool of existing point-in-time copy target volumes,

dynamically allocating the new target volume for a next new point-in-time copy backup from the pool of the existing point-in-time copy target volumes,

dynamically allocating the new target volume for the point-in-time copy backup from the pool of the existing point-in-time copy target volumes while simultaneously ingesting into a repository the existing point-in-time copy target volume containing the older point-in-time copy backups.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, further including a sixth executable portion that performs one of:

creating or deleting a mapping of all stored point-in-time copy backups between the new target volume and the existing point-in-time copy target volumes, and

dynamically cleaning at least one of the new target volume and the existing point-in-time copy target volumes.