Pseudo-volume for control and statistics of a storage controller

• US 10,732,837 B2
• Filed: 02/08/2010
• Issued: 08/04/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 02/08/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Weiss, Gary
• Primary Examiner(s): Jalil, Neveen Abel
• Assistant Examiner(s): Baker, Irene
• Application Number:
  US12/701,751
• Publication Number:
  US 20110196846A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,830 Days
• Field of Search: 707827
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0604 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0629 Configuration or reconfiguration of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0653 Monitoring storage devices or systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

Exemplary method, system, and computer program embodiments for facilitating information between at least one host and a storage controller operational in a data storage subsystem are provided. In one embodiment, a pseudo-volume, mappable to the at least one host and mountable as a filesystem, is initialized. The pseudo-volume is adapted for performing at least one of providing diagnostic and statistical data representative of the data storage subsystem to the at least one host, and facilitating control of at least one parameter of the storage controller.

Claims

1. A data storage subsystem comprising an interface between at least one host and a storage controller operational in the data storage subsystem for efficiently transferring diagnostic and statistical data from the storage controller to the at least one host, the storage controller established by a processor device, the at least one host comprising a filesystem manager, and the data storage subsystem comprising:

a pseudo-volume generated in response to receiving a request from the at least one host, the pseudo-volume mapped to the filesystem manager in the at least one host and mounted as a virtual filesystem associated with an extended markup language (XML) flat file mapped onto a flat address space and mounted on the storage controller, wherein the pseudo-volume is generated by a pseudo-volume emulator operational within the storage controller, the pseudo-volume emulator including one or more memory devices maintaining the virtual filesystem, wherein the virtual filesystem represents a location where diagnostic and statistical data of the data storage subsystem would be stored in an existing filesystem of the storage controller, the virtual filesystem embodying mappings between the at least one host computer and the pseudo-volume representing the diagnostic and statistical data of the data storage subsystem, and wherein the pseudo-volume;

provides, upon request by the at least one host by accessing the pseudo-volume in the filesystem manager of the at least one host, the diagnostic and statistical data of the data storage subsystem to the at least one host as displayed within a browser application comprising the filesystem manager such that the diagnostic and statistical data is displayed within the browser application as if the diagnostic and statistical data were part of the virtual filesystem of the pseudo-volume, wherein the diagnostic and statistical data is dynamically generated for transient pseudo-storage such that the diagnostic and statistical data is generated in response to receiving the request from the at least one host and is not allocated storage in a physical storage volume, the diagnostic and statistical data representing a temporary snapshot of the data storage subsystem,

enables the at least one host to visualize data structures in the data storage subsystem as seen through the storage controller, and

enables the at least one host to control the storage controller by writing, by the at least one host, commands to the storage controller through a control file contained within the pseudo-volume according to allowed parameters;

wherein the pseudo-volume mapped to the filesystem in the host is maintained for transferring the diagnostic and statistical data from the storage controller to the at least one host in lieu of using a transfer control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP) management connection; and

wherein the diagnostic and statistical data representative of the data storage subsystem includes each one of statistics, debug information, lists of objects, states, events, history, adapter information, cable information, and performance information representative of the data storage subsystem.

2. The data storage subsystem of claim 1, wherein at least one of the pseudo-volume, the diagnostic and statistical data, and the at least one parameter is adapted to be visualized by the at least one host in a browsable representation.

3. The data storage subsystem of claim 2, wherein the browsable representation is organized in a hierarchical structure.

4. The data storage subsystem of claim 1, wherein at least one of the pseudo-volume, the diagnostic and statistical data, and the at least one parameter is maintained by the storage controller in a storage location.

5. The data storage subsystem of claim 1, wherein the pseudo-volume is further adapted for mounting as one of a network drive and remote filesystem compliant with one of network file system (NFS) and server message block/common internet file system (SMB/CIFS) protocols.

6. A method of facilitating information between at least one host and a storage controller operational in a data storage subsystem for efficiently transferring diagnostic and statistical data from the storage controller to the at least one host, the storage controller established by a processor device, the at least one host comprising a filesystem manager, the method comprising:

initializing a pseudo-volume generated in response to receiving a request from the at least one host, the pseudo-volume mapped to the filesystem manager in the at least one host and mounted as a virtual filesystem associated with an extended markup language (XML) flat file mapped onto a flat address space and mounted on the storage controller, wherein the pseudo-volume is generated by a pseudo-volume emulator operational within the storage controller, the pseudo-volume emulator including one or more memory devices maintaining the virtual filesystem, wherein the virtual filesystem represents a location where diagnostic and statistical data of the data storage subsystem would be stored in an existing filesystem of the storage controller, the virtual filesystem embodying mappings between the at least one host computer and the pseudo-volume representing the diagnostic and statistical data of the data storage subsystem, and wherein the pseudo-volume;

provides, upon request by the at least one host by accessing the pseudo-volume in the filesystem manager of the at least one host, the diagnostic and statistical data of the data storage subsystem to the at least one host as displayed within a browser application comprising the filesystem manager such that the diagnostic and statistical data is displayed within the browser application as if the diagnostic and statistical data were part of the virtual filesystem of the pseudo-volume, wherein the diagnostic and statistical data is dynamically generated for transient pseudo-storage such that the diagnostic and statistical data is generated in response to receiving the request from the at least one host and is not allocated storage in a physical storage volume, the diagnostic and statistical data representing a temporary snapshot of the data storage subsystem,

enables the at least one host to visualize data structures in the data storage subsystem as seen through the storage controller, and

enables the at least one host to control the storage controller by writing, by the at least one host, commands to the storage controller through a control file contained within the pseudo-volume according to allowed parameters;

wherein the pseudo-volume mapped to the filesystem in the host is maintained for transferring the diagnostic and statistical data from the storage controller to the at least one host in lieu of using a transfer control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP) management connection; and

wherein the diagnostic and statistical data representative of the data storage subsystem includes each one of statistics, debug information, lists of objects, states, events, history, adapter information, cable information, and performance information representative of the data storage subsystem.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein initializing the pseudo-volume further includes configuring at least one of the pseudo-volume, the diagnostic and statistical data, and the at least one parameter to be visualized by the at least one host in a browsable representation.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein configuring at least one of the pseudo-volume, the diagnostic and statistical data, and the at least one parameter to be visualized by the at least one host in the browsable representation includes organizing the browsable representation in a hierarchical structure.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein initializing the pseudo-volume further includes configuring at least one of the pseudo-volume, the diagnostic and statistical data, and the at least one parameter to be maintained by the storage controller in a storage location.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein initializing the pseudo-volume further includes adapting the pseudo-volume for mounting as one of a network drive and remote filesystem compliant with one of network file system (NFS) and server message block/common internet file system (SMB/CIFS) protocols.

11. A computer program product for facilitating information between at least one host and a storage controller operational in a data storage subsystem for efficiently transferring diagnostic and statistical data from the storage controller to the at least one host, the storage controller established by a processor device, the at least one host comprising a filesystem manager and 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 for initializing a pseudo-volume generated in response to receiving a request from the at least one host, the pseudo-volume mapped to the filesystem manager in the at least one host and mounted as a virtual filesystem associated with an extended markup language (XML) flat file mapped onto a flat address space and mounted on the storage controller, wherein the pseudo-volume is generated by a pseudo-volume emulator operational within the storage controller, the pseudo-volume emulator including one or more memory devices maintaining the virtual filesystem, wherein the virtual filesystem represents a location where diagnostic and statistical data of the data storage subsystem would be stored in an existing filesystem of the storage controller, the virtual filesystem embodying mappings between the at least one host computer and the pseudo-volume representing the diagnostic and statistical data of the data storage subsystem, and wherein the pseudo-volume;

provides, upon request by the at least one host by accessing the pseudo-volume in the filesystem manager of the at least one host, the diagnostic and statistical data of the data storage subsystem to the at least one host as displayed within a browser application comprising the filesystem manager such that the diagnostic and statistical data is displayed within the browser application as if the diagnostic and statistical data were part of the virtual filesystem of the pseudo-volume, wherein the diagnostic and statistical data is dynamically generated for transient pseudo-storage such that the diagnostic and statistical data is generated in response to receiving the request from the at least one host and is not allocated storage in a physical storage volume, the diagnostic and statistical data representing a temporary snapshot of the data storage subsystem,

enables the at least one host to visualize data structures in the data storage subsystem as seen through the storage controller, and

enables the at least one host to control the storage controller by writing, by the at least one host, commands to the storage controller through a control file contained within the pseudo-volume according to allowed parameters;

wherein the pseudo-volume mapped to the filesystem in the host is maintained for transferring the diagnostic and statistical data from the storage controller to the at least one host in lieu of using a transfer control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP) management connection; and

wherein the diagnostic and statistical data representative of the data storage subsystem includes each one of statistics, debug information, lists of objects, states, events, history, adapter information, cable information, and performance information representative of the data storage subsystem.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, further including a second executable portion for, pursuant to initializing the pseudo-volume, configuring at least one of the pseudo-volume, the diagnostic and statistical data, and the at least one parameter to be visualized by the at least one host in a browsable representation.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, further including a third executable portion for, pursuant to configuring at least one of the pseudo-volume, the diagnostic and statistical data, and the at least one parameter to be visualized by the at least one host in the browsable representation, organizing the browsable representation in a hierarchical structure.

14. The computer program product of claim 11, further including a second executable portion for, pursuant to initializing the pseudo-volume, configuring at least one of the pseudo-volume, the diagnostic and statistical data, and the at least one parameter to be maintained by the storage controller in a storage location.