Dynamic mirror service policy with seek adjustment in a non-physical mirrored storage environment

• US 6,611,896 B1
• Filed: 08/25/1999
• Issued: 08/26/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Mason, Robert S. Jr., Lam, Tao Kai, Bachmat, Eitan
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Matthew
• Assistant Examiner(s): Choi, Woo H.
• Application Number:
  US09/382,752
• Time in Patent Office: 1,462 Days
• Field of Search: 710/18, 709/105, 711/5, 711/111, 711/112, 711/114, 711/161, 711/162, 714/6
• US Class Current: 711/114
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2058 using more than 2 mirrored copies
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2069 Management of state, configuration or failover
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3457 Performance evaluation by simulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3485 for I/O devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2003/0697 device management, e.g. handlers, drivers, I/O schedulers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0601 Interfaces specially adapted for storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0674 Disk device

Abstract

A mechanism for adjusting seek activity in a data storage system of physical devices having mirrored logical volumes is presented. Statistics describing at least reading data from the mirrored volumes during successive time periods are collected. From the collected statistics an activity level associated with each of the mirrored logical volumes is determined. Seek activity values for the physical devices are computed based on the activity levels associated with the logical volumes stored on each of the physical devices. The computed seek activity values relate a physical device seek activity to the activity level associated with, and distance between, the mirrored logical volumes residing the physical devices. The computed seek values are used to minimize seek activity for non-mirrored ones of the physical devices.

Claims

1. A method for adjusting seek activity in a data storage system of physical devices having mirrored logical volumes comprising:

determining an activity level associated with each of the mirrored logical volumes based on a mirror policy assignment that defines, for each mirrored logical volume and corresponding one of the mirrored logical volumes that mirrors the mirrored logical volume, which mirrored logical volume is preferred to service I/O requests;

computing seek activity values for the physical devices based on the activity levels associated with the mirrored logical volumes stored on each of the physical devices; and

using the computed seek activity values to change the mirror policy assignment so as to minimize seek activity for non-mirrored ones of the physical devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the computed seek activity values computed for the physical devices relate a physical device seek activity to the activity level associated with, and distance between, the mirrored logical volumes residing on the physical devices.

3. A method for adjusting seek activity in a data storage system of physical devices having mirrored logical volumes comprising:

collecting statistics describing at least reading data from the mirrored logical volumes during successive time periods;

determining from the collected statistics an activity level associated with each of the mirrored logical volumes;

computing seek activity values for the physical devices based on the activity levels associated with the mirrored logical volumes stored on each of the physical devices, the computed seek activity values relating a physical device seek activity to the activity level associated with, and distance between, the mirrored logical volumes residing on the physical devices;

using the seek activity values computed for the physical devices to minimize seek activity for non-mirrored ones of the physical devices; and

wherein using the computed seek activity values comprises;

computing a sum of the computed seek activity values;

performing at least one simulated mirror policy change based on the computed sum of the computed seek activity values;

recomputing the sum of the computed seek activity values using the results of the at least one simulated mirror policy change;

determining if the recomputed sum of the seek activity values is less than the computed sum of the seek activity values; and

implementing the at least one simulated mirror policy change.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein performing the at least one simulated mirror policy change comprises:

selecting a most active one of the physical devices based on the computed seek activity values;

selecting a most active one of the logical volumes residing on the selected most active one of the physical devices based on the associated activity level, a mirrored copy of the most active one of the logical volumes being stored on another of the physical devices;

modifying a mirror policy associated with the selected one of the logical volumes to reduce the seek activity value for the selected one of the physical devices; and

recomputing the seek activity values for the selected one of the physical devices and the another one of the physical devices.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein performing the at least one of simulated policy changes comprises performing a plurality of simulated policy changes.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein performing a plurality of simulated policy changes is repeated a predetermined number of times.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

performing using the seek activity values until a predetermined time interval has expired.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

performing using the seek activity values until the recomputed sum is zero.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

performing using the seek activity values until either a predetermined time interval has expired or the recomputed sum is zero.

10. The method of claim 3, wherein the recomputed sum includes a factor equal to an average of the activity levels of the logical volumes.

11. An apparatus for adjusting seek times in a data storage system of physical devices having mirrored logical volumes comprising

a stored computer program in memory instituting the steps of

determining an activity level associated with each of the mirrored logical volumes based on a mirror policy assignment that defines, for each mirrored logical volume and corresponding one of the mirrored logical volumes that mirrors the mirrored logical volume, which mirrored logical volume is preferred to service I/O requests;

computing seek activity values for the physical devices based on the activity levels associated with the mirrored logical volumes stored on each of the physical devices; and

using the computed seek activity values to change the mirror policy assignment so as to minimize seek activity for non-mirrored ones of the physical devices.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the computed seek activity values computed for the physical devices relate a physical device seek activity to the activity level associated with, and distance between, the mirrored logical volumes residing on the physical devices.

13. An apparatus for adjusting seek times in a data storage system of physical devices having mirrored logical volumes comprising

a stored computer program in memory instituting the steps of

collecting statistics describing at least reading data from the mirrored logical volumes during successive time periods;

determining from the collected statistics an activity level associated with each of the mirrored logical volumes;

computing seek activity values for the physical devices based on the activity levels associated with the mirrored logical volumes stored on each of the physical devices, the computed seek activity values relating a physical device seek activity to the activity level associated with, and distance between, the mirrored logical volumes residing on the physical devices;

using the seek activity values computed for each of the physical devices to minimize seek activity for non-mirrored ones of the physical devices; and

wherein the program instituted step of using the computed seek activity values comprises;

computing a sum of the computed seek activity values;

performing at least one simulated mirror policy change based on the computed sum of the computed seek activity values;

recomputing the sum of the computed seek activity values using the results of the at least one simulated mirror policy change;

determining if the recomputed sum of the seek activity values is less than the computed sum of the seek activity values; and

implementing the at least one simulated mirror policy change.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the program instituted step of performing the at least one simulated mirror policy change comprises:

selecting a most active one of the physical devices based on the computed seek activity values;

selecting a most active one of the logical volumes residing on the selected most active one of the physical devices based on the associated activity level, a mirrored copy of the most active one of the logical volumes being stored on another of the physical devices;

modifying a mirror policy associated with the selected one of the logical volumes to reduce the seek activity value for the selected one of the physical devices; and

recomputing the seek activity values for the selected one of the physical devices and the another one of the physical devices.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the program instituted step of performing the at least one of simulated policy changes further comprises performing a plurality of simulated policy changes.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the program instituted step of performing a plurality of simulated policy changes is repeated a predetermined number of times.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, further wherein the program institutes the step of performing using the seek activity values until a predetermined time interval has expired.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, further wherein the program institutes the step performing using the seek activity values until the recomputed sum is zero.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, further wherein the program institutes the step of performing using the seek activity values until either a predetermined time interval has expired or the recomputed sum is zero.

20. A data storage system comprising:

physical devices having mirrored logical volumes stored thereon;

a controller for performing a seek adjustment process to adjust the seek activity of the plurality of physical devices, the controller determining an activity level associated with each of the mirrored logical volumes based on a mirror policy assignment that defines, for each mirrored logical volume and corresponding one of the mirrored logical volumes that mirrors the mirrored logical volume, which mirrored logical volume is preferred to service I/O requests, and computing seek activity values for the physical devices based on the activity levels associated with the mirrored logical volumes; and

wherein the controller uses the computed seek activity values to change the mirror policy assignment so as to minimize seek activity for non-mirrored ones of the physical devices.

21. The data storage system of claim 20, wherein the computed seek activity values computed for the physical devices relate a physical storage device seek activity to the activity level associated with, and distance between, the mirrored logical volumes residing on the physical devices.

22. The data storage system of claim 20, wherein the seek adjustment process is executed in fragments.

23. The data storage system of claim 20, wherein the controller comprises device adapters for performing the seek adjustment process and wherein the controller assigns responsibility for performing different tasks associated with the seek adjustment process to different ones of the device adapters.

24. The data storage system of claim 23, wherein the controller assigns responsibility for performing at least one of the different tasks to different ones of the device adapters.

25. The data storage system of claim 23, wherein the different tasks are executed in fragments.

26. A data storage system comprising:

physical devices having mirrored logical volumes stored thereon;

a controller for performing a seek adjustment process to adjust the seek activity of the plurality of physical devices, the controller determining an activity level associated with each of the mirrored logical volumes and computing seek activity values for the physical devices based on the activity levels associated with the mirrored logical volumes;

wherein the controller uses the seek activity values computed for the physical devices to minimize seek activity for non-mirrored ones of the physical devices;

wherein the controller comprises device adapters for performing the seek adjustment process and wherein the controller assigns responsibility for performing different tasks associated with the seek adjustment process to different ones of the device adapters; and

wherein the different tasks are executed in fragments, the size of the fragments being selectable based on the number of logical volumes to be examined during the seek adjustment process.

27. A controller for controlling transfer of data to and from physical devices having mirrored logical volumes comprising:

at least one device adapter for performing a seek adjustment process for adjusting the seek activity of the physical devices, the at least one device adapter determining an activity level associated with each of the mirrored logical volumes based on a mirror policy assignment that defines, for each mirrored logical volume and corresponding one of the mirrored logical volumes that mirrors the mirrored logical volume, which mirrored logical volume is preferred to service I/O requests and computing seek activity values for the physical devices based on the activity levels associated with the mirrored logical volumes; and

wherein the at least one device adapter uses the computed seek activity values to change the mirror policy assignment so as to minimize seek activity for non-mirrored ones of the physical devices.