Management system and management method for storage system

• US 8,224,879 B2
• Filed: 02/23/2010
• Issued: 07/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Kuwahara, Hiroshi, Saika, Nobuyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): BROWN, SHEREE N
• Application Number:
  US12/678,960
• Publication Number:
  US 20110264716A1
• Time in Patent Office: 875 Days
• Field of Search: 707/827
• US Class Current: 707/827
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0647 Migration mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

In a management system for a storage system including plural file sharing environments, a maintenance interval calculating part calculates a time interval average for operation commands given to the file sharing environments; a management difficulty calculating part calculates an index showing difficulty of managing the file sharing environment; a usage degree calculating part calculates an index showing a usage degree of each of the file sharing environments; a processing content keeping part keeps numerical ranges for the average maintenance interval, the management difficulty, and the file sharing environment usage degree in association with processing contents for the maintenance interval calculating part, the management difficulty calculating part, and the usage degree calculating part; a storing area stores each of the file sharing environments and the processing contents in association with each other; and a processing content executing part executes the processing contents for each of the file sharing environments.

Claims

1. A management system for a storage system, the storage system including

a computer that executes data processing;

a storage apparatus that provides a storage area for data processed in the computer;

a plurality of file systems each of which enables the computer to input and output data from and to the storage apparatus per file unit;

a storage control device in which a plurality of file sharing environments that enable a plurality of users to access a plurality of files managed by the file systems from the computer are constructed;

a first communication network that communicably couples the computer to the storage control device; and

a second communication network that communicably couples the storage apparatus to the storage control device,

the management system comprising;

an average maintenance interval calculating part to calculate an average maintenance interval that is an average value of time intervals at which an operation command is given to each of the file sharing environments;

a management difficulty calculating part, for each of the file sharing environments, to calculate a management difficulty that is an index quantitatively showing a difficulty to manage the file sharing environment and is determined based on a type and a quantity of resources included in the file sharing environment;

a file sharing environment usage degree calculating part to calculate a file sharing environment usage degree that is an index showing a degree of usage of each of the file sharing environments and is determined based on an access frequency that is an index showing a frequency at which the users access the file sharing environment and the number of users who access the file sharing environment;

a processing content keeping part that keeps numerical ranges and processing contents in association with each other, the numerical ranges being defined in advance respectively for the average maintenance interval, the management difficulty, and the file sharing environment usage degree, the processing contents being defined respectively for the average maintenance interval calculating part, the management difficulty calculating part, and the file sharing environment usage degree calculating part, in association with the numerical ranges;

a management object storing area that keeps each of the file sharing environments and the processing content in association with each other, the processing content kept in the processing content keeping part; and

a processing content executing part that executes the processing contents kept in the processing content keeping part in association with each of the file sharing environments;

wherein when the management difficulties calculated for the respective file sharing environments are compared to one another and a determination is made that there are the plurality of file sharing environments each having the management difficulty higher than a predetermined condition in a specific storage control device, any one selected from the file sharing environments having higher management difficulty is moved to another different storage control device.

2. The management system for the storage system according to claim 1, wherein:

when the management difficulties calculated for the respective file sharing environments are compared to one another and a determination is made that there are the plurality of file sharing environments each having the management difficulty higher than a predetermined condition in a specific storage control device, any one selected from the file sharing environments having higher management difficulty is moved to another different storage control device;

the file sharing environment to be moved to the different storage control device is a file sharing environment determined to have a highest average value of the management difficulty and a smallest variance from the average value, where the average value and the variance are calculated, for each of the file sharing environments operating in the specific storage control device, on the basis of the management difficulty of the file sharing environment;

the management difficulty is a total sum of management difficulty calculated, for at least one of configurations of each file sharing environment, on the basis of the number of tiers of resources forming the configuration and a redundancy in the tiers, the configurations including a configuration of the first communication network, a file sharing configuration, a file system configuration, a backup configuration, a logical storage area configuration, and a configuration of the second communication network;

weighting processing is performed on the management difficulty calculated for each of the configurations, the weighting processing increasing the management difficulty as the hierarchy runs deeper from the first communication network configuration, the file sharing configuration, the file system configuration, the backup configuration, the logical storage area configuration, to the second communication network configuration, in this order, seen from a user who accesses the storage control device;

the average maintenance interval calculating part refers to an access record from the computer to each of the file sharing environments, and calculates an average value of time intervals of accesses from the computer during a predetermined period to the file sharing environment as an average maintenance interval; and

the file sharing environment usage degree calculating part calculates the file sharing environment usage degree of each of the file sharing environments as a product of the number of accesses per predetermined unit time, the number of files accessed from the computer, and the number of users who access this file sharing environment.

3. The management system for a storage system according to claim 2, wherein the file sharing environment to be moved to the different storage control device is a file sharing environment determined to have a highest average value of the management difficulty and a smallest variance from the average value, where the average value and the variance are calculated, for each of the file sharing environments operating in the specific storage control device, on the basis of the management difficulty of the file sharing environment.

4. The management system for the storage system according to claim 1, wherein the management difficulty is a total sum of management difficulty calculated, for at least one of configurations of each file sharing environment, on the basis of the number of tiers of resources forming the configuration and a redundancy in the tiers, the configurations including a configuration of the first communication network, a file sharing configuration, a file system configuration, a backup configuration, a logical storage area configuration, and a configuration of the second communication network.

5. The management system for the storage system according to claim 4, wherein weighting processing is performed on the management difficulty calculated for each of the configurations, the weighting processing increasing the management difficulty as the hierarchy runs deeper from the first communication network configuration, the file sharing configuration, the file system configuration, the backup configuration, the logical storage area configuration, to the second communication network configuration, in this order, seen from the computer who accesses the storage control device.

6. The management system for the storage system according to claim 1, wherein the average maintenance interval calculating part refers to an access record from the computer to each of the file sharing environments, and calculates an average value of time intervals of accesses from the computer during a predetermined period to the file sharing environment as an average maintenance interval.

7. The management system for the storage system according to claim 1, wherein the file sharing environment usage degree calculating part calculates the file sharing environment usage degree of each of the file sharing environments as a product of the number of accesses per predetermined unit time, the number of files accessed from the computer, and the number of users who access this file sharing environment.

8. A management method for a storage system, the storage system including

a computer that executes data processing;

a storage apparatus that provides a storage area of the data processed in the computer;

a plurality of file systems that enable the computer to input and output data from and to the storage apparatus per file unit;

a storage control device in which a plurality of file sharing environments that enable a plurality of users to access a plurality of files managed by the file systems from the computer are constructed;

a first communication network that communicably couples the computer to the storage control device; and

a second communication network that communicably couples the storage apparatus to the storage control device,

the method comprising;

providing the storage system with;

an average maintenance interval calculating part to calculate an average maintenance interval that is an average value of time intervals of an operation command given to each of the file sharing environments, a management difficulty calculating part, with respect to each of the file sharing environments, to calculate a management difficulty that is an index quantitatively showing a difficulty to manage the file sharing environment and is determined based on a type and a quantity of resources included in the file sharing environment, and a file sharing environment usage degree calculating part to calculate a file sharing environment usage degree that is an index showing a degree of usage of this file sharing environment and is determined based on an access frequency that is an index showing a frequency at which the users access each of the file sharing environments and the number of users who access the file sharing environment;

keeping numerical ranges and processing contents in association with each other, the numerical ranges being defined in advance respectively for the average maintenance interval, the management difficulty, and the file sharing environment usage degree, the processing contents being defined respectively for the average maintenance interval calculating part, the management difficulty calculating part, and the file sharing environment usage degree calculating part, in association with the numerical ranges;

keeping each of the file sharing environments and the processing content in association with each other, the processing content kept in the processing content keeping part; and

executing the processing contents kept in the processing content keeping part in association with each of the file sharing environments;

wherein when the management difficulties calculated for the respective file sharing environments are compared to one another and a determination is made that there are the plurality of file sharing environments each having the management difficulty higher than a predetermined condition in a specific storage control device, any one selected from the file sharing environments having higher management difficulty is moved to another different storage control device.

9. The management method for the storage system according to claim 8, wherein the file sharing environment to be moved to the different storage control device is a file sharing environment determined to have a highest average value of the management difficulty and a smallest variance from the average value, where the average value and the variance are calculated, for each of the file sharing environments operating in the specific storage control device, on the basis of the management difficulty of the file sharing environment.

10. The management method for the storage system according to claim 8, wherein the management difficulty is a total sum of management difficulty calculated, for at least one of configurations of each file sharing environment, on the basis of the number of tiers of resources forming the configuration and a redundancy in the tiers, the configurations including a configuration of the first communication network, a file sharing configuration, a file system configuration, a backup configuration, a logical storage area configuration, and a configuration of the second communication network.

11. The management method for the storage system according to claim 10, wherein weighting processing is performed on the management difficulty calculated for each of the configurations, the weighting processing increasing the management difficulty as the hierarchy runs deeper from the first communication network configuration, the file sharing configuration, the file system configuration, the backup configuration, the logical storage area configuration, to the second communication network configuration, in this order, seen from the computer who accesses the storage control device.

12. The management method for the storage system according to claim 8, wherein the average maintenance interval calculating part refers to an access record from the computer to each of the file sharing environments, and calculates an average value of time intervals of accesses from the computer during a predetermined period to the file sharing environment as an average maintenance interval.

13. The management method for the storage system according to claim 8, wherein the file sharing environment usage degree calculating part calculates the file sharing environment usage degree of each of the file sharing environments as a product of the number of accesses per predetermined unit time, the number of files accessed from the computer, and the number of users who access this file sharing environment.