JP2002278705A - Computer system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a means for shortening starting time of a system by starting the system without waiting for spin up of all hard disks. SOLUTION: In the system for successively spinning up the hard disks when a computer system is started, the starting time of the system is shortened by setting or automatically deciding minimum required hard disks for starting the system and spinning up them according to decided priority.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to system startup control of a computer system, and more particularly to spin-up control of a hard disk.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The startup time of a computer system greatly affects the time required to start up (spin up) a hard disk. When starting the hard disk, the motor uses a much larger power than the one used during normal operation until the motor is started up to the nominal speed.Therefore, not all the hard disks are spun up at once, but according to the power supply capacity of the system. A method of sequentially spinning up is becoming common. However, since a long time is required for spin-up, this method has a problem that the system startup time is significantly long. To solve this problem, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open
0-10678 "Spinup of Smart DASD"
Discloses a method of quickly and efficiently activating a system device by changing the number of hard disks that spin up at the same time in relation to the power supply capability.

[0003]

The hard disk has the following features.
In addition to data required at system startup, such as the core of the operating system, there are data called on demand after startup and empty areas. The amount of data required at system startup is often much smaller than the total disk capacity. For this reason, the prior art employs a method in which the system is started after waiting for spin-up of all disks, so that the start-up time is not sufficiently reduced. An object of the present invention is to provide a computer system in which the system startup time is reduced even in a system having a plurality of hard disks.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, a spin-up order of a plurality of hard disks is defined, at least one hard disk is spun up in the defined order, and a predetermined spin-up is performed. When the hard disk spins up, start the system program.

When system programs and data are stored in a plurality of hard disks in a distributed manner,
The contents of a plurality of areas accessed at the time of system startup are moved or copied to at least one hard disk, and the hard disks are preferentially spun up.

[0006]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a computer system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The host 10 connects to the hard disk 30 via the hard disk control 20. The hard disk control 20 determines the spin-up order /
It comprises a threshold setting means 21, a spin-up control means 22, a threshold excess determination means 23, a system activation control means 24 and other means.

According to such a configuration, the spin-up order / threshold setting means 21 sets in advance the spin-up order of the hard disks and a threshold value indicating how many hard disks are required to start up the system. The hard disk is spun up in the set order by the spin-up control means 22, and the threshold excess determination means 23 determines whether the hard disk required for system startup has completed spin-up. By starting the system device using only the hard disks that have completed spin-up in 24, the system devices can be started before the spin-up of all hard disks is completed.

During the spin-up operation of the hard disk, there is no command response until the motor speed of the hard disk reaches the nominal value, so that the influence on the data access for system startup while the remaining hard disks spin up is extremely large. Few.

In order for the spin-up control means 22 to perform a spin-up process in which a necessary hard disk is given priority, a form of a spin-up management table as shown in FIGS. 2, 3 and 4 can be considered.

In FIG. 2, a spin-up priority flag 41 is set for an ID 40 uniquely assigned to each hard disk. The spin-up control means 22 preferentially spins up the hard disk of ID 40 to which the flag 41 is attached, and the threshold excess determining means 23 determines whether or not the spin-up of all the hard disks to which the flag 41 is attached is completed. be able to. In the example of FIG. 2, the hard disks having IDs of 0 and 1 are preferentially spun up. The number of units that spin up at one time may be fixed, or may be determined by the method described in JP-A-2000-10678 “Spin-up of smart DASD” or other methods. When the two hard disks for which the spin-up priority flag 41 has been checked have completed spin-up, system startup is started.

In FIG. 3, the spin-up order 4 for each ID 40
In this method, 3 is set and the threshold value 44 is set. The spin-up control means 22 causes the hard disks in the spin-up order 43 to spin up in ascending order. The spin-up control means 22 spins up the remaining hard disks while starting the system.

FIG. 4 shows a method of setting a spin-up group 46, which is effective, for example, in a system in which a RAID configuration is constructed, which RAID group is to be given priority for spin-up. The spin-up group 46 preferentially spins up the hard disk of A.
In the case of the ID configuration, data cannot be read unless all the hard disks in the configuration have completed spin-up. Therefore, even if some of the hard disks set as A in the spin-up group 46 have completed spin-up, the same group is not used. Since the remaining hard disks that have not been spun up cannot read the remaining data and cannot start the system, the system waits until all the hard disks in the group spin up.

Since the hard disk accessed at system startup is fixed, by monitoring access, it is possible to determine the hard disk to be spun up at the next startup. An example of this method is shown in FIG. The hard disk that has been accessed at the time of system startup is stored in the access storage unit 52 in the manner shown in FIG.

Further, if attention is paid to one hard disk for which spin-up should be given priority, not all areas are necessarily required for system startup. There are cases where there are data areas and empty areas to be referenced after the system starts. FIG.
In the above example, the data A, B, and C necessary for system startup are ID
This is the case where the data is distributed to the hard disks of ID2 from 0. Data B (62) and data C (63) are ID0
If the HDD can be moved to the empty area 65 of the hard disk, the only hard disk required for system startup is the hard disk of ID0, and the system can be started when the spin-up of the hard disk of ID0 is completed. If the capacity of the empty area 65 is small, the data 62 and 63 required for system startup are replaced with the data 64 not required for system startup, so that data required for system startup can be concentrated on ID0. In either case, simply moving the data in the hard disk will not make the system consistent.

In order to move data without rewriting the data management area managed by the OS, as shown in the example of FIG. 7, data replacement management means 77 for storing replacement of data.
Can be solved by adding By mounting the data replacement management means 77 in the hard disk control means 20,
Data replacement management can be performed separately from OS management. However, according to this method, when data is moved between RAIDs, the guarantee of data in the event of a disk failure is not complete. That is, in a system in which a plurality of RAIDs coexist, data in a redundant RAID 5 configuration is moved to a hard disk configured with RAID 0 having no redundancy. In the process of moving data, not only the access priority but also the system RAI
The movement should be made in consideration of the D configuration.

If there is room in the empty area 65, the above problem can be solved by copying data to the empty area instead of moving data between hard disks.
That is, data necessary for system startup is copied to a small number of hard disks, and data at the copy destination is used only at system startup. By referring to and changing the copy source data except when the system is activated, the data is guaranteed within the guaranteed range of the RAID configuration. in this case,
It is necessary to provide a means for performing re-copying in accordance with a change in data at the copy source.

In a system that waits for all hard disks to spin up due to the restrictions of a higher-level control mechanism such as the OS, and then starts the system, the spin-up completion pseudo-reporting means 88 shown in FIG. , The spin-up of the remaining hard disk can be continued while reporting the spin-up completion.

Further, in the computer system, the system startup is completed at a certain point in time, and subsequently the business process which is the purpose of the computer system is performed. However, from the viewpoint of the access order of the hard disk, the system startup and the business process are performed. There is no distinction, and the order of the hard disks to be accessed is simply fixed. Therefore, the initial object of the present invention is to shorten the system startup time, but in the case of a fixed order of hard disk access even in business processing after the system startup, not only at the time of system startup but also for all The present invention is also effective in that necessary data can be accessed until the hard disk completes spin-up and the system can be started.

[0019]

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a computer system which can be started quickly without waiting for all the hard disks to spin up. According to the present invention, the hard disk storing necessary data is preferentially spun up at the time of system startup, so that the system can be started without waiting for the completion of spin-up of another hard disk, and the system startup time is reduced. it can.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a setting example of a spin-up priority flag.

FIG. 3 shows an example of setting a spin-up order and a threshold.

FIG. 4 Example of setting up a spin-up group

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention using an access storage means.

FIG. 6 shows an example of data movement using the free space of a hard disk.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention using data replacement management means;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention using a spin-up completion pseudo report means.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Host 20 Hard disk control means 21 Spin-up order / threshold setting means 22 Spin-up control means 23 Threshold exceeded judgment means 24 System activation control means 30 Hard disk 40 ID 41 Spin-up priority flag 43 Spin-up order 44 Threshold Value 46 spin-up group 52 access storage means 54 system start-up possible judgment means 64 data not required for system start-up 65 empty area 77 data replacement management means 88 spin-up completion pseudo report means

Claims (3)

[Claims] In a computer system having a plurality of hard disks for storing system programs and data, a spin-up defining means for defining a spin-up order of the hard disks, and a spin for sequentially spinning up the hard disks based on the spin-up defining means. A computer system, comprising: an up control unit; and a system activation control unit that detects an activation state of a hard disk controlled by the spin-up control unit and controls activation of a system program. 2. An area management means for managing an empty area in a hard disk, an access management means for storing a hard disk which is accessed when the system is started and an access area in the hard disk, and the area management means. Data replacement management means for generating, on at least one hard disk, the contents of a plurality of areas accessed at the time of system startup based on the access management means, wherein the spin-up definition means stores the data on the hard disk replaced by the data replacement management means. A computer system characterized by defining a spin-up order with priority. 3. The system startup control means according to claim 1, wherein when the system cannot be started until all the hard disks are spun up due to a restriction of a higher-level control mechanism such as an operating system, the system startup control means simulates that all the hard disks are spun up. A computer system for reporting to a higher-level control mechanism.