JP2001100931A - Disk array device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a disk array device which can automatically back up data. SOLUTION: This device comprises a disk array device 5 constituted by connecting two computers 2a and 2b and a backup device 16 which can have an arbitrary timer time set and backs up data stored in the disk array device 5 under the control of a disk array controller 6 of this disk array device 5 when a timer time set has elapsed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a system in which one or a plurality of disk array devices are connected to one or a plurality of computers, and data stored in the disk array devices is transferred to the one or a plurality of computers. More particularly, the present invention relates to a disk array device that automatically backs up data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a computer system that handles large-scale data, one or more disk array devices may be used. In addition, in such a computer system, data stored in one or more disk array devices is shared and used by one or more computers in order to enhance the reliability of data storage and data processing. Sometimes.

[0003]

In a computer system having one or a plurality of computers and one or a plurality of disk array devices, conventionally, backup of data stored in the disk array device is performed by It is done manually.

[0004] When a user backs up data stored in the disk array device during the manual backup process, the data stored in the disk array device operates on one or more computers during the backup. It must not be updated by the application that is running.

[0005] To do so, it is necessary to temporarily stop applications running on one or more computers, or to stop the computers themselves, and then manually perform backup, which is troublesome. In addition, there arises a problem that a backup failure due to an erroneous operation may result.

As a method of avoiding this, a method of automatically backing up after prohibiting writing processing to the disk array device by software can be considered.

However, in the above-described method, the application running on one or more computers must recognize that the write processing to the disk array device is prohibited, and the system configuration is redundant. There is a problem that it becomes.

An object of the present invention is to provide a disk array device capable of automatically backing up data.

[0009]

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a disk array device connected to one or a plurality of computers. A storage unit, a control unit that can set an arbitrary timer time, and performs control for backing up data stored in the data storage unit when the set timer time has elapsed, and the control unit And backup means for storing data stored in the data storage unit under the backup control of.

A second aspect of the present invention is characterized in that the control means according to the first aspect of the present invention includes means for backing up data at an arbitrary area address in the data storage unit.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the control means according to the first aspect of the present invention includes a means for backing up the changed data based on control information indicating an area where the data has been changed. Features.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, as the control means in the first aspect of the present invention, based on control information indicating an area address to be backed up and control information indicating an area in which data has been changed, an arbitrary area address can be set. It is characterized by comprising means for backing up changed data.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, as the control means according to the first aspect of the present invention, a temporary storage means for temporarily storing address information of data to be written and data, and a temporary storage means for temporarily storing the address information and the data. Means for restoring data address information and data.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a disk array device according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG.
Is a block diagram of the disk array device of the present embodiment in which two computers 2a and 2b are connected and data is automatically backed up.

The disk array device 1 of the present embodiment comprises a disk array device 5 and a backup device 16. The computer system includes computer 2
This is a configuration in which the disk array device 1 is shared by a and 2b.

The computers 2a and 2b have at least various applications 3a and 3b and management daemons 4a and 4b for executing various applications. Various applications 3a and 3b process various data, and a disk array device management daemon 4
a and 4b manage the disk array device 5.

On the other hand, the disk array device 5 comprises a disk array controller 6 and a hard disk drive (HH
D) 12a to 12c. The disk array control device 6 includes an arithmetic control device 7, a main storage device 8, an input / output control device 9, a SCSI (square) control device 10, and a temporary storage device 11.

The arithmetic control unit 7 performs various arithmetic processes. The main storage device 8 stores various information. That is, the main storage device 8 holds a backup start timer BT, a backup area address storage table AT1, and an area change table MT1 as control information. The backup area address storage table AT1 holds the area addresses of data stored in the disk array device 5 in the order in which the data is to be backed up, and the area change table MT1 holds information indicating whether or not data has been changed in the area. I do.

The input / output control device 9 performs various input / output processes. The SCSI (scuzzy) controller 10 controls the hard disk drives 12a to 12c. The temporary storage device 11 temporarily stores data to be read from and written to the hard disk drives 12a to 12c.

The hard disk drives 12a to 12
“c” stores various data according to the control from the disk array control device 6.

Here, the hard disk drives 12a-
12c has stripe areas 13a to 13c, 14a to
14c and 15a to 15c are provided. The stripe areas 13a to 13c, 14a to 14c, 15a to 1
5c is a division size of data written to the hard disk drives 12a to 12c, and the data of the division size is stored in the separate hard disk drives 12a to 12c.
Is written to.

In this embodiment, there is provided a backup device 16 constituting the disk array device 1 together with the disk array device 5. The backup device 16 operates in relation to the disk array device 5, which will be described below. First, the arithmetic and control unit 7 of the disk array device 5
The following five commands are processed.

As the first command processing, the computer 2a,
The management daemons 4a and 4b operating in 2b issue a request to reset the backup start timer BT to the disk array device 5.

Next, the input / output control unit 9 of the disk array control unit 6, which has received the request to reset the backup start timer BT from the computers 2a and 2b, sends the backup start timer BT to the arithmetic control unit 7 by an interrupt or other method. That the reset request has been received.

Further, the arithmetic and control unit 7 resets the backup start timer BT held in the main storage device 8 to a value requested from the computers 2a and 2b.

The various applications 3a to 3b running on the computers 2a and 2b issue a data write request or a data read request to the disk array device 5. The input / output control device 9 of the disk array control device 6 that has received the data write request from the computers 2a and 2b notifies the arithmetic control device 7 that the data write request has been received by an interrupt or other method.

As a second command processing, the arithmetic and control unit 7 includes a temporary storage device 11 and a hard disk drive 12a.
To the data 13 requested from the computers 2a and 2b
a to 13c are written, and a change flag of the area change table MT1 corresponding to the area in which the data is written is set.

As the third command processing, the computer 2a,
The input / output control device 9 of the disk array control device 6 that has received the data read request from 2b notifies the arithmetic control device 7 that the data read request has been received by interruption or other methods. Next, the arithmetic and control unit 7 controls the temporary storage device 11 or the hard disk drives 12a to 12a.
Data 14 requested by computers 2a and 2b from 12c
a to 14c are read.

As the fourth command processing, the computer 2a,
Various applications 3a-3b running on 2b
Issues a write request or a read request of the backup area address to the disk array device 5. Calculator 2
The input / output control device 9 of the disk array control device 6 which has received the write request of the backup area address from a and 2b notifies the arithmetic control device 7 that the write request of the backup area address has been received by an interrupt or another method. . Next, the arithmetic and control unit 7 includes a main storage device 8
The backup area address requested by the computers 2a and 2b is written to the backup area address storage table AT1 stored in the storage area.

As the fifth command processing, the computer 2a,
I / O controller 9 of disk array controller 6 that has received a read request for the backup area address from 2b
Notifies the arithmetic and control unit 7 that the read request for the backup area address has been accepted by an interrupt or other method. Next, the arithmetic and control unit 7 executes the backup area address storage table A stored in the main storage device 8.
From T1, the backup area address requested from the computers 2a and 2b is read.

Various applications 3a-3b running on the computers 2a, 2b request the disk array device management daemons 4a-4b to stop the request to reset the backup start timer BT, or the computers 2a, 2b
When the value of the backup start timer BT becomes 0 due to the stop of the operation or the like, the input / output control device 9 notifies the arithmetic and control unit 7 that the backup start timer has become 0 by interruption or other methods.

Next, the arithmetic and control unit 7 sets a backup area address storage table AT1 and an area change table MT1.
Therefore, only the area in which the data has been changed since the previous backup or all the areas are backed up to the backup device 16.

During the data backup, the computers 2a and 2
b, the arithmetic and control unit 7 temporarily stores the data 15a to 15c requested by the computer together with the address information using the temporary storage device 11 or a part of the hard disk drives 12a to 12c as a temporary storage area. Write and restore after backup is complete. Note that a data read request is accepted as usual.

The backup operation performed by the backup device 16 and the disk array device 5 follows the flows shown in FIGS.

In FIG. 2, at step 101, the above-mentioned first to fifth commands requested by the computers 2a and 2b are determined. By this determination, steps 102, 104, and 11 corresponding to the processing of the first to fifth commands are performed.
Go to 2, 118 and 120.

First, step 102 means, as a first command processing, a request to reset the backup start timer. In step 103, the backup start timer is reset to the value requested from the computers 2a and 2b. Set.

Step 104 means a data write request as a second command process, and the process proceeds to the determination at step 105. Step 105
Then, it is determined whether the data is being backed up. That is, in step 105, it is determined that the data shown in step 106 is not being backed up,
It is determined that the data indicated by 0 is being backed up.

At step 107 reached via step 106, the computer 2 is stored in the temporary storage device 11.
Write the data requested by a and 2b. Next, in step 108, the hard disk drives 12a to 12c
The data requested by the computers 2a and 2b is written in.
Next, in step 109, a change flag of the area change table corresponding to the area in which the data is written is set.

On the other hand, in step 111 which arrives via steps 105 and 110, data is temporarily written in the temporary storage area together with the address information.

Step 112, which has been transferred according to the determination of step 101, means a data read request, and then the process proceeds to step 113. Step 113
Then, it is determined whether the data requested by the computers 2a and 2b exists in the temporary storage device 11 (step 1).
13, step 116). When the process proceeds to step 115 in the judgment of step 113, the data requested by the computers 2a and 2b is read from the temporary storage device 11. Also,
In step 117, data requested from the computers 2a and 2b is read from the hard disk drives 12a to 12c.

The step 118 shifted to the judgment of the step 101 means that it is a write request for the backup area address, and then the step shifts to a step 119. That is, in step 119, the backup area address requested by the computers 2a and 2b is written to the backup area address storage table.

The step 120 shifted to the judgment of the step 101 means that the request is for reading the backup area address, and then the step shifts to the step 121. That is, in step 121, the backup area address requested by the computers 2a and 2b is read from the backup area address storage table.

As described above, in the present embodiment, data backup is performed by five command processes by the arithmetic and control unit 7 of the disk array device 5.

In addition, the disk array device of the present embodiment can perform data restoration together with backup.

The operation of backing up data and restoring the backed up data will be described below with reference to FIG. That is, in step 201, only the area whose data has been changed since the previous backup or all the areas are backed up to the backup device 16 from the backup area address storage table and the area change table.

Next, in step 202, there is a data write request from the computers 2a and 2b during the backup, and the temporary storage device 11 or the hard disk drive 1
It is determined whether data has been written to some of the temporary storage areas 2a to 12c.

Here, step 203 means that data exists in the temporary storage device 11 or in a partial temporary storage area of the hard disk drives 12a to 12c.

Next, at step 204, the data existing in the temporary storage device 11 or a part of the temporary storage area of the hard disk drives 12a to 12c is restored to the hard disk drives 12a to 12c. Here, step 205 means that there is no data in the temporary storage device 11 or in a temporary storage area of a part of the hard disk drives 12a to 12c.

As described above, in the flow of FIG. 3, data written in the temporary storage device 11 or a part of the temporary storage area of the hard disk drives 12a to 12c can be restored.

In FIG. 1, two computers 2a and 2
b, one disk array device 1 is connected, and the data stored in the disk array device 1 is transferred to two computers 2a,
2b, a computer system in which data of one disk array device is shared by three or more computers, a computer system in which data of one disk array device is shared by one computer, a plurality of disks A computer system in which data of the array device is shared by a plurality of computers is also included in the present invention.

[0051]

As described above, according to the present invention, 1
In a disk array device connected to one or a plurality of computers, a data storage unit including a plurality of disk storage media, an arbitrary timer time can be set, and when the set timer time elapses, By providing a control unit for performing control for backing up data stored in the data storage unit, and a backup unit for storing data stored in the data storage unit by backup control by the control unit, A disk array device capable of automatically backing up data stored in the data storage unit can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exemplary block diagram showing a disk array device according to an embodiment of the present invention in relation to a computer and the like;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a backup operation in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a backup operation in the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: Computer system, 2a, 2b: Computer, 3a, 3b
... Applications, 4a, 4b ... Daemon, 5 ... Disk array device main body, 6 ... Disk array controller, 7
... arithmetic and control unit, 8 ... main storage unit, 9 ... input / output control unit, 10 ... SCSI control unit, 11 ... temporary storage unit, 1
2a to 12a: Hard disk drive (HDD), 1
3a to 15a, 13b to 15b, 13c to 15c: stripe area, 16: backup device.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A disk array device connected to one or more computers, a data storage unit comprising a plurality of disk storage media, an arbitrary timer time can be set, and the set timer is set. Control means for performing control for backing up data stored in the data storage unit when time has passed; backup means for storing data stored in the data storage unit by backup control by the control means; A disk array device comprising: 2. The disk array device according to claim 1, wherein said control means includes means for backing up data at an arbitrary area address in said data storage unit. 3. The disk array device according to claim 1, wherein said control means includes means for backing up the changed data based on control information indicating an area where the data has been changed. 4. The control means includes means for backing up data whose area address has been changed based on control information indicating an area address to be backed up and control information indicating an area whose data has been changed. 2. The disk array device according to claim 1, wherein 5. The control means includes: a temporary storage means for temporarily storing address information and data of data to be written; and a means for restoring the address information and data of data temporarily stored in the temporary storage means. The disk array device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the disk array device is provided.