JP2001100941A - Disk array device and its control method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a disk array device and its control method which can connect only the synchronizing signal lines of disk devices having the same rotating speed by switching the synchronizing signal lines. SOLUTION: This device is provided with a synchronizing signal switching circuit 21 which can connect only the synchronizing signal lines 18 of disk devices having the same rotating speed by switching the synchronizing signal lines 18.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a disk array device and a method for controlling the same, and more particularly, to reading or writing data to or from each disk device by controlling the rotation of each disk device connected to each other via a parallel interface. The present invention relates to a disk array device suitable for performing write processing quickly and a control method thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a plurality of disks are connected in parallel and connected to each other, and the whole of them is controlled as a single disk device. Disk array devices have been used as external storage devices for improving the performance. There are seven types of this disk array device, from RAID 0 to RAID 6 depending on the control stage. Among them, the RAID 3 level disk array device performs rotation synchronization control for synchronizing the rotation of each disk device, thereby obtaining the The difference in the so-called rotation waiting time, which is the time interval from the end of the disk seek to the time when the data specified by the I / O request passes through the head, is eliminated, and the data reading or writing process is simultaneously performed for each disk device. It was suitable for high-speed data transfer.

As shown in FIG. 4, a conventional disk array device 1 for performing such rotation synchronization control has a host computer 2 for outputting commands such as reading or writing. And a RAID controller 4 via a host bus 3.

The RAID control device 4 has a control circuit 5 for performing various controls such as data reading or writing or rotation synchronization control.
Has a plurality of disk devices 6 having the same rotation speed.
(# 0, # 1,... #N) are connected in parallel with each other. Each disk device 6 has a rotation synchronization circuit 7, and these rotation synchronization circuits 7 are connected to each other via a synchronization signal line 8, and the synchronization signal line 8 is connected via a synchronization signal bus 9. Connected to the rotation synchronizing signal generation circuit 10 in the RAID controller 4.

[0005] In such a conventional disk array device 1, first, the user sets one of the disk devices 6 to the master attribute on the application software of the host computer 2, and sets the other disk devices 6 to the master attribute. The device 6 is set to the slave attribute, and in this state, while the rotation synchronization signal generating circuit 10 generates a synchronization signal to each disk device 6, the rotation of the master attribute disk device 6 causes the other slave attribute disk device 6 to rotate. Each disk device 6 while synchronizing the rotation of
Was performing read or write processing. As a result, the rotation waiting time of each disk device 6 can be eliminated, so that reading or writing processing for each disk device 6 can be performed simultaneously, and high-speed data transfer can be realized.

[0006]

However, in the conventional disk array device 1, since the synchronization signal line 7 connecting each disk device 6 is fixed, for example, a certain disk device 6 fails and a new replacement is performed. When the disk device 6 is connected, when the rotation speed of the new disk device 6 is different from the rotation speed of the other disk devices 6 or when the disk device 6 having no rotation synchronization circuit 7 is connected, There has been a problem that the synchronization control cannot be performed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and a disk array apparatus and a control method therefor capable of connecting only synchronous signal lines of disk apparatuses having the same rotation speed by switching synchronous signal lines. The purpose is to provide.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a disk array apparatus comprising:
A synchronization signal line switching circuit that can connect only the synchronization signal lines of the disk devices having the same number of rotations by switching the synchronization signal lines is provided.

By adopting such a configuration, a set of disk devices for performing rotation synchronization at a certain rotation speed and a disk device having a different rotation speed from this set can be separated from the same synchronization signal line. Therefore, the disk devices having different rotation speeds do not hinder rotation synchronization of other disk devices.

A feature of the control method of the disk array device according to the present invention resides in that only the synchronization signal lines of the disk devices having the same rotation speed are connected to each other by switching the synchronization signal lines.

By employing such a method, it is possible to separate a set of disk devices that perform rotation synchronization at a certain number of rotations and a disk device having a different rotation speed from the set from the same synchronization signal line. Therefore, the disk devices having different rotation speeds do not hinder rotation synchronization of other disk devices.

[0012]

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 FIGS.

As shown in FIG. 1, the disk array device 11 according to the present embodiment has a host computer 12 for outputting a read or write command.
A RAID controller 14 is connected to the host computer 12 via a host bus 13.

The RAID controller 14 has a control circuit 15 for performing various controls such as data reading or writing or rotation synchronization control. The control circuit 15 includes a plurality of disk devices 16 (# 0, #
1,. . . #N) are connected in parallel with each other. Each disk device 16 has a rotation synchronization circuit 17, and these rotation synchronization circuits 17 are connected to each other via a synchronization signal line 18. The synchronization signal line 18 is connected via a synchronization signal bus 19. Connected to the rotation synchronizing signal generation circuit 20 in the RAID controller 14.

Further, between the disk devices 16 and the rotation synchronizing signal generating circuit 20, only the synchronizing signal lines 18 of the disk devices 16 having the same number of revolutions are connected to each other by switching the synchronizing signal lines 18. A possible synchronization signal switching circuit 21 is provided. When the number of the synchronization signal buses 19 connected to the synchronization signal generation circuit 20 is i as shown in FIG. 1, the synchronization signal switching circuit 21 can set i rotation synchronization sets. It has become.

Therefore, the disk drives 16 having different rotation speeds
Are mixed, only the synchronization signal lines 18 of the disk devices 16 having the same number of rotations can be connected to each other, so that the rotation synchronization control of the connected disk devices 16 can be performed. Next, an embodiment of a disk array device control method according to the present invention to which the disk array device 11 is applied will be described.

In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, the disk drives 16 having different rotation speeds are used.
7200 arranged at positions adjacent to each other
(Rotation / minute) disk drive 16 (#
Set of 0, # 1 and # 2) and 10,000 (rev / min)
Of disk devices 16 (# 3, # 4 and # 5) having the number of rotations of In addition, the disk array device 11 which has two synchronization signal buses 19 connected to the rotation synchronization signal generation circuit 20 and performs two sets of rotation synchronization control is used.

First, on the application software of the host computer 12, the user sets one of the sets of the disk devices 16 to the master attribute and sets the other disk devices 16 to the slave attribute.
As a result, the disk drive 16 of 7200 (rotation / minute)
Of the sets, one (# 0) has the master attribute and the other (# 1 and # 2) have the slave attribute. Also, 10
Similarly, a set of 000 (rotations / minute) disk devices 16
One (# 4) is set as the master attribute and the other (# 3 and # 3)
5) is the slave attribute.

In response to the master / slave setting by the host computer 12, the synchronous signal switching circuit 12 switches the synchronous signal line 18 to switch the disk device 16 having the same rotational speed as shown in FIG. Connect only. As a result, the set (# 0, # 1, and # 7) of the disk device 16 of 7200 (revolutions / minute)
Only 2) is connected to each other by the synchronization signal line 18, and only the set (# 3, # 4, and # 5) of the 10000 (rotation / minute) disk devices 16 are connected to each other by the synchronization signal line 18. State.

In this state, while generating a different synchronization signal for each set by the rotation synchronization signal generation circuit 20, each rotation of the disk device 16 of each slave attribute is synchronized with the rotation of the disk device 16 of each master attribute. A read or write process is performed on the disk device 16. At this time, since the synchronization signal line 18 of the disk device 16 of 7200 (revolutions / minute) and the synchronization signal line 18 of 10000 (revolutions / minute) are disconnected, the pair of one disk device 16 is connected to the other disk device. The rotation synchronization by the 16 sets is not hindered.

Therefore, according to the present embodiment, only the synchronous signal lines 18 of the disk devices 16 having the same rotation speed can be connected to each other by the synchronous signal line switching circuit 21. When a new replacement disk device 16 is connected due to a failure, the rotation speed of the new disk device 16 is different from the rotation speed of the other disk devices 16, or the disk device 16 having no rotation synchronization circuit 17 is connected. In such a case, the rotation synchronization control can be performed.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but can be variously modified as needed. For example, in the above embodiment, the disk devices 16 having the same number of rotations are arranged at positions adjacent to each other, but this is not a limitation. For example, as shown in FIG. ) Disk devices 16 (# 0 and # 1) and # 3 are arranged at positions separated from each other, and 10,000 (rotation / minute) disk devices 16 (# 4 and # 5) and # 2 May be arranged at positions separated from each other. Even in such a case, if the master / slave of each disk device 16 is set on the application of the host computer 12, a set of rotation synchronization can be set regardless of the arrangement position. In addition, as a setting command of the application, not only the master and slave, but also the setting "not synchronized" is provided.
By performing "not synchronized", a disk device 16 that is not rotationally synchronized with another disk device 16 like the disk device 16 (# 6) in FIG. 3 can be set.

[0023]

As described above, according to the disk array device and the control method thereof according to the present invention, only the synchronization signal lines of the disk devices having the same rotation speed can be connected to each other. Even when different disk devices coexist, data read or write processing can be performed quickly.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a disk array device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing rotation synchronization control by a set of disk devices having different rotation speeds in the embodiment of the disk array device control method according to the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing another example of FIG. 2 in the embodiment of the control method of the disk array device according to the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a conventional disk array device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 11 disk array device 12 host computer 14 RAID controller 15 control circuit 16 disk device 17 rotation synchronization circuit 18 synchronization signal line 19 synchronization signal bus 20 rotation synchronization signal generation circuit 21 synchronization signal switching circuit

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Mitsuo Goto 1-7 Yukiya Otsukacho, Ota-ku, Tokyo Alps Electric Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Kenichi Murakami 1-7 Yukitani Otsuka-cho, Ota-ku, Tokyo Alp (72) Inventor Yuichiro Sawame 1-7 Yukitani Otsukacho, Ota-ku, Tokyo Alps Electric Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Hiroyoshi Usui 1-7 Yukitani-Otsukacho, Ota-ku, Tokyo Alps Electric Inside (72) Inventor Takechiyo Takatsuki 1-7 Yukitani Otsukacho, Ota-ku, Tokyo Alps Electric Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Kentaro Inoue 1-7 Yukitani-Otsukacho, Ota-ku, Tokyo Alps Electric (72) Inventor Mitsuru Maruyama 1-7 Yukitani-Otsuka-cho, Ota-ku, Tokyo Alps Electric Co., Ltd. F-term (reference) 5B065 BA01 CA07 CA11 CA30 CC08 CH13

Claims (2)

[Claims] A plurality of disk devices having a rotation synchronization circuit are provided in parallel with each other, the rotation synchronization circuits of the respective disk devices are connected to each other via a synchronization signal line, and this synchronization signal line is connected to a rotation synchronization signal generation circuit. And at least one of the disk devices is set to a master attribute and the other is set to a slave attribute, and based on the rotation synchronization signal generated by the rotation synchronization signal generating circuit, the disk device having the master attribute is set. A disk array device that reads or writes data from or to each disk device while rotationally synchronizing the disk device with the slave attribute, wherein only the synchronization signal lines of the disk device having the same number of rotations are changed by switching the synchronization signal lines. A disk provided with a synchronizing signal line switching circuit connectable to each other. Ray equipment. 2. A plurality of disk devices having a rotation synchronization circuit are provided in parallel with each other, and the rotation synchronization circuits of the respective disk devices are connected to each other via a synchronization signal line. And at least one of the disk devices is set to a master attribute and the other is set to a slave attribute, and based on the rotation synchronization signal generated by the rotation synchronization signal generating circuit, the disk device having the master attribute is set. A method for controlling a disk array device to perform reading or writing to each disk device while rotationally synchronizing the disk device with the slave attribute, wherein the disks having the same rotation speed by switching the synchronization signal line A disk array device characterized in that only synchronization signal lines of the device are connected to each other. Control method of.