JP2008123253A - Method using directory service for managing volume and data object in data storage system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an improved method for providing automatic and dynamic management of the volume size of a storage volume in a computer system in a method where the system can continue operating without any need for stopping during execution. <P>SOLUTION: The computer implementing method includes: a step of receiving a standard I/O command from a host; a step of using a relation file system by considering the creation of a plurality of extended attribute variables; a step of determining whether a sufficient empty capacity for continuing the IO request is present by starting an allocation management system; and a step of storing management data as an extended attribute using the allocation management system when the operation is possible. The computer implementing method provides the management of data objects in a computer storage system. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention is a method for automatically and dynamically managing size and other related aspects of computer storage volumes using directory services without the need for user or system administrator intervention. It is about.

  A volume is an arbitrarily sized and sized electronic container used to help manage and present electronic files, which are placed in these various containers by a storage user. This storage management is usually performed by a person known as a system administrator ("System Administrator"). A data object ("Data Object") is considered to be a file, directory, volume, or any object specifically defined to be stored.

  In the act of providing user-usable storage, in systems belonging to small and medium sized computer systems, the system administrator uses a utility provided by the disk manufacturer to divide the disk into several partitions The computer system vendor's OS logical volume manager (LVM) can then be used to bring these partitions together to make them appear like larger virtual drives or volumes. This is sometimes accomplished by a piece of similar software provided by a third party vendor for this purpose.

  However, before installing such a configured system, the system administrator must decide how to partition the drive. Each partition is defined as one physically contiguous range of fixed blocks. Therefore, if you want to install a system where several volumes physically occupy the same set of drives, you must first determine the size of these volumes. The major complication that arises from this is that during initialization, a fixed range of blocks on the disk is allocated to the volume, which is not possible if it is necessary to resize the volume for that set. Furthermore, in order to operate in a conventional manner, each volume must maintain its own table, typically a bitmap, or an expanded tree of free blocks.

  Further, in the act of providing usable storage to users, an enterprise system and a storage area network (SAN) rarely divide one physical drive. They integrate drives into so-called drive pools, or device sets. Therefore, in a SAN, one disk can or cannot belong to a volume. Next, the LVM service described above can be overlaid on the SAN operation, resulting in the same effect.

  Some vendors provide systems that resize a volume partition by using the LVM and a new partition to be associated with the volume. Next, the fixed block associated with the new partition is determined to be associated with the fixed block of the existing volume. This makes it possible to increase the size of the file system. This method is cumbersome, subject to volume fragmentation, and subject to various partition restrictions on the drive that are often limited by the respective drive manufacturer, and often requires time-consuming data to accomplish this proliferation. Including migration.

(Summary of the Invention)
Provides an improved way to provide automatic and dynamic management of the volume size of storage volumes in a computer system in such a way that the system can continue to operate without having to be stopped during execution This is the object of the present invention.

  It is a further object of the present invention to provide a user for storage within a volume and a means for an improved method for directory allocation management.

  It is a further object of the present invention to provide a means for data objects that can be managed or restricted by several assignments rather than just one.

  Access control, reliability considerations, local mirror copy, remote mirror copy, backup copy, archive storage, tracking record change log, usage statistics log, tracking record access log, object cost management, retention period enforcement, data object content It is a further object of the present invention and a number of other useful that can arise that provide for a data object that can be managed in a variety of ways, including but not limited to indexing and profiling of Objectives can also be managed by this approach.

Detailed Description of the Invention and Preferred Embodiments
One main aspect of the present invention is the introduction of the concept of volume-directory ("Volume-Directory") by implementing directory-based allocation by using extended attributes as metadata storage, where , Usage patterns are aggregated.

  User-based allocation is a common approach, and the current Linux kernel API allows user-based allocation to be implemented from file system code. However, current methods of defining volumes always specify block ranges and associate them with volumes in a fixed way. Therefore, once determined as such, the volume size cannot be adjusted without returning to changing the fixed block allocation. This prior art method includes adjusting the various ranges and managing the situation where there is an overlap conflict.

  The method of the present invention includes defining a volume extension attribute as a management volume. So each file will share its definition. Next, related properties such as inheritance and lower hierarchy constraints will be associated with each file stored in the volume. This creates a directory-based size allocation. The result of this is a virtual size volume. Such a volume does not need to maintain a fixed size, and any existing management means that exist to determine the volume size could be used to resize the volume with very simple use.

  The method of the present invention allows the system administrator to effectively resize the volume-directory at will, since there is no fixed allocation of block physical range for a particular directory. The present invention dynamically counts how many blocks are used by a given directory on a given drive and its subdirectories. This results in a very easy volume sizing procedure-rather than subdivision of the block range allocated to the volume, the present invention simply adjusts the allocation.

  The method of the present invention, whose name and value ranges are incidental to those skilled in the art, its presence allows for the supplementation of a set of extended attributes that will be useful in data recording and management. Use a modified file system. What is important is that the file system allows these management variables to be added and they are stored as extended attributes. Such a file system is useful for managing data objects in a manner as described in the present invention.

  Consider the operation of one of the preferred embodiments when initially initializing the system.

  When the system is first initialized, the system administrator declares how much storage capacity should be allocated on a per volume basis. Obviously, this cannot exceed the physical storage capacity of the physical system itself. The system administrator can arbitrarily set arbitrary restrictions on the drive, user, group, and entire volume.

  This discussion utilizes the presentation of FIG. The legend of this figure is indicated by item 112 in the figure. Once the initial size constraints are established, the present invention proceeds along the path of the standard write operation 105. This is one of the normal input / output or I / O standard operations shown at 101. Depending on, or instead of, the implicit acceptance of the default definition, in accordance with this definition by the system administrator, the method of the present invention activates the assignment management system as specified by the checks shown at 102,106. If there is sufficient free space, allocation blocks “Quota Block” 103 and 107 are allocated to the directory or object. In the simple case, there is a one-to-one relationship between the data object and the allocation block, i.e. a newly created directory or newly created file has a newly created allocation block. As the complexity of real-world storage requirements becomes apparent, allocation blocks frequently expand into a one-to-many relationship. Consider the following example: In creating a new file, if there are no special requests to manage the file, the permissions associated with the directory and the current set of assignments are assigned or inherited. In this case, the allocation block used to manage this file will be the same allocation block used to manage the directory. However, if special management requirements are imposed on this file, such as file size restrictions, file access restrictions, file tracking log restrictions, or file reliability restrictions, a new allocation block is created. Manage this object. The same applies to other objects such as directories or volumes.

  Unless specifically declared for a particular object, volume attributes and directory attributes are inherited in a downward fashion, so the management of allocation blocks across multiple objects is vertically expanding.

  Consider one operation of the preferred embodiment when storing data objects using the present invention.

  The user declares that the file is stored in the usual way. The file system queries the allocation management subsystem (“Quota Management Subsystem”) 102 having the size of the file and determines whether there is sufficient free space in the allocation hierarchy. The allocation management subsystem examines extended attributes for all applicable allocation block entities, ie drives, files, groups, volumes, and responds positively or negatively with respect to file storage events. In this embodiment, the file system has a service that pre-allocates some extra free space to a file whenever an initial file allocation request is made. If various assignments are further available, store the file and update each assignment accordingly for each extended attribute.

  Consider the operation of one of the preferred embodiments when changing the size of an existing data object using the present invention, namely the change command as shown at 108.

  Except for extended files, this is the same as described above, and the allocation management subsystem begins by determining whether some of the available free space previously allocated to the file is still available. Check 110. If it is available and covers the intended extension, return the approval permission and reduce the amount of pre-allocated free space available accordingly and continue operation as normal 104. If the pre-allocated free space is not available, the allocation management system continues to check any size limit 109 109 and either rejects the command or sends a command to change the allocation block At any of 107, this continues 104 the path of normal operation.

  The method described above applies to both data elements and metadata elements of various data objects.

  The method described above makes it possible to accumulate aggregate statistics across the volume and across the system.

  Consider the operation of one of the preferred embodiments when reading an existing data object using the present invention.

  There are no special steps or considerations regarding the read operation 111 according to the present invention.

  As explained above, the present invention allows the modified file system to have the flexibility to introduce some kind of allocation or data object related management service. These include access control, reliability considerations, local mirror copy, remote mirror copy, backup copy, archive storage, usage statistics log, tracking record change log, tracking record access log, object cost management, retention period enforcement, content Numerous other useful purposes that may arise can be managed by this approach, including but not limited to indexing and profiling.

  You can also introduce relaxation for the volume-directory to occupy more than a predetermined amount of blocks on a given drive, or limit a single user in this volume-directory rather than a volume-directory Would be able to.

  The present invention is not limited to addressing the size problem of data objects, but as discussed above, a general method for managing any useful attributes that can be associated with or attached to a data object. One skilled in the art will appreciate that it includes a case.

2 is a schematic representation of the method according to the invention.

Claims (1)

Receiving a standard I / O command from the host;
Using an associated file system that allows for the creation of multiple extended attribute variables;
Activating an allocation management system to determine whether there is sufficient free space to continue the IO request;
If the operation is possible, storing the management data as an extended attribute using the allocation management system;
A computer-implemented method for providing management of data objects in a computer storage system, comprising:

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