JP2773740B2 - Disk unit diagnostic system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a diagnostic device for a disk device used in an information processing device such as a computer, and more particularly to a diagnostic system suitable for diagnosing a mirrored disk device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For applications requiring high reliability in data storage, disk devices are mirrored (duplicated) and data is stored in different disk devices twice. For example, JP-A-2-110723 discloses a method of mirroring a disk device and a countermeasure in the event of a failure of an active disk controller that performs mirroring.

FIG. 8 shows a main part of a conventionally proposed disk drive diagnosis system. This diagnostic system comprises an operating disk device 11 and an alternative disk device 1.
2 disk devices and a CPU (not shown)
(Central processing unit) and a disk controller. In this system, the active disk device 11
The mirroring is performed by copying all the data stored in the spare disk device 12. In the mirrored state, both disk devices 11, 1
2, the same data is written, the contents of the stored data are matched, and the mirroring can be maintained.

In the conventional disk drive diagnosis system, the capacity of the active disk drive 11 and the capacity of the replacement disk drive 12 do not need to be the same. Alternative disk unit 1
No. 2 only needs to have a capacity equal to or larger than the active disk device 11. This is because mirroring can be performed by copying from the active disk device 11. Of course, if the capacity of the substitute disk device 12 is larger than the used area of the active disk device 11, copying to the area having the same capacity as the active disk device 11 is performed to become the used area 13.
The other area of the alternative disk device 12 is an unused area 1
4 will be left.

[0005]

In the proposed disk drive diagnostic system, the unused area 14 generated when the capacity of the substitute disk apparatus 12 is larger than the used area of the active disk apparatus 11 is particularly recognized. Did not go. Therefore, the entire area of the alternative disk device 12 is to be diagnosed, and a read (re
Ad), write, and verify diagnostic processes were performed. As a result, the diagnosis is performed up to the meaningless unused area 14 of the mirrored data, and the diagnosis process is wasted and the processing time is wasted.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a disk drive diagnosis system which can diagnose only a used area as a mirror disk drive when the used capacity of an alternative disk drive is larger than the capacity of an active disk drive. Is to do.

[0007]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, (a) a first disk device for storing data;
(B) a second disk device that mirrors and stores the same data as the data stored in the first disk device and has a capacity equal to or larger than the used area of the first disk device; When a request for diagnosis of the disk device is issued, the diagnosis system for the disk device is provided with diagnosis execution means for searching only the area corresponding to the used area of the first disk device and performing the diagnosis.

That is, according to the first aspect of the present invention, when a second disk device having a capacity larger than that of the first disk device for storing data is used for mirroring, this diagnosis is performed. When a request is made, only the area corresponding to the used area of the first disk device is searched and its diagnosis is performed. Therefore, it is not necessary to diagnose the entire area of the second disk device. Can be planned.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, (a) a first disk device for storing data, and (b) mirroring and storing the same data as the data stored in the first disk device, A second disk device having a capacity equal to or larger than the used area of the first disk device; (c) used capacity storage means for storing the used area capacity of the first disk device; and (d) a second disk device. Used area determining means for determining the used area of the first disk device by searching the used capacity storage means when a request for diagnosis is made;
(E) A diagnosis system for a disk drive is provided with a diagnosis execution means for performing a diagnosis only on a storage area of the second disk device corresponding to the usage area determined by the usage area determination means.

That is, according to the second aspect of the present invention, when the second disk device having a capacity larger than that of the first disk device for storing data is used for mirroring, the first disk device is used. The capacity of the used area of the device is stored in the used capacity storage means, and when a request for diagnosis of the second disk device is made, the second disk device is diagnosed only in an area corresponding to this capacity. I have.
This eliminates the need to diagnose the entire area of the second disk device, and can speed up the diagnosis. Further, when the used capacity changes due to replacement of the first disk device or the like, the area to be diagnosed of the second disk device can be changed accordingly.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a disk drive diagnosis system according to the first or second aspect, wherein a plurality of first disk units and second disk units exist, and diagnosis of the second disk unit is performed. When the request is issued, the second disk device of the requested system is diagnosed.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the disk drive diagnosis system according to the first or second aspect, the second disk device allocates a use area from the head thereof. In other words, when there are a plurality of systems of disk devices, a second disk device physically exists for each system, and the used area is set from the start address of these systems, thereby facilitating disk management. I have.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

[0014]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to embodiments.

First Embodiment

FIG. 1 shows the outline of the configuration of a disk drive diagnosis system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In this system, a disk operation management unit 23 is connected to a system terminal as a terminal of the computer system via a disk diagnosis unit 22. The disk operation management unit 23 is configured to manage the operation of both the first disk device 24 as the active disk device and the second disk device 25 as the substitute disk device. The disk diagnostic unit 22 executes diagnostic processing of the first and second disk devices 24 and 25 as necessary. First and second disk devices 2
Reference numerals 4 and 25 may be magnetic disk devices, optical disk devices, or other disk devices.

In the disk drive diagnosis system having such a configuration, the system terminal 21 notifies the disk diagnosis unit 22 when a disk diagnosis request is received from a system administrator. When a diagnostic result is obtained from the disk diagnostic unit 22, the diagnostic result is displayed to the system administrator. Disk diagnostic unit 22
Is a CPU (not shown) to achieve such a function.
(Central processing unit) and a display for display. However, the CPU and the display may be common to the system terminal 21 or the disk operation management unit 23. The display to the system administrator may of course be performed via a printer.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the usage status of the first and second disk devices. In the first embodiment, the first disk device 24 has a capacity of 100 MB (megabyte), and the second disk device 25 has a capacity of 150 MB.
B has a capacity of B. These two disk devices 24 and 25 have a common area of 100 MB as a use area 31 as a mirrored disk device. Therefore, the second disk device 25 has an unused area 32 of 50 MB. In this embodiment, the second disk device 25
Simply sets and uses an area of 100 MB from the start address as a use area.

FIG. 3 shows the used area size stored in the disk operation management unit. Although not shown, the disk operation management unit 23 has its own CPU similar to the disk diagnosis unit 22 or a CPU common to the system terminal 21 and the disk diagnosis unit 22 shown in FIG. Storage area. In this storage area, a data area 41 for managing the used area of all the disk devices to be diagnosed by the disk diagnostic unit 22 (FIG. 1) is arranged. In this embodiment, since two disk devices of the first and second disk devices 24 and 25 are arranged, it is described in the data area 41 that the size of each used area is 100 MB. .

FIG. 4 shows the state of processing of the disk diagnostic section in such a disk drive diagnostic system. This processing is realized by the CPU of the disk diagnostic unit 22 executing a program stored in a predetermined storage medium. The disk diagnostic unit 22 shown in FIG. 1 waits for a diagnostic request from the system terminal 21 (step S101). For example, if an error occurs in the process of writing data to the second disk device 25, the system terminal 22 stops the mirroring process on the second disk device 25 and generates a diagnosis request for this device. Second disk device 25
May be manually requested by the system administrator for other reasons such as maintenance and inspection. When the diagnosis request is input (Y), the disk diagnosis unit 22 inquires the disk operation management unit 23 about the disk capacity of the second disk device 25 to be diagnosed (step S10).
2). Then, it waits for the information about the diagnostic size to be returned from the disk operation management unit 23 (step S1).
03).

When the information regarding the diagnostic size is sent from the disk operation management unit 23 (Y), based on the information, the diagnostic is performed for the area of the corresponding capacity (used area) in the target second disk device 25. Is executed (step S104). That is, for a 100 MB area as the use area 31 corresponding to the first disk device 24,
From the start address, each diagnostic processing of read, write and verify is performed. When the diagnosis is completed, the result is notified to the system terminal 21 (step S105), and all the operations are completed (end). In the system terminal 21,
The result of this diagnosis is displayed on the display.

If the diagnosis is performed by a method of destroying the data in the corresponding area, the second diagnosis is completed.
In the area of the disk device 25 that has been diagnosed as normal,
The data stored in the disk device 24 is copied. Thereafter, the disk operation management unit 23 stores the same data in both disk devices 24 and 25.

FIG. 5 shows the flow of processing of the disk operation management unit. The disk operation management unit 23 also performs the processing when its CPU executes a program stored in a predetermined storage medium. That is, the disk operation management unit 23 waits for an inquiry about the diagnostic size from the disk diagnostic unit 22 (step S20).
1) When there is an inquiry (Y), the used area size of the target disk device is checked by searching the data area 41 (step S202). When the size to be diagnosed by the disk diagnostic unit 22 is determined, the size is returned as information on the diagnostic size (step S203).

Second Embodiment

FIG. 6 shows an outline of a configuration of a disk drive diagnosis system according to a second embodiment of the present invention. In the second embodiment, the same portions as those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted as appropriate. In the second embodiment, the disk operation management unit 23A
The operation management of the storage unit 51 of the first group and the storage unit 52 of the second group is performed. The storage unit 51 of the first group includes a first disk device 24 and a second disk device 25 that mirrors data stored therein.
It is composed of The storage unit 52 of the second group is also
It comprises a first disk device 53 and a second disk device 54 which mirrors data stored therein. The disk diagnostic unit 22A operates the disk units 2 of the storage units 51 and 52 of both groups in accordance with an instruction from the system terminal 21
Diagnosis of 4, 25, 53 and 54 is performed.

FIG. 7 shows the used area size stored in the disk operation management unit. The disk operation management unit 23A has a data area 41A in a recording unit such as a magnetic disk. In the data area 41A, the disk devices constituting the storage units 51 and 52 (see FIG. 6) of each group and the sizes of their use areas are described. In this figure, the numbers in parentheses indicate the capacity of the entire disk device. In FIG. 6, the first group constituting the storage unit 51 of the second group
The disk device 53 has a capacity of 200 MB, and the second disk device 54 has a capacity of 400 MB. Therefore, the area used for mirroring the second disk device 54 is 200 MB.

In the second embodiment, the disk diagnosis unit 22A
When there is a diagnosis request from the system terminal 21, it determines which group of disk devices is the diagnosis,
The disk operation management unit 23A is inquired about the diagnostic size of the target second disk device 25 (or disk device 54). Disk operation management unit 2
In 3A, when this inquiry is made, the data area 41A shown in FIG. 7 is searched, and the used area size of the target disk device 25 (or disk device 54) is returned to the disk diagnostic unit 22A as the size to be diagnosed. I do. Based on this, the disk diagnostic unit 22A diagnoses only the relevant use area. For example, the second disk device 54 has a capacity of 400 MB,
At the time of this diagnosis, a diagnosis of only the used area of 200 MB corresponding to the first disk device 53 is executed from the head address. The diagnosis result is notified to the system terminal 21 and is displayed on a display or the like as in the case of the first embodiment.

In the embodiment described above, the diagnosis for one or two systems of disk devices has been described. However, the present invention can be applied to a case where more disk devices exist.

[0029]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the second disk device having a larger capacity than the first disk device for storing data is used for mirroring. When the diagnosis is requested, only the area corresponding to the used area of the first disk device is searched and the diagnosis is performed, so that it is not necessary to diagnose the entire area of the second disk device. In addition, the diagnosis can be speeded up. Further, even when an error occurs in an area other than the used area, the second disk device can be used regardless of this.

Further, according to the second aspect of the present invention, the second
There is no need to diagnose the entire area of the disk device, and the diagnosis can be speeded up. In addition, when the used capacity changes due to replacement of the first disk device or the like, the second disk device is diagnosed. The area can be freely changed accordingly.

Further, in the invention according to claim 4, since the second disk device allocates the used area from the head thereof, there is a feature that the management of the disk is easy.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a disk drive diagnosis system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a usage state of first and second disk devices in the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a used area size stored in a disk operation management unit of the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a state of processing of a disk diagnosis unit in the disk device diagnosis system.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a processing flow of a disk operation management unit.

FIG. 6 is a system configuration diagram of a disk drive diagnosis system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a used area size stored in a disk operation management unit in the second embodiment.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing a main portion of a conventionally proposed disk device diagnosis system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 21 System Terminal 22, 22A Disk Diagnosis Unit 23, 23A Disk Management Unit 24, 53 First Disk Device 25, 54 Second Disk Device 31 Used Area 32 Unused Area 51 First Group Storage Unit 52 Second Group storage

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A first disk device for storing data, the same disk as the data stored in the first disk device being mirrored and stored, and having a capacity larger than the used area of the first disk device. A second disk device, and a diagnosis executing means for searching only an area corresponding to the used area of the first disk device when a request for diagnosis of the second disk device is made, and performing the diagnosis. Characteristic disk device diagnostic system. 2. A first disk device for storing data, and the same data as the data stored in the first disk device is mirrored and stored, and a capacity larger than the used area of the first disk device is stored. A second disk device, a used capacity storage unit for storing a capacity of a used area of the first disk device, and a search for the used capacity storage unit when a request for diagnosis of the second disk device is issued. A use area discriminating means for discriminating a use area of the first disk device; and a diagnosis executing means for diagnosing only the storage area of the second disk device corresponding to the use area determined by the use area discrimination means. Diagnostic system for a disk device. 3. A first disk device and a second disk device are provided in a plurality of systems, and when a request for diagnosis of the second disk device is made, diagnosis of the second disk device of the requested system is performed. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein
A diagnostic system for a disk device according to claim 1. 4. The diagnostic system for a disk device according to claim 1, wherein the second disk device allocates a use area from the head thereof.