JP2924167B2 - Method of controlling storage device group - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of controlling a group of storage devices, and more particularly, to space management of a group of external storage devices in a computer system.
The present invention relates to a method of controlling a storage device group suitable for improving the efficiency of performance management.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, for the space management and performance management of an external storage device group in a computer system, for example, the following technologies are known.

The first is a technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 60-89258. In this technique, the used space amount and the upper limit of the number of files for each disk volume are registered in a space control table for each user. This prevents specific users from occupying the volume and fairly allocates space to users who have allocation rights. The second is a technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-14252. In this technique, a file is relocated to a high-speed or low-speed storage device according to the number of file accesses per unit capacity. It is like that.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

Each of the above prior arts has the following problems to be solved. In the technique disclosed in the first Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 60-89258, the upper limit of the space is set for each volume and for each user. The definition needs to be changed each time an addition or deletion is made. Also, the total amount of space spanning a plurality of storage tiers must be kept below the total capacity of the volume.

Further, in the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-14252, all files are treated equally, and the necessity of relocation is determined only by the number of file accesses. For this reason, if the storage device is shared by a plurality of tasks, and access is concentrated on a specific task file at a certain time, it is inevitable that access to other task files will be delayed thereafter.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to solve the above-described problems in the conventional technology, to manage the upper limit of space, and to manage the space upper limit of a file group spanning a plurality of storage hierarchies. An object of the present invention is to provide a control method of a storage device group that enables the management of the minimum guaranteed value, thereby averaging services (amount of space and performance) for each file group. Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of controlling a storage device group that can easily cope with addition / change of a storage device and a change in environment on the user side (a change in a required space amount per business unit, etc.). It is in.

[Means for solving the problem]

An object of the present invention is to provide a data input / output system having a computer and an external storage device, wherein the external storage device is hierarchized according to performance, capacity, cost, etc., and each storage tier is constituted by a volume group of the storage device. In addition to defining a physical space frame, a logical space frame defining an upper limit value and a lower limit value of the used space amount of the storage device is defined for each storage hierarchy, By preliminarily defining a method for associating the file group grouped by the above with the logical space frame, at the time of file allocation, the storage device is allocated based on the definitions. This is achieved by a control method.

[Action]

In the method for controlling a storage device group according to the present invention, a physical space frame (hereinafter, referred to as a “storage pool”) and a logical space frame (hereinafter, referred to as a “storage domain”) are provided for a hierarchical external storage device. ) Are independently defined, and the former is used as a storage device group management, and the latter is used as space frame management means for file group management. As a result, when a storage device is added or changed,
Due to the change in the definition of the storage pool and changes in the environment on the user side (such as changes in the required space),
By changing the definition content of the storage domain, it is possible to realize a method of controlling a storage device group that can respond independently to each other.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a system that implements a method of controlling a group of storage devices according to the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a data processing device including a file allocation unit 2, a control unit 3, and a definition unit 4. The external storage device group has performance, capacity,
They are hierarchized according to cost and the like, and are further divided into groups according to the purpose of use. Here, the above-mentioned groups are referred to as storage pools 6x, 6y, and this storage group is treated as a physical space frame, and the storage pools 6x, 6y
Above, as a logical space frame, storage domains 5a and 5
b shall be placed. Also, a management book 7 is placed in a part of the external storage device, and this management book 7 contains a domain management table.
7a, a pool management table 7b, and a domain selection table 7c are arranged, and are configured to store information defined by the definition unit 4 as described later.

The above-described definition unit 4 includes a domain management table 7 described later.
a, which has a function of defining the contents of the storage domains and storage pools stored in the pool management table 7b and the domain selection table 7c, and includes a storage domain definition 4a, a storage pool definition 4b, and a domain selection definition 4c. . The file allocating unit 2 is a storage domain selecting unit 2a for selecting a storage domain from a file name of a file to be newly allocated and a domain selection table 7c stored in the management book 7, and from the domain management table 7a based on the selected storage domain. Storage pool selection unit 2 for selecting a storage pool
b, and a storage device allocating unit 2c that selects a volume to which a file is to be allocated from the pool management table 7b based on the selected storage pool. Control unit 3
Is a function to monitor the space usage per storage domain
3a, Function to monitor file access frequency 3b and Function to monitor device usage rate per storage device in storage pool 3c
It has. In addition, the file movement control unit 3d
It has a function of judging the necessity of file transfer between storage domains or storage pools in accordance with such information, and controlling the actual file transfer.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the contents of the domain selection table 7c, the domain management table 7a, and the pool management table 7b stored in the management book 7. The domain selection table 7c stores the correspondence between the domain selection condition and the storage domain when a file is newly assigned. The domain management table 7a is created for each storage domain and stores the correspondence between storage domains and storage pools, the space used for each storage pool, file transfer conditions, and the like. The pool management table 7b stores the correspondence between storage pools and volume groups on storage devices.

FIG. 3 shows storage domains 31a and 3a on a storage pool.
It is a figure showing the example of arrangement of 1b. Storage pool 30x, 30y, 30z
Indicates storage pools allocated on storage devices having different performances on the storage hierarchy. For the storage domains 31a and 31b, the upper limit 32a and 32b of the used space and the lower limit of the used space (guaranteed value) for each storage pool
33a and 33b and the lower limit (guaranteed value) 34a and 34b of the empty space are specified, respectively. The actual file allocation areas 35a and 35b (hatched portions) usually exist within the range of the upper limit values 32a and 32b of the used space and the lower limit values 33a and 33b of the used space. As will be described later, the file moves upward or downward in the storage hierarchy according to the access frequency. Therefore, the storage domain is also relocated to a higher (storage domain 31a) or lower (storage domain 31b) upper level of the storage hierarchy according to the activity of the internal file.

The file allocation control operation of the storage device group in the system configuration of the present embodiment configured as described above will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3 and FIG. 4 showing an operation flow.

First, the storage domain selection unit 2a of the above-mentioned file allocation unit 2 refers to the domain selection table 7c in the management book 7 shown in FIG.
The storage domain to be assigned is selected (step 40). Next, the storage pool selection unit 2b refers to the domain management table 7a and selects a storage pool from this information and the storage domain selected in Step 40 described above (Step 41). Next, the storage device allocating unit 2c activates the control unit 3 and determines whether or not there is an empty space in the uppermost storage pool in the storage domain (step 42). A volume is selected from the pool (step 49), and a file is allocated (step 50). If there is no free space in the determination at step 42, the domain selection table 7a is further referred to, and if the assignment to the lower storage pool is instructed (step 43), the lower storage pool is selected (step 45). If there is enough free space in the selected lower storage pool for allocation (step 47), a volume is selected from the storage pool (step 49), and a file is allocated (step 50). If it is determined in step 47 that there is not enough free space in the storage pool, if the storage pool is the lowest storage pool (step 48), it is determined that an allocation error has occurred. If it is not the lowest storage pool, step 45 and subsequent steps are repeated to further perform the same processing on the lower storage pool. Also, in the determination in step 43, in the storage domain, if the assignment to the lower storage pool is not instructed, it is determined whether or not the existing file in the highest storage pool can be moved to the lower storage pool. (Step 44) If it cannot be moved, an error occurs. If it can be moved, the existing file is moved from the highest storage pool to the lower storage pool (Step 4).
6) After that, select the volume (step 4
9), perform file allocation (step 50).

According to the above embodiment, in the hierarchical storage device group, the upper limit management of the file group and the management of the minimum guaranteed value of the space are performed, so that the service can be averaged in the file group. Is obtained. Further, according to the above embodiment, the storage pool, the storage domain, and the storage domain selection definition are provided for the hierarchical storage device group, so that the parameters required at the time of the file allocation request can be significantly reduced. In addition, there is an effect that even when there is an addition / change of a storage device or an environment change on the user side, it is possible to easily cope with the above-mentioned change of definition only.

Furthermore, the lower limit of the free space is set for each storage tier in the storage domain, and when the free space becomes equal to or less than that value, the less frequently used file is moved to the lower storage tier in the storage domain, and the new file is deleted. By allocating the allocated space, there is also an effect of reducing file cracking errors caused by insufficient space. In the storage domain, it is possible to set whether or not to automatically move a file for performance optimization and to set a moving condition. The moving of the file includes vertical movement between storage devices according to access frequency, There are two types of horizontal movement according to the access load between the storage devices in the same hierarchy, and the vertical movement enables files to be arranged in the storage hierarchy according to the access frequency, thereby improving the efficiency of the storage device. In addition to this, the horizontal movement enables the loads on the respective layers to be averaged, thereby preventing the concentration of accesses to a specific device.

By the automatic relocation of files as described above, the arrangement of storage tiers on individual storage domains dynamically changes within a predetermined space amount frame, and the automatic use of storage tier usage among a plurality of storage domains. Optimization can be performed. Also, in the storage domain selection definition, when a new file is allocated, if there is no necessary free space in the uppermost tier storage device on the storage domain, a new file is allocated to a lower storage tier or an existing file is allocated. It is possible to instruct in advance whether to move to a lower tier and secure an empty space in the required tier, and thereby, it is possible to select emphasis on allocation time and access time, which is suitable for the usage situation There is also an effect that it becomes possible to operate the system.

It should be noted that the above embodiments are merely examples of the present invention, and it is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to these embodiments.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above in detail, according to the present invention, space upper limit management and space minimum guarantee value management of a file group over a plurality of storage hierarchies can be performed. A method of controlling a group of storage devices capable of averaging services in a short time, and a method of controlling a group of storage devices that can easily respond to addition / change of storage devices and environmental changes on the user side. It has a remarkable effect of being able to do it.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a system that realizes a storage device group control method according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the contents of a domain selection table, a domain management table, and a pool management table of the embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the arrangement of storage domains and locations in a storage pool, and FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment. 1: Data processing device, 2: File allocation unit, 2a: Storage domain selection unit, 2b: Storage pool selection unit, 2c: Storage device allocation unit, 3: Control unit, 3a: Space usage monitoring unit, 3b: File access Frequency monitoring unit, 3c: Device usage monitoring unit, 3d: File transfer control unit, 4: Definition unit, 4a: Storage domain definition, 4
b: Storage pool definition, 4c: Domain selection definition, 5a, 5b: Storage domain, 6x, 6y: Storage pool, 7: Management book, 7a: Domain management table, 7b: Pool management table, 7c: Domain selection table.

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Yoshiaki Niimura 5030 Totsuka-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture Inside the software factory of Hitachi, Ltd. (56) References JP-A-60-89258 (JP, A) JP-A-63-141145 (JP, A) JP-A-62-14252 (JP, A) JP-A-1-173236 (JP, A) JP-A-4-107750 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int) .Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G06F 12/00

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] 1. A data input / output system having a computer and an external storage device, wherein the external storage device has performance,
The storage space is hierarchized according to capacity, cost, and the like. For each storage tier, a physical space frame constituted by a volume group of the storage device is defined. By defining a logical space frame defining a lower limit value and further defining in advance a method of associating a file group grouped according to a purpose of use, a use business, and the like with the logical space frame, a file space is allocated when a file is allocated. And a storage device allocation method based on the definitions. 2. As a result of executing the file allocation, if the free space falls below the lower limit value defined in the logical space frame, the less frequently used file is placed in the lower logical space frame. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the file is moved to the storage hierarchy of (1) to secure a space for allocating a new file. 3. An upper or lower storage in the logical space frame according to an access frequency based on an upper limit value and a lower limit value of a used space amount of the storage device defined in the logical space frame. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the storage device is moved to a hierarchy. 4. A file is moved between the storage devices according to an access frequency based on upper and lower limits of the used space amount of the storage device defined in the logical space frame,
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the access load is averaged. 5. A method of associating the grouped files with the logical space frame, the method comprising: when allocating a new file, an empty space required for a storage device at the highest hierarchical level of the logical space frame. If not,
2. A method according to claim 1, wherein a new file is assigned to a lower storage tier, or a file which has already been assigned is moved to a lower tier to secure an empty space in a required tier. The control method of the storage device group described in the above.