JP3084756B2 - Disk striping device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a disk striping apparatus and, more particularly, to a disk striping apparatus which can be divided and used to realize an easy control method from a host computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with an increase in information capacity handled on a computer, a demand for a large-capacity storage device has been increasing. In such a situation, a magnetic disk drive is generally used as a device that can realize high-speed access and can provide a large amount of information. Disk striping devices are being used for this purpose. That is, the disk striping device can speed up data reading and writing with the parallel operation of the disk drives. ["Disk Array
Systems (ACM SIGMOD conf
rence processings, Chicag
o, IL. , June 1-3, 1988, pp. 139-143. 10
9-116)]. In addition, by making a copy of data or introducing an error correction code, it becomes possible to enhance fault tolerability [“Ar
m Scheduling in Shadowed
Disks (Spring COMPCON 89, M
arch 1, 1989, San Francisc
o) "] However, such disk drives are currently used only as special purpose systems.

[0003]

Since this conventional disk striping apparatus is a system for a specific use, the control code is also specialized for that system, and is inferior in terms of system redundancy. In addition, since there is a problem in the scalability of the system, there is a disadvantage that it is not a problem in performing maintenance or control.

In recent years, as systems have become more sophisticated, maintainability and expandability of systems have become important with the diversification of system configurations. In particular, a system that allows a host computer that reads and writes data to perform disk replacement maintenance with little need for information on the disk, and that can easily realize a system configuration according to the use, has become increasingly important. However, the conventional device cannot cope with this.

[0005]

According to the first aspect of the present invention , in a disk striping apparatus for dividing and recording data, a data distribution and integration apparatus for distributing and integrating data to each disk is provided independently of each other. A plurality of readable / writable disk drives, a control CPU for inputting / outputting data to / from the disk drive, and a disk based on a division class of the disk read from the disk.
Disk striping apparatus, characterized in that it comprises a grouping means for performing grouping is obtained.

According to a second aspect of the present invention , in a disk striping apparatus for dividing and recording data, a data distribution / integration apparatus for distributing and integrating data to each disk, and a plurality of independently readable / writable plural data. and a disk drive, the disk read from the previous SL disk
Cache memory according to sector based on management information
A cache memory device that can control the allocation of
Controlling the cache memory device and the data distribution and integration device
Disk having a control CPU
A striping device is obtained .

[0007]

[0008]

According to the present invention, a drive device recorded on a disk is provided.
At startup, based on the setting information
The hardware configuration of the disk striping device
By setting the memory allocation to be used,
The disk configuration information is managed by the connected host computer.
Scalable disk striping without the hassle
The device can be realized .

[0009]

Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

[0010]

[0011]

[0012] First, will now be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 Te decoction One to the first invention according to claim 1 <br/>. Fig. 1
Showing an embodiment of the disk striping apparatus of the present invention.
FIG. Also, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a data distribution integration device shown in FIG. 1, an embodiment of a first invention is a data distribution integration device shown in FIG. 2 in a disk striping apparatus of FIG. 1 You are using Although two disk drives are shown for the sake of simplicity, the same operation can be performed even when there are two or more disk drives.

Each disk drive 15 has a control CPU 1
3 is controlled via the local bus LB and the disk interface 16. Disk interface 1
6 may be a general-purpose interface such as ESDI or SCSI. The control CPU 13 starts when the power is turned on,
The data of a specific sector of the disk is read, a logical disk number indicating which disk the disk belongs to is determined, and the logical disk number is registered in the logical disk selector 31. In the case of data writing, the logical disk selection unit 31 controls the data distribution integration unit 32 based on the logical disk number information of the registered disk, and allocates data to each disk interface 16. In the case of data reading, the logical disk selection unit 31 sequentially collects the data received from the disk interface 16 from the data distribution integration unit 32 based on the logical disk number and sends the data to each channel CH. The host computer 11 is a data distribution and integration device 12 via a channel CH as an I / O device, similarly to a normal disk drive.
Data is read or written to the memory.

[0014] Next, will now be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 for the second invention relating to claim 2. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the disk striping apparatus of the present invention. Although two disk drives are shown for the sake of simplicity, the same operation can be performed even when there are two or more disk drives. As the data distribution and integration device 12, the one having the configuration example shown in FIG. 2 is used. This embodiment to a disk striping device according to an embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the cache memory device 4 connected to each disk interface 41
2 is added.

In FIG. 4, each disk drive 15 is controlled by a control CPU 13 via a local bus LB and a disk interface 16. The disk interface 16 may be an interface dedicated to a disk such as ESDI or a dedicated interface according to the system. The control CPU 13 starts up when the power is turned on, and reads out information on interleaving corresponding to data stored in the disk and a recording position of disk management information. The control CPU 13 resets those parameters. Also, the cache memory is allocated and controlled to increase the hit rate based on the disk management information. Further, it controls reading or writing of data between the data distribution integration device 12 and the disk. By using an optional control code in addition to a general-purpose disk control command, it is possible to control even a disk drive that realizes more efficient data input / output. In this case, by writing the control code itself to the disk together with the parameters, the system can be extended without modifying the control code itself in the control CPU 13. The host computer 11 is, like a normal disk drive,
Data is read from or written to the data distribution integration device 12 via the channel CH as an I / O device.

[0016]

As described above, according to the present invention, the setting information
Disk striping device hardware based on
It is possible to set the configuration and allocation of memory to be used
And the disk configuration information on the host computer to be connected
Scalable disk storage
This has the effect that an iping device can be realized. Also,
In maintenance work such as replacement in units of disks, there is almost no need to change setting information of the system conventionally managed on the host computer side. Further , even when the system is extended, it is not necessary for the host computer to be aware of a change in hardware specifications .
As a result, there is an effect that maintenance work of a complicated disk striping apparatus and system expansion become easy.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of a disk striping device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a data distribution and integration device illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 shows another embodiment of the disk striping device of the present invention .
Is a block diagram showing an embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 host computer 12 data distribution integration device 13 for controlling CPU 14 distribution integration device control signal 15 disk drives 16, 41 disk interface 3 1 logical disk selecting unit 32 data distribution integration unit 4 2 cache memory device LB local bus CH Channel

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A disk striping device for dividing and recording data, a data distribution and integration device for distributing and integrating data to each disk, a plurality of disk drives each independently readable and writable, and the disk drive CPU for inputting and outputting data to and from
And the division class of the disk read from the disk
Grouper for grouping disks based on
Disk striping apparatus, characterized in that it comprises a stage. 2. A disk striping apparatus which records by dividing the data, and a data distribution integration apparatus for performing distribution and integration of data to each disk, and independently readable and writable a plurality of disk drives, before SL disk disk management information read from the based on section
A cache whose allocation of cache memory can be controlled according to
Cache memory device, the cache memory device and the cache memory device.
A disk striping device comprising a control CPU for controlling the data distribution and integration device.