JP3376980B2 - Power control device and power control method - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a power supply control device and a power supply control method, and more particularly, to the maximum power consumption of a disk array device including a plurality of hard disks and equipped with a plurality of power supply devices. The present invention relates to a power supply control device and a power supply control method suitable for supplying by supplying currents supplied from devices.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is a disk array device equipped with a plurality of hard disks and a plurality of power supplies. Figure 9
The conventional disk array device shown in FIG. 1 includes a plurality of hard disks 91, 92, 93, 94 and 95, and a plurality of power supply devices 96 for supplying power to the hard disks 91 to 95.
97 and. In the disk array power supply device as shown in FIG. 9, when performing simultaneous StartUp of a plurality of hard disks 91 to 95, the power supply device maintains redundancy so that even if only one power supply device is provided, simultaneous startup of a plurality of hard disks is performed. It is designed with a power capacity that enables (StartUp).

The conventional disk array device shown in FIG. 10 has a plurality of hard disks 101, 102, and 10.
3, 104, 105 and each hard disk 101-10
5, a plurality of power supply devices 106 and 107 for supplying power to the device 5. As shown in FIG. 10, suppose that the power consumption required for StartUp per hard disk is "1.
0 ", standby (STAND BY) or operating write / read (Operate W / R) state, if the power required is" 5 ", the total power required will be" 35 ", but only one power supply is required. Even in such a case, the power capacity of each power supply device is “35” because the power capacity is designed to enable simultaneous start-up of a plurality of hard disks.

[0004]

However, the above-mentioned conventional example has the following problems.

In the disk array device, in order to maintain the redundancy of the power supply device, the power supply device is designed with a power capacity such that a plurality of hard disks can be simultaneously started up even if the number of the power supply device is only one. Therefore, the power capacity per one power supply device has to be ensured at a value considering the StartUp state.

In addition, the power consumption of the hard disk in the disk array device during StartUp is STAND
Since a larger amount of power is required as compared with the power consumption during BY and Operate W / R, the power supply device also needs a power capacity commensurate with the power consumption, resulting in an increase in size and cost of the power supply device. However, in the operating disk array device, the hard disk starts
The time to enter the Up state is STAND BY state or Op
It is a very short time as compared with the rate W / R state, and it may be difficult to say that the increase in size and cost of the power supply device for maintaining redundancy during that period are advantageous in terms of performance.

An object of the present invention is to avoid the increase in size and cost of the power supply while maintaining the redundancy of the power supply in all the hard disks included in the disk array device in the STAND BY state and the Operate W / R state. A power supply control device and a power supply control method that enable the above.

[0008]

Means for Solving the Problems The present invention provides a power control apparatus for controlling the power supply from a plurality of power supply to a plurality of storage devices, electricity from said each power supply to the respective storage device
Before the power supply, the supply currents from the respective power supply devices are summed up, and the start-up is performed first among the storage devices.
Supply the necessary power to the storage device
In addition, for each of the remaining storage devices
Supply the power required for the standby state, and
Start up the storage device
After confirming the end, add the current supplied from each power supply unit.
The calculated current is applied to the rest of the storage devices.
While supplying the power required for start-up,
Standby the storage device that has completed the start-up
Supply necessary power to the state or read / write state
It is characterized in that it is provided with a power supply control means for controlling so as to.

Further, the present invention is Der to the power control method for controlling power supply from a plurality of power supply to a plurality of storage devices
Therefore , power is supplied from each power supply device to each storage device.
Prior to this, the supply currents from the power supplies are summed, and the start-up is opened first in the storage devices.
Power supply to the storage device
For each of the remaining storage devices,
Supply the power required for the standby state and start
Start up of the storage device
After checking, add up the supply current from each power supply unit
Starts to the remaining memory device by the applied current
Supplying the necessary power to power up and already starting
The storage device that has completed the upgrade is also in the standby state
To supply the necessary power to read / write
It is characterized by controlling .

Further, the power supply control device of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 1. The power supply from the plurality of power supply devices (16, 17) to the plurality of storage devices (11, 12, 13, 14, 15). In a power supply control device for controlling supply, a power supply control means (18) for summing the supply currents from the respective power supply devices and controlling so as to supply electric power according to the individual states of the respective storage devices to the respective storage devices. It is equipped with.

[Operation] The power supply control device of the present invention has
Control is performed so that the amount of electric power that can be supplied by only one unit is summed with the electric power from a plurality of power supply devices. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the maximum power capacity of each power supply device, and as a result, it is possible to reduce the size and cost of the power supply device.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION [Embodiment] Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

(1) Description of Configuration As shown in FIG. 1, the disk array device according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a plurality of hard disks 11 (HDD1), hard disks 12 (HDD2), and hard disks 13 (HD).
D3), a hard disk 14 (HDD4), a hard disk 15 (HDD5), a plurality of power supply devices 16 (power supply device NO.1), a power supply device 17 (power supply device NO.2),
The power supply controller 18 is provided. The configuration shown in FIG. 1 is an example, and the number of hard disks and power supply devices is not limited to the configuration shown.

The above configuration will be described in detail. In the disk array device, a plurality of hard disks 11, 12, 13,
Reference numerals 14 and 15 denote auxiliary storage devices in which various data are recorded. As described in detail with reference to FIG. 2, the auxiliary storage devices have a RAID 5 configuration and are equipped with a recording area and a spare area, respectively. The plurality of power supply devices 16 and 17 are connected to the power supply control unit 18,
A plurality of hard disks 1 based on the control of the power supply controller 18.
Power is supplied to 1 to 15. That is, the power supply devices 16 and 17
The electric power supplied from the HDD is supplied to the plurality of hard disks 11 to 15 via the power supply controller 18. Power supply 16,
Reference numeral 17 denotes a power supply having a DC-DC converter mounted in the device, and an AC having a rectifying circuit for AC-DC.
-DC power supply.

The power supply controller 18 includes a plurality of power supply devices 16,
17 controls the power supply from the hard disk 11 to the plurality of hard disks 11 to 15.
The electric currents supplied from the hard disks 11 to 15 are summed and controlled, and electric power according to the individual states of the connected hard disks 11 to 15 is supplied to the respective hard disks 11 to 15. This makes it possible to reduce the maximum power capacity of each power supply device 16, 17. The power supply control unit 18 includes an interface unit that manages an interface with the power supply devices 16 and 17, an interface unit that manages an interface with the hard disks 11 to 15, an arithmetic unit (CPU) that performs current summing processing, and the like. . In the current summing process, a method is provided in which a current measuring unit that measures the drive current is provided for each of the hard disks 11 to 15, and the respective current values are summed,
There is a method of measuring the current value of a power supply line for supplying the drive currents to the hard disks 11 to 15 collectively, and the former is applied when supplying the hard disks 11 to 15 individually in consideration of their variations. In the present embodiment, the latter is applied for the current summing process.

A disk array device is a device for connecting a plurality of hard disks as shown in FIG. 2 and using them as one logical disk. RAID (Redundant Arrays)
f Inexpensive Discs: Low cost disk array with redundancy) 5 configurations. RAID is one of the architectures of disk storage devices for general-purpose machines. It decomposes data into units of several bytes, parallelizes them, and restores the original data from the remaining hard disks even if one hard disk fails. This enables the processing to be replaced and continued. RAID level 0 to 0 depending on the equipment grade of the function.
Divided into 5 classes. RAID level 5 has a striping function that evenly distributes data transfer and distributes parity writing to all drivers.

When each hard disk of the disk array device has a spare area, each hard disk HD
Each of D00, HDD01, HDD02, and HDD03 has a recording area for recording recording data and parity data during normal operation, and a spare area used as a substitute when a failure occurs. The data actually recorded is 2 consisting of 0 and 1.
Converted to binary data, DAT00, DAT01, DAT
02, ..., and the control unit 21 controls the HDD 00, HD
It is recorded in parallel on D01, HDD02, and HDD03.

In the process, tentatively, the data DAT00, D
Taking the case of recording AT01 and DAT02 as an example,
"DAT00 @ DAT01 @ DAT0", which is the value of the exclusive OR of the data recorded in parallel on each hard disk
The value “2” is recorded as the parity data PAR00. However, @ represents Exclusive OR (XOR). The calculated value of this exclusive OR is 1 @ 1 = 0, 1 @
0 = 1, 0 @ 1 = 1, 0 @ 0 = 0. If DAT
When the data is 00 = 1, DAT01 = 1, DAT02 = 0, the value PAR00 of the parity data is 1
It becomes 0 from @ 1 @ 0 = 0.

In this example, the hard disk HDD0
When a failure occurs in 1 and the data in DAT01 cannot be read, the exclusive OR expression is 1 @? Since @ 0 = 0, the value of the unknown data DAT01 is found to be 1 from the value of the parity data. As described above, the disk array device having the RAID5 configuration is a disk array system having the parity data, which is the data for complementing the recording data, distributed to each hard disk.

On the other hand, with respect to the power supply device of the disk array device, it is general to provide a plurality of power supply devices to provide redundancy in order to prevent power supply stoppage due to the occurrence of a failure. The embodiment of the present invention is characterized in that a power supply control unit 18 for controlling the plurality of power supply devices 16 and 17 in FIG. 1 is provided.

(2) Description of Operation Next, the operation of the embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. In the flowchart of FIG. 3, the hard disks 11 to 15 are shown as HDD1 to HDD5, and the power supplies 16 and 17 are the power supply 1 (NO.
1) and a power supply device 2 (NO. 2).

A plurality of hard disks 11 to 15 (HDD1 to HDD5) and a plurality of power supply devices 16 and 17 (power supply device No. 1 and power supply device No. 1) as shown in FIG.
2) and the power supply controller 18, the disk array device is started up as shown in FIG. 4 (step S31), and the hard disks 11, 12, 1 are activated.
If StartUp is started simultaneously with step 3 (step S
32), as shown in FIG. 5, the power supply control unit 18 processes the sum of the supply currents from the power supply devices 16 and 17, supplies the power required for StartUp of the hard disks 11, 12, and 13 to each of the hard disks 14, , 15,
The power required for the STAND BY state is supplied (step S33).

Sta of the hard disks 11, 12, and 13
Confirm the end of rtUp (Yes in step S34),
As shown in FIG. 6, when StartUp is started simultaneously on the remaining hard disks 14 and 15 (step S3).
5), the power supply control unit 18 uses the current obtained by summing the supply currents from the power supply devices 16 and 17 to drive the hard disk 1
The power required for StartUp of Nos. 4 and 15 is supplied to the hard disks 14 and 15, and the hard disks 11, 12, and 13 are supplied with STAND BY or Op.
The power required for the erase W / R state is supplied (step S36).

StartU of the hard disks 14 and 15
When p ends (Yes in step S37) and the states of all the hard disks 11 to 15 become STAND BY or Operate W / R (Yes in step S38), as shown in FIG. In a state in which the power supply devices 16 and 17 directly supply power to the hard disks 11 to 15 without adding up the supply currents from the devices 16 and 17 and have redundancy for the number of power supply devices. Power is supplied (step S39).

On the other hand, if StartUp of all the hard disks 11 to 15 is not completed (step S38)
No), StartUp of the remaining hard disks is started (step S40), and the power supply control unit 18 causes the power supply device 1 to operate.
By the current obtained by summing the supply currents from 6 and 17,
The necessary power is supplied to StartUp of the remaining hard disks, and STANDBY or OperateW / OperateW / is supplied to the hard disks that have completed StartUp.
The power required for R is supplied (step S41). This is the StartUp of all hard disks 11-15.
Until the end.

By the way, in the above-mentioned conventional example, as shown in FIG.
Power consumption required for p is "10", power required for STAND BY or Operate W / R state is "5"
In this case, the total required power is "35", but even if there is only one power supply unit, it is designed with enough power capacity to enable simultaneous StartUp of multiple hard disks. The devices 106 and 107 are
Each has an electric capacity of "35".

On the other hand, in the embodiment of the present invention, FIG.
As shown in, the Star per hard disk
Power consumption required at tUp is "10", STAND B
If the power required to Y or OperateW / R status to "5", the required power of the sum is a "35", the plurality in both the power supply device 106, 107 hard
Power capacity to enable simultaneous StartUp of the disk
Because it is designed with a power supply,
Each of 07 has an electric capacity of "17.5". This makes it possible to reduce the maximum power capacity of each power supply device.

As described above, according to the embodiment of the present invention, in the disk array device including the plurality of hard disks 11 to 15 and the plurality of power supply devices 16 and 17, the power supply controller 18 is provided. Since the maximum power consumption of the disk array device is supplied by summing the currents of the plurality of power supply devices 16 and 17, the amount of electric power that can be supplied by only one device in the past is supplied to the plurality of power supply devices 16 as described above. , 17 makes it possible to reduce the maximum power capacity of each of the power supply devices 16 and 17, and as a result, it is possible to reduce the size and cost of the power supply devices 16 and 17. .

[Other Embodiments] In the above-described embodiments of the present invention, the case of a disk array device including a plurality of hard disks and a plurality of power supply devices has been described. It is conceivable that the present invention can be applied to all the storage devices having the power supply device and the power supply source corresponding to the power supply device. Here, the power supply source refers to a power supply device such as a breaker existing outside the device, and whether the power supply device inside the device described above provides redundancy or the power supply source outside the device provides redundancy. There is a difference.

Further, in the above current summing process, the current value at the time of startup of each hard disk, the current value at the time of standby, the current value at the time of writing, the current value at the time of reading are individually grasped, and the power supply device permits. Based on the output current value, the number of possible startups of each hard disk is calculated, and for example, in the power supply state, initially 3
You can start up one, then two, then one, and bring all your hard disks to standby with a small power supply, ready for reading and writing.

The present invention also relates to a home-use VTR or DVD-
When used in place of a home video recording / playback device such as a RAM, RAID 5 level to 0 level can be applied. For example, as in a video camera, a large storage capacity enables high access speed. For example, it may be implemented in various electronic devices including home appliances.

In the above embodiment, the RAID system effective for the hard disk array has been described, but it is also applicable to a case where a plurality of hard disks are serially connected by a chain system. Further, the present invention can be applied not only to the hard disk but also to the case where a plurality of floppy disks are used in parallel, and also for the peripheral device of the personal computer, when the power supply device is not integrated in the peripheral device. The present invention can be applied to.

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention, the supply currents from a plurality of power supply devices are summed, and control is performed so as to supply power to each storage device according to the individual states of the plurality of storage devices. Since it is configured to include power supply control means,
The maximum power capacity of each power supply device can be reduced by adding the amount of power from a plurality of power supply devices, as described above, to the amount of power that can be supplied by only one power supply device, and as a result, the power supply can be reduced. It is possible to reduce the size and cost of the device.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a data recording state in a plurality of hard disks of the disk array device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a flow of power supply control processing in the disk array system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a case where three hard disks of the disk array device according to the embodiment of the present invention are set to a StartUp state.

FIG. 5 shows the three hard disks of the disk array device according to the embodiment of the present invention in the StartUp state and the remaining two hard disks.
It is a block diagram which shows the case where one hard disk is made into STAND BY state.

FIG. 6 shows STANDBY or Opera as three hard disks of the disk array device according to the embodiment of the present invention.
Set the teW / R status and set the remaining two hard disks to S
It is a block diagram which shows the case where it is in a startUp state.

FIG. 7 shows five hard disks of the disk array device according to the embodiment of the present invention as STANDBY or Opera.
It is a block diagram which shows the case where it is set to the teW / R state.

FIG. 8 shows three hard disks of the disk array device according to the embodiment of the present invention as STANDBY or Opera.
Set the teW / R status and set the remaining two hard disks to S
It is a block diagram which shows the case where it is in a startUp state.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a conventional disk array device.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of another conventional disk array device.

[Explanation of symbols]

11-15 Hard disk 16, 17 power supply 18 Power control unit

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (58) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H02J 1/00 G06F 1/26 G11B 19/00

Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] 1. A plurality of <br/> power control apparatus for controlling the power supply from the power supply to a plurality of storage devices, wherein from each power supply to the power supply to each storage device
Prior to the above , the supply currents from the power supply devices are summed up, and the start-up is started first among the storage devices.
Supply the necessary power to the storage device and
Standby for the rest of the storage devices
Supply the necessary power to the storage device and start the start-up earlier.
After confirming the end of the startup,
The remaining storage device is supplied by the sum of the supply currents.
Supply the power required for startup to
The storage device whose startup has already been completed
Required for standby or read / write state
A power supply control device comprising a power supply control means for controlling to supply electric power . 2. The power supply control means, after confirming completion of startup of the remaining storage devices, controls to directly supply power from the power supply devices to the storage devices. The power supply control device according to claim 1. Wherein each power supply control device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the said power supply control in a plurality with a disk array device is applicable hard disks and the power supply device as the storage device. 4. A hard disk and power supply according to claim 1 or 2 characterized in that it is applied to the power control in each plurality includes electronic apparatus mounted with the disk array device and the said power supply device as the storage device Control device. 5. A <br/> power control method for controlling power supply from a plurality of power supply to a plurality of storage devices, wherein from each power supply to the power supply to each storage device
Prior to the above , the supply currents from the power supply devices are summed up, and the start-up is started first among the storage devices.
Supply the necessary power to the storage device and
Standby state for the remainder of the storage device of the storage device
Supply the necessary power to the storage device and start the start-up earlier.
After confirming the end of the startup,
The remaining storage device is supplied by the sum of the supply currents.
Supply the power required for startup to
The storage device whose startup has already been completed
Required for standby or read / write state
A power supply control method characterized by controlling to supply electric power . 6. Startup of the remaining storage device
After confirming the end, from each power supply device to each storage device
It is characterized by controlling to supply power directly to the
The power supply control method according to claim 5.