JP3484941B2 - How to use memory in computer systems - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of improving memory availability of a computer system for continuous operation for 24 hours. In particular, the present invention relates to a method of efficiently saving the data arranged in the area to be separated in the processing of separating a part of the main storage device or the extended storage device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A large-scale computer system such as a banking system is required to have a technique of continuously operating a plurality of jobs for 24 hours such as online transaction processing and batch processing. A method for carrying out such a plurality of tasks on a single computer system is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 64-37.
636. In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 64-37636, resources of one computer system are divided into a plurality of groups, and different tasks can be performed on each group. In this way, by dividing the hardware resources, it is possible to minimize the influence on each other's work and to execute the work smoothly on one computer system.

However, not all jobs operate under the same load continuously for 24 hours. A typical example of this is an online process performed by a banking system and a batch process that aggregates data handled by the online process. Here, it is assumed that the online processing and the batch processing are performed on different operating systems of one computer system by using the technique disclosed in JP-A-64-37636.

In such a case, generally, the load of the system performing the online processing is high during the daytime, and conversely, the batch processing system is high during the nighttime. Naturally, by allocating a large amount of computer resources such as a memory and a processor to online processing during the day and conversely allocating a large amount of computer resources to batch processing during the night, it is possible to efficiently perform each processing. Such reallocation of computer resources
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 265851/1993 is one of the methods that can be realized without stopping the system.

In Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 5-265851, the storage device is divided into areas of a fixed capacity, and the area length is adjusted to the management unit length of the operating system to improve the efficiency of disconnecting a part of the storage device.

In the computer system which executes the above batch processing and online processing, regarding the storage device,
By allocating a large amount of storage devices in the system that performs online processing during the daytime, and conversely, by increasing the capacity of the storage devices in the system that performs batch processing, it is possible to perform work efficiently.

[0007] Further, the work requiring continuous operation for 24 hours,
In a system in which work performed only in a specific time zone is mixed, if the work to be performed only in a certain time zone is stopped, the computer resource used by that work must be assigned to a work requiring 24-hour continuous operation. However, they can perform business efficiently.

[0008]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional technique, if most of the areas to be detached are used during the dynamic reconfiguration processing, the data arranged in the used areas will be deleted. There is a risk that the overhead required to save a program or program to an area other than the target of separation will be enormous.

An object of the present invention is to efficiently perform a data saving operation, which is required when a storage device, which is one of the constituent elements of a computer system, is degenerated without stopping the system. The purpose is to reduce the time required for disconnecting the device.

[0010]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the step of classifying each page on the main storage device so that it belongs to one of the predefined groups, and the priority order is set when a memory allocation request is made. Allocating from unused areas belonging to a higher group.

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a computer system for implementing the present invention.

The computer system (100) comprises an instruction processor (200) and a main memory (300).

The main storage device manages the used state and the unused state in fixed area length units. This management unit is called a page. Further, the main storage device (100) is divided into a group which can be attached and detached and a group which cannot be attached and detached in units of a plurality of continuous pages. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 310 denotes an area in which a control program such as an operating system and its control information are arranged, and is an area in which attachment / detachment is not possible. On the other hand, 320 and 330 are groups of removable areas. Here, the group of 320 is a group in a state of being connected by hardware and can be used for a work area of a program or for data allocation. Hereinafter, the state of being connected by hardware is referred to as a connected state. Further, the online state is a state in which the state of use is managed in a connected state and in units of page, and when there are area allocation requests and area release requests, the requests can be dealt with. On the other hand, a state that is in the connected state but cannot meet the above request is called an offline state.

On the other hand, 330 is a group in a separated state. Hereinafter, such a state will be referred to as an unconnected state. These groups can be connected or disconnected by hardware in units.

The real storage management table group (400) manages such a state. The real storage management table group (400) is a set of real storage management table entries (410) that holds information about whether each page is in an online state or used for a work area. is there. The real storage management table entry (410) is a table of fixed length size corresponding to each page, and is arranged continuously in order from the entry corresponding to the first page. Therefore, it is possible to determine which page is managed by the actual storage management table group from the offset from the head entry of the actual storage management table group.

Each page of the main storage device (300) has a corresponding real storage management table entry (41) as described above.
With 0), the usage status can be managed. The master table (500) collectively manages these real storage management table groups on a group basis as described above. In the master table (500), for each group,
Queue management of each of the real storage management table entry (410) corresponding to a page that is in an online state but not used and the real storage management table entry (410) corresponding to a page that is in an offline state or a non-member state However, the master table (500) manages the addresses of the respective top entries. Further, in the master table, an area for storing the number of entries of the real storage management table entry (410) corresponding to a page that is online but is not used is provided for each group.

In the master table (500) according to the embodiment of the present invention, 511, 512, and 513 indicate
It manages the real storage management table entry (410) corresponding to the page belonging to the first group (310).
Here, reference numeral 511 indicates the real storage management table entry (4
It manages the top entry address of the queue of 10),
Reference numeral 2 manages the head entry address of the queue of the real storage management table entry (410) corresponding to the page in the offline state or the unconnected state. In the following, the queue of the real storage management table corresponding to an unused page is called an unused queue, but the queue of the real storage management table entry corresponding to a page in the offline or unconnected state is offline. I will call it a queue.

Further, 513 is a real storage management table entry (410) enqueued in the unused queue.
This area is used to store the number of entries in and is called the unused page counter.

Similarly, using 521 to 523, the second
Manages the queue of the real storage management table (410) corresponding to the pages belonging to the group (320). First
Similarly to the group No. 5, 521 manages the head entry address of the real storage management table entry (410) queue corresponding to an unused page, although it is in the online state, and 522 is in the unconnected state or the offline state. The head entry address of the real storage management table entry (410) queue is managed. Furthermore, 523 is
It is an unused page counter in the second group (310).

The same applies to the third group (330), which is managed by 531 to 533. However, since the third group is in the offline state, all the real storage management table entries (410) corresponding to the pages belonging to the third group are connected to the queue in which 533 points to the head entry.

The master table (500) and the real storage management table group (400) are operated to allocate areas on the main storage device (300) in accordance with the request of the program,
It is the allocation management program (1000) that releases it.
Is. The allocation management program (1000) allocates an area of the main storage in response to a program request, and the real storage management table entry (4) corresponding to the allocated area.
In order to make it possible to use the allocation processing program (1100) that puts the information in 10) into a used state and the specified area for other purposes in response to a request from the program, The information in the real storage management table entry (410) is made up of a release processing program (1200) that makes the information unused. Further, the configuration management program (2000) that manages the configuration of the installed main storage device includes a connection processing program (2100) that connects the main storage device (400) in a group unit and puts it in an online state, and in a group unit. , A disconnection processing program for disconnecting by making it offline (220
0) and.

FIG. 2 shows the real storage management table entry (4
It is the structure of 10). Real memory management table entry (4
10) comprises the following real storage management table address storage area (411), offline flag storage area (412), and allocation flag storage area (413).

Reference numeral 411 is a field in which the real storage management table entry (410) stores the address of the next entry in order to form an unused queue or an offline queue. 412 is turned on when the corresponding page of the real storage is in the offline state, and is turned off in the online state. Further, 413 is turned on when the corresponding page of the actual storage is used and is in the online state, but is turned off in the unused state.

Next, the processing flow of the allocation processing program (1100) will be described with reference to FIG.

The allocation processing program (1100) is
This function manages the usage status of the pages in the real memory, searches for unused pages and allocates them to the program according to the request of the application program. Here, in the embodiment of the present invention, in the main storage device 300, 310,
An unused page is searched in the order of 320 and 330, and when the unused page can be found, the page is put in a used state and assigned. When both 320 and 330 are online, the unconnected state is set in the order of 330 and 330. As a result, it is possible to complete the processing for saving data that occurs during offline operation in a short time.

The processing of the allocation processing program is as follows.

First, at 1105, the group having the highest priority order of allocation processing is set as a target for searching an unused page. Next, in 1110, it is judged from the unused page counters (513, 523, 533) whether or not there is an unused page in the search target group, and 111
In step 5, if there is an unused page in the group to be searched, proceed to 1120, and if it does not exist, 1140.
Proceed to. At 1120, the entry (410) of the real storage management table at the head of the unused queue is dequeued from the unused page queues (513, 523, 533),
In order to put the entry (410) dequeued at 1125 in use, the allocation flag storage area (413) is turned on. Next, at 1130, the unused page counters (513, 523, 53) corresponding to the group to be searched are displayed.
Count down 3). After completing the series of operations, in 1135, the return code is set to 0 to indicate that the area has been successfully allocated, the address of the allocated area is obtained from the address of the real storage management table, and the request is made. Return to the original.

On the other hand, in 1115, when it is found that there is no unused page in the group to be searched,
Proceeding to 1140, it is identified whether or not all groups have been searched so far. When all groups are searched in the search so far, the main storage device (300) installed
It means that there is no unused page in, so the flow proceeds to 1145, 4 is set as the return code, and the flow returns to the request source. This return code means that there are no unused pages. If it is determined in 1140 that there is a group that has not been searched yet, the processing proceeds to 1150. A search target is a group whose allocation processing priority is one lower than the group currently being searched. After that, the process returns to 1110 and the above operation is repeated.

FIG. 4 is a processing flow of the release processing program (1200) for returning the area allocated on the main storage device (300) to an unused state in response to a request.

First, at 1210, the real storage management table entry (410) corresponding to the designated page is obtained. Next, at 1220, the allocation flag storage area (413) of the obtained real storage management table entry (410) is turned off to make it unused. Finally, at 1230, the entry (410) is set to the unused page queues (512, 522, 5) of the group to which the entry (410) belongs.
32), further, at 1240, the unused page counter corresponding to the group to which the entry belongs is counted up, and at 1250, the processing ends.

FIG. 5 shows a connection processing program (2100).
Is the flow. The connection processing program (2100)
It is a program that connects the areas of the main memory that are in a disconnected state and brings them into an online state that can be used for allocation when an area allocation request is made by a user program.

First, at 2110, the connection target areas are connected by hardware. Next, in 2120, all the real storage management table entries corresponding to the hardware-connected target page are dequeued from the offline queue, and the offline flag storage area (412) of the real storage management table entry (500) dequeued in 2130 is set. After turning off, the unused page queues (512, 522, 53) of the corresponding group are turned off.
2), and the unused page counters (513, 523, 533) of the corresponding group are counted up. As a result, from the application program,
Even if there is an area allocation request, the connected area can be allocated by the connection processing program (2100).

FIG. 6 is a flow of the disconnection processing program (2200) which brings the connected group into the offline state, and further brings it into the unconnected state and the unusable state.

In the disconnection processing program (2200), first, when there is a page being used in the group to be disconnected, the data in the page is saved to the group not to be disconnected. As a result, all the groups to be separated are in the unused state.
After all the target areas for separation are unused, the actual separation processing is executed.

In order to realize the separation processing, the separation processing program (2200) first determines in 2205 whether or not there is a used page in the separation target area by allocating the flag flag storage area (412) of the real storage management table entry (410). ) Identify. If the real storage management table entry (41
If there is an entry in which the allocation flag storage area (413) is turned on in 0), it means that the page being used exists.

Next, the result of 2205 is judged at 2210. If it exists, the process proceeds to the data saving process from 2215, and if it does not exist, the process proceeds to the process of separating the target area from 2255.

The data saving process will be described below.

The data saving process is performed in page units.
First, it starts by searching an unused page page for saving the data written in the used page in the separation target area. At 2215, unused pages are searched for, and when the allocation request is made, the group having the highest priority is targeted. next,
First, it is confirmed that the area to be searched in 2220 is not a group to be separated. If it is not the group to be separated, the processing proceeds to 2225 and data saving processing is performed. If the group is a separation target, the process advances to 2285, the group having the second highest allocation priority is selected as the search target, and the process returns to 2220.

At 2225, it is checked whether there is an unused page in the search target group. This check is determined by whether or not the unused page counters (513, 523, 533) corresponding to the search target group are zero. When there is an unused page, the procedure proceeds to 2230, and when there is no unused page, the procedure proceeds to 2275.

If there is an unused page in 2225, the unused page queue (511, 52) is entered in 2230.
Dequeue one real storage management table entry (410) from 1, 531) to 2235
Then, the allocation flag storage area (413) is turned on, and the corresponding unused page counters (513, 523, 53
Count down 3). Further, in 2240, the data of one page in the separation target area is set to 2230 and 22.
The real storage management table entry (41
Copy to the page corresponding to 0). Then 2245
Then, the allocation flag storage area (41) of the real storage management table entry (410) corresponding to the area where the data is saved is
3) is turned off, the entry (410) is enqueued in the unused page queues (511, 521, 531), and the unused page counters (513, 523, 53) are also enqueued.
Count up 3). These 2225 to 22
A series of processes of 35 is performed for each page being used in page units. Then, it is confirmed at 2250 whether or not all the pages in the separation target area are in the unused state. This confirmation is determined by whether or not the allocation flag storage areas (413) in all the real storage management table entries (410) corresponding to the separation target area are turned off. If at least one of the real storage management table entries (410) has the allocation flag storage area (413) turned on.
If there is, return to 2225 and repeat the data saving process. If the allocation flag storage areas (413) of all the real storage management table entries (410) are off, the processing proceeds to 2255, and all the real storage management table entries (410) corresponding to the separation target area.
The off-line flag storage area (412) is turned on. Furthermore, the unused page counters (513, 523, 533) corresponding to the separation target area are subtracted by the number of offline entries. Next, in 2260, the operation of physically separating the target page of the main memory is performed, and in 2265, the return code is set to 0 and the processing ends.

On the other hand, in 2225, when there are no unused pages in the group to be searched, the flow proceeds to 2270, and it is determined whether or not all groups have been searched in the search processing of unused pages up to this point. When all the groups have been searched so far, the data saving process cannot be continued any more. Therefore, the return code is set to 4, and the process proceeds to 2285 and ends. In the judgment of 2275, if there is a group that has not been searched yet,
Proceeding to 2280, the group having the next highest priority to the group currently being searched is set as the search target, and 222
Return to 0.

Next, as an embodiment of the second invention, a form applied to an extended storage device will be described.

The extended storage device also manages the used state and the unused state in fixed area length units (pages), forms a group in a plurality of page units, and performs online processing, offline processing, and Connection processing and disconnection processing shall be performed.

Also in this case, the allocation management program (1000) and the configuration management program (2000) for managing the expanded storage device are arranged on the main storage device (3000). Similarly, a master table (500) for managing the extended storage device and an extended storage management table group are provided on the main storage device.

These management tables are managed only by the expanded storage device, and the master table (500) and the real storage management table group (40) in the first embodiment are used.
No change from 0). Similarly, the allocation management program (1000) and the configuration management professional program (2000)
This can also be realized by changing the management target to the expansion storage device and operating the master table (500) or the expansion storage management table group in which the expansion storage device is the management target.

As a third embodiment, a mode in which the present invention is applied to a main storage device in a computer system adopting a virtual storage management system will be described.

FIG. 7 shows virtual memory (700) and real memory (3).
00) and an address translation table (600) that associates the virtual memory (700) with the real memory (300).

The virtual memory (700) is managed in units of fixed length areas. This management unit is a page. And
A page number is assigned using each page as an identifier. In FIG. 7, identifiers 0 to 7 are attached. The same applies to the main storage device (300).

The address conversion table (600) is provided with an address conversion table entry (610) corresponding to a virtual memory page. In FIG. 7, the address conversion table entries (610) corresponding to page 0 are arranged in order. Further, the address translation table entry (61
0) includes an allocation flag storage area (611) and a main memory page number storage area (612). The allocation flag storage area (611) is on when the page of the main storage device (300) is allocated to the page of the corresponding virtual memory (700), and is off when it is not allocated. Virtual memory when allocated (700)
Of the main memory (3
The page number of 00) is stored in the main memory page storage area (612).

In FIG. 7, 0, 4, of the virtual memory (700),
Pages 7 and 7 are assigned to pages on the main storage device (300). First, 1 of virtual memory (700)
Pages are allocated to three pages of the main memory (300), and four pages of virtual memory (700) are allocated to the main memory (3).
00), 4 pages, and further, 7 pages of the virtual memory (700) are allocated to 7 pages of the virtual memory (300).

On the computer system adopting the above-mentioned virtual memory management system, the allocation program (1100) and the release program (120) shown in the embodiment of the first invention.
0) and the separation processing program (2200) can be implemented by adding the following processing.

First, the allocation processing program (110
In 0), prior to 1105, the page on the virtual memory (700) is allocated and the allocated virtual memory (70
The allocation flag storage area (611) of the address translation table entry (610) corresponding to page 0) is turned on. Further, after 1130, the identifier of the allocated page of the main storage device (300) is stored in the main storage page storage area (612) of the address translation table entry (610) with the allocation flag storage area (611) turned on. You can add the processing to do.

In the release processing program, prior to 1210, processing for turning off the allocation flag storage area (611) of the address translation table entry (610) corresponding to the page of the virtual memory (700) to be released may be added.

In the disconnection processing program (2200), after 2240, the address translation table entry (61) that points to the page to be disconnected.
Processing for storing the identifier of the page corresponding to the real storage management table entry (410) in use may be added to the main storage page storage area (612) of 0).

In a computer system using such a virtual memory management system, an application program uses a virtual address to refer to or update data, so that when the main memory device is processed offline or disconnected, Even if the data allocation destination on the storage device (300) is changed, it is not necessary to be aware of it.

[0057]

As described above, it is possible to efficiently carry out the process of disconnecting a part of the mounted memory in order to change the configuration of the mounted memory without stopping the operation of the computer system.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a computer system.

FIG. 2 is a structural diagram of a real storage management table.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of an allocation processing program.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a release processing program.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a connection processing program.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a separation processing program.

FIG. 7 is a structural diagram of a relationship between virtual memory and real memory and an address conversion table.

[Explanation of symbols]

100: Computer system, 200: CPU, 300: Main storage device, 400: Real storage management table group, 500: Master table, 600: Address conversion table, 100
0: Allocation management program, 1100: Allocation processing program, 1200: Release processing program, 200
0: configuration management program, 2100: connection processing program, 2200: disconnection processing program.

Front page continuation (72) Koichi Soma 5030 Totsuka-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Software Development Division, Hitachi, Ltd. (72) Koji Masuda 5030 Totsuka-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa Hitachi, Ltd. Factory Software Development Headquarters (72) Inventor Yuzuru Maya 1099 Ozenji, Aso-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Hitachi, Ltd. System Development Laboratory (72) Kenta Nise 1099 Ozenji, Aso-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Hitachi, Ltd. (56) Reference JP-A-9-62545 (JP, A) JP-A-4-316143 (JP, A) JP-A-7-182225 (JP, A) JP-A-6-309221 (JP , A) JP 5-158815 (JP, A) JP 5-91225 (JP, A) JP 9-212416 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB) Name) G06F 12 / 02,12 / 06,12 / 16

Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] 1. A method of using a memory in a computer system.
A is, steps and, as a storage area for writing data, the unused area of the memory the non-removable than the removable memory classified into the memory and non-removable memory detachable the memory method of use of memory and a step to assign in favor of. 2. A memory usage of the computer system, comprising the steps of: classifying the area of the memory into a plurality of groups, as a storage area for writing data, only lower the group of priority for saving data Obtaining memory having the step of assigning a use area in preference. 3. The method of using a memory in a computer system according to claim 1, wherein the memory is a main storage device. 4. The method of using a memory in a computer system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the memory is an extended storage device. 5. A method of using a memory in a computer system according to claim 3, wherein the computer system employs a virtual memory management method. 6. A method of using a memory in a computer system, the method comprising: classifying the memory into a removable memory and a non-removable memory according to the contents of data stored in the memory; As a storage area for writing, prioritizing allocation of an unused area of the non-removable memory over the removable memory.