JP3512627B2 - Method for controlling and managing load volume I/O using alternate paths and duplication in IPL - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

The present invention relates to an information processing device, and more particularly to an IPL (Initial Program Load) in an information processing system having a duplicated load volume and a plurality of paths to the load volume.
This invention relates to a load volume I/O control management method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional information processing system having a duplicated load volume and a plurality of paths to the duplicated load volume, I/O (input/output) to the load volume during IPL (initial program load) when starting up an OS (operating system) is
In the case of a boot path, I/O is executed only for the designated boot path. If the I/O for the designated boot path fails, the OS boot process is interrupted, the boot path is switched to another available path or disk device, and the OS boot process (startup process) is performed again from the beginning.

In addition, when a write I/O is performed on a specified boot path, the OS after boot
After control is transferred to the , the process of matching the contents of the duplicated disk devices is carried out.

Load Volume I in Conventional IPL
For example, the /O control management method is described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-11596.
Reference can be made to the descriptions in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-115558 and the like. In addition, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-115558 proposes a communication control device in which, even if a fault occurs in the active system while the main memory of the standby system is being rewritten, the standby system can quickly perform an IPL and take over for the active system.

[0005]

However, the above-mentioned conventional information processing system has the following problems.

The first problem is that if I/O to a specified startup path fails, even if there are other available paths, the OS startup process must be interrupted, the startup path must be switched, and the OS startup process must be performed again from the beginning.

The reason for this is that in conventional systems,
I/O is performed only on the specified up path, and the system switches to another available path and resumes the I/O.
This is because the OS startup process cannot be continued by executing the above command.

The second problem is that if I/O to a disk device of a specified startup path fails, even if the disk device of the specified startup path is duplicated and there is another disk device available, the OS startup process must be interrupted, the disk device must be switched, and the OS startup process must be performed again from the beginning.

The reason is that I/O is executed only to the disk device of the specified startup path, and then the other disk device is switched to and the I/O is executed again.
This is because it is not possible to execute the command O and continue the OS startup process.

The third problem is that in an information processing system in which the load volume is duplicated, during IPL processing,
When a write I/O is performed on a disk device of a specified startup path, the contents of the duplicated disk device temporarily become inconsistent, and once control is transferred to the OS, processing is required to make the contents of the duplicated disk devices consistent.

The reason for this is that I/O is executed only to the disk device of the specified startup path, and I/O is not executed to the other disk device of the duplicated configuration.

[0012] Therefore, the present invention has been made in consideration of the above problems, and its object is to provide a system in an information processing system having duplicated load volumes and multiple paths to the load volumes, which, when a fault is detected in I/O for a specified startup path, if there is another normal path, automatically switches the startup path to the normal path, re-executes the I/O, and enables the IPL OS startup process to continue.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a system in which, in a system with duplicated load volumes, if a disk device on a specified startup path fails, the load volume is automatically switched to the other normal disk device, thereby enabling the IPL OS startup process to continue.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a system which makes it possible to always ensure that the contents of both disk devices match, even when a write I/O is performed to a duplicated load volume.

[0015]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an information processing system having a central processing unit, a main storage device, an input/output device, duplicated load volumes, and a plurality of paths to each of the duplicated load volumes, which performs a process of storing, before an OS (operating system) is started, a duplication determination, a device identification name, a device status, all path channel numbers, and a path status for each of the duplicated load volumes.
a load volume I/O control management table registration means for acquiring the I/O control information, device status information, and all path status information for each of the duplicated load volumes and registering the I/O control information, device status information, and all path status information for each of the duplicated load volumes in a load volume I/O control management table; a load volume I/O control means for performing I/O (input/output) to the load volumes based on the information registered in the load volume I/O control management table; and if an error is detected in the I/O,
The load volume I/O control management table re-registration means re-registers the path status or device status of the path in which the error was detected in the load volume I/O control management table, and an alternative path/alternative device selection means selects the next startup path or device candidate for performing I/O again from among the paths or devices registered in the load volume I/O control management table.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A preferred embodiment of the load volume I/O control management method in IPL according to the present invention will be described below.

[0020] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the system configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, the embodiment of the present invention comprises a central processing unit 101, a main memory unit 102, an input/output unit 103, a duplicated load volume 111,
In an information processing system having a load volume 111 and a plurality of paths 121 to the load volumes 111 and 112,
Before the S startup process, the duplex determination, device identification name, device status, all path channel numbers,
And, the path status is acquired, and I/O control information, device status information, and all path status information are transferred to the load volume I/O.
Load volume I to be registered in the control management table 141
I/O control management table registration means 131 and the registered information of this table 141 are used to control I/O to the load volume.
Load volume I/O control means 1 that performs O (input/output)
32, a load volume control management table re-registration means 133 which, if an error is detected in I/O (input/output) to a startup path, re-registers in the load volume I/O control management table 141 the path status or device status of the path in which the error was detected, and an alternative path/alternative device selection means 134 which selects the next startup path or device candidate for performing I/O again from among the paths or devices registered in the load volume I/O control management table 141.

[0018] In an embodiment of the present invention, by centrally managing information on both disk devices of a duplicated load volume and all paths to each disk device, when a failure is detected in a specified startup path or I/O to one of the disk devices of a duplicated load volume, if there is another normal path or disk device, the normal path or disk device is automatically switched to and the I/O is re-executed, making it possible to continue the IPL OS startup process.

Furthermore, even when a write I/O is performed on a duplicated load volume, the contents of both disk devices can always be made to match.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of the load volume I/O control management table 141. Referring to FIG. 2, the load volume I/O control management table 1
The system 41 comprises load volume duplication information 201 and load volume information areas 202 and 203.

The main system 2 of this load volume information area
The load volume device status information 211 and the load volume I/O control information 202 and the secondary system 203 are respectively stored in the load volume device status information 211 and the secondary system 203.
12, and a load volume path entry 213.

The load volume path entry 213 is
The load volume path table 221 and load volume path status information 222 are provided in one-to-one correspondence with each of the multiple load volume paths (path 1 to path n).

Next, the operation of the embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail. First, the load volume I/O control management table 141 is used to manage I/O to the load volume.
The details of the operation to control I/O execution and I/O retry when I/O fails due to a path or disk failure are shown in FIG.
This will be described with reference to the following.

IPL (Initial Program Loader) 1
In 51, before the OS startup process, the load volume I/O control table registration means 131 determines whether the load volumes 111 and 121 are duplicated, obtains the device identification name, obtains the device status, obtains all path channel numbers, and obtains the path status, and registers the I/O control information, device status information, and all path status information in the load volume I/O control management table 141.

Based on the information registered in the load volume I/O control management table 141, I/O processing to the load volume is controlled and managed.

Read I/O to the Load Volume
In this case, the load volume I/O control means 132 executes I/O to the load volume of the specified startup path.

If an error is detected during this I/O processing, the load volume I/O control table re-registration means 133 blocks the path and re-registers the path status of the path in which the error was detected in the load volume I/O control management table 141. The alternative path/alternative device selection means 134 selects the next startup path candidate from among the paths registered in the table, and the load volume I/O control means 132 performs I/O again using the selected path as the alternative path, thereby continuing the OS startup processing.

If there is no alternative path to the load volume of the specified startup path, the alternative path/alternative device selection means 134 selects the other load volume path, and the load volume I/O control means 132 performs I/O again as the alternative path, thereby continuing the OS startup process.

Write I/O to the Load Volume
In this case, the load volume I/O is not only performed on the startup volume but also on the other load volume.
The control means 132 issues I/O.

If an error is detected in this I/O processing, the load volume I/O control table re-registration means 133 blocks the path and re-registers the path status of the path in which the error was detected in the load volume I/O control management table 141. The alternative path/alternative device selection means 134 selects a next startup path candidate from among the paths registered in the load volume I/O control management table 141, and the load volume I/O
The O control means 132 performs I/O again using the selected path as an alternative path, and continues the OS startup process.

[0031] When an alternative path is lost, the load volume is blocked by the load volume I/O control table re-registration means 133 and the alternative path/alternative device selection means 134, and the device status of the disk device in question is re-registered in the load volume I/O control management table 141, and the OS startup process is continued with one side blocked.

[0032]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, in order to explain the above-mentioned embodiment of the present invention in more detail, examples of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

3 is a diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 3, the embodiment of the present invention comprises a central processing unit 301, a main memory unit 302, an input/output unit 303, and a memory 304.
03, and duplicated load volumes (disk devices) 311 and 312, and load volumes 311 and 3
Among these, the paths 321 and 322 are paths from the I/O device 303 to the load volumes 311 and 312 via a first disk controller, and the paths 323 and 324 are paths from the I/O device 303 to the load volumes 311 and 312 via a second disk controller.
1, 312. In the main storage device 302,
There is provided a load volume I/O control management table 341. The configuration of the load volume I/O control management table 341 is the same as that shown in FIG.

Furthermore, the IPL (initial program loader) 351 of the main memory device 302 stores programs which realize the functions of a load volume I/O control management table registration means 331, a load volume I/O control means 332, a load volume I/O control management table re-registration means 333, and an alternative path/device selection means 334, and these programs are executed by the central processing unit 301 to realize the functions and processing described below.

Next, the operation of one embodiment of the present invention will be described as follows:
This will be explained in detail with reference to FIG.

In the IPL 351, the load volume I/O control table registration means 331 determines whether the load volumes 311 and 312 are duplicated, acquires the device identification name, acquires the device status,
All path channel numbers are acquired, and path status is acquired, and I/O control information, device status information, and all path status information are stored in the load volume I/O control management table 34.
1. Based on the information registered in the load volume I/O control management table 341, I/O processing to the load volume is controlled and managed.

Read I/O to Load Volume
In this case, the load volume I/O control unit 332 executes I/O to the load volume 311 of the specified startup path 321 .

Write I/O to the Load Volume
In this case, I/O is issued not only to the launch volume 311 but also to the other load volume 312 by the load volume I/O control means 332 .

Next, the operation of the load volume I/O control management method in the case where a fault occurs in the startup path 321 in one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

[0040] If an error is detected in I/O to the load volume 311 of a specified startup path 321, the path 321 is blocked by a load volume I/O control management table re-registration means 333, and the path status of the path 321 in which the error was detected is re-registered in the load volume I/O control management table 341.

The alternative path/alternative device selection means 334 selects the next startup path candidate from the load volume I/O
A path is selected from the paths registered on the control management table 341 .

And the load volume I/O control means 3
In step 32, the selected path 323 is used as an alternative path, and the I/O is again
O and continue the OS startup process.

Next, the operation of the load volume I/O control management method in the case where a failure occurs in the startup load volume 311 in one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

[0044] If an error is detected in I/O to the load volume 311 of a specified startup path 323, the path 323 is blocked by a load volume I/O control management table re-registration means 333, and the path status of the path 323 in which the error was detected is re-registered in the load volume I/O control management table 341.

The alternative path/alternative device selection means 334 selects the next startup path candidate from the load volume I/O
A path is selected from the paths registered on the control management table 341 .

At this time, if the path 321 is already blocked and there is no alternative path, the load volume I
The load volume 311 is blocked by the I/O control management table re-registration means 333, and the device status of the load volume is re-registered in the load volume I/O control management table.

The alternative path/alternative device selection means 334 switches to the other load volume 312,
That path 322 is chosen as the alternative path.

The load volume I/O control unit 332 performs I/O again, and in a state where one side is blocked,
S startup processing continues.

[0049]

As explained above, the present invention provides the following advantages.

The first effect of the present invention is that even when a failure occurs in a designated startup path, if there is another normal path, the startup path can be automatically switched to continue the OS startup process, thereby improving the operability and work efficiency of the OS startup process when a startup path failure occurs.

The reason for this is that in the present invention, the information of all paths of the disk device of the specified startup path is managed in a centralized manner, so that the startup path is automatically switched, I/O is re-executed, and the OS startup process is continued.

The second advantage of the present invention is that even when a failure occurs in a disk device on a specified startup path,
If the load volume is duplicated and there is another normal disk device, the disk device can be automatically switched over to continue the OS startup process, thereby improving the operability and work efficiency of the OS startup process in the event of a startup path failure.

The reason for this is that in the present invention, the information on all paths of both disk devices of the duplicated load volumes is managed centrally, so that the load volumes are automatically switched, I/O is re-executed, and the OS startup process is continued.

A third effect of the present invention is that, in a duplicated load volume, the reliability of the duplicated load volume can be improved by always making the contents of both load volumes match.

The reason for this is that in this invention, the information of all paths of both disk devices of the duplicated load volumes is managed centrally, so that when a write I/O is performed to the load volume during IPL processing, a write I/O is executed to both load volumes.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of a configuration of a load volume I/O control management table in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

101 Central processing unit 102 Main memory device 103 Input/output device 111 Disk device (primary load volume) 112 Disk device (secondary load volume) 121 Path (multiple paths) 131 Load volume I/O control management table registration means 132 Load volume I/O control means 133 Load volume I/O control management table re-registration means 134 Alternate path/alternative device selection means 141 Load volume I/O control management table 151 IPL 201 Load volume duplication information 202 Primary load volume information area 203 Secondary load volume information area 211 Load volume device status information 212 Load volume I/O control information 213 Load volume path entry 221 Load volume path 222 Load volume path status information 301 Central processing unit 302 Main memory device 303 Input/output device 311 Disk device (primary load volume) 312 Disk device (secondary load volume) 321 Path 322 Path 323 Path 324 Path 331 Load volume I/O control management table registration means 332 Load volume I/O control means 333 Load volume I/O control management table re-registration means 334 Alternative path/alternative device selection means 341 Load volume I/O control management table 351 IPL

───────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Continued from the front page (56) References JP2-115960 (JP, A) JP4-151749 (JP, A) JP1-307856 (JP, A) JP7-222218 (JP, A) JP7-253933 (JP, A) (58) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 13/00 G06F 9/06

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. An information processing system comprising a central processing unit, a main storage device, an input/output device, duplicated load volumes, and a plurality of paths to each of the duplicated load volumes, comprising:
a load volume I/O control management table registration means for performing a duplication determination, a device identification name, a device status, all path channel numbers, and a path status for each of the duplicated load volumes, and registering the I/O control information, device status information, and all path status information for each of the duplicated load volumes in a load volume I/O control management table; and a load volume I/O control management table registration means for performing an I/O control for the load volumes based on the information registered in the load volume I/O control management table.
a load volume I/O control means for performing input/output (I/O); a load volume control management table re-registration means for re-registering, in the load volume I/O control management table, the path status or device status of the path in which the error was detected when an I/O error was detected; an alternative path/alternative device selection means for selecting the next startup path or device candidate for re-executing I/O from among the paths or devices registered in the load volume I/O control management table; and a means for re-executing I/O on the alternative path and selecting an operating system.
A load volume I/O in IPL is provided, the load volume I/O in IPL being characterized by comprising a means for continuing the system startup process.
O Control management method. 2. An information processing system comprising duplicated load volumes and a plurality of paths to each of said duplicated load volumes, said information processing system comprising: a primary and secondary path for each of said duplicated load volumes before a boot process of an operating system is started;
The duplicated information such as the secondary system, the disk device identification name, the device status, all path channel numbers, and the path status are acquired, and the I/O for each of the duplicated load volumes is obtained.
means for registering I/O control information, device status information, and all path status information in a management table; means for performing control such that, in the case of a read I/O to the load volume in an IPL process, a read I/O is executed to the load volume of a designated startup path, and, in the case of a write I/O to the load volume, a write I/O is issued not only to the startup load volume of the duplicated load volumes but also to the other load volume; and means for performing control such that an I/O to the load volume of a designated startup path is executed to
and means for, when an error is detected in an I/O, blocking the path, re-registering in the management table the path status of the path in which the error was detected, selecting a next startup path candidate from among the paths registered in the management table, performing I/O again using the selected path as an alternative path, and continuing the startup process of the operating system. 3. When an error is detected in an I/O to a load volume of a specified startup path, the path in which the error was detected is blocked, and a corresponding entry is made in the management table.
3. An information processing system according to claim 2, further comprising: re-registering the path status of the path in which the error was detected; selecting a next startup path candidate from among the paths registered in the management table; and if there is no alternative path among the paths registered in the management table, blocking the load volume, re-registering the device status of the load volume in the management table, switching to a load volume of another system, selecting the path of the load volume of the other system as an alternative path, performing I/O again, and continuing the operating system startup process with one system blocked. 4. In an IPL of an information processing system having duplicated load volumes and a plurality of paths to each of said duplicated load volumes, a first means for acquiring duplication information, device identification name, device status, all path channel numbers and path status for each of said duplicated load volumes before booting up an operating system, and for registering I/O control information, device status information and all path status information for each of said duplicated load volumes in a load volume I/O control management table; a second means for controlling I/O to the load volumes based on said load volume I/O control management table.
a third step of re -registering, in the load volume I/O control management table, the path status or device status of the path in which the error was detected, when an I/O error is detected;
and the next startup path or device candidate for performing I/O again,
a fourth means for selecting from among the paths or devices registered in the load volume I/O control management table; and setting the path selected by the fourth means as an alternative path.
Then, perform I/O again and restart the operating system.
As a fifth means of continuing the lift-up process,
A recording medium that records a program for operating the central processing unit of a system .