JPH087533A - Management system of storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To automate the management for the service life of individual volumes and to guarantee the reliability of data. CONSTITUTION:Based on the storage periods of data designated by a device allotment control section 105, a volume selection processing section 106 selects a magnetic tape volume Ill having an appropriate service life in accordance with the storage period of data as backup volume while referring to the volume management book 108. Therefore reliability of data stored in the volume 111 is securely guaranteed and each volume 111 can be effectively used in accordance with its service life. According to the present management system, by providing a processing section 106 to conduct selective processing of specific medium which supports the data having designation of service life based on the contents of the volume managing book in which the service life of individual portable data storing medium is managed, reliability of data stored in the volume is securely guaranteed and medium is effectively used in accordance with its service life.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a storage medium management system, and more particularly to a storage medium management system for long-term storage of data created by a computer system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a portable data storage medium such as a magnetic tape or a magneto-optical disk is provided as a storage medium for storing data for a long period of time, and is recorded on an access medium such as a magnetic disk device. It is often used for backing up files that are stored. In this case, the storage medium (volume) in which the file to be backed up is actually stored is usually the volume mounted by the operator with respect to the input / output device designated as the output destination of the file. That is, the selection of the volume for backing up the file is basically done by the operator in the conventional method.

On the other hand, conventionally, there is a magnetic tape library device for the purpose of automating various operations associated with file backup. This magnetic tape library device
A combination of a vault (a warehouse for organizing and storing a large number of backup volumes such as cartridge type magnetic tapes as backup media at the same time) and a robot mechanism (a mechanism for controlling the operation of the accessor that carries the backup volume) The accessor has a function to automatically load the backup volume selected according to one of the following selection criteria from the storage to the I / O device (“Hitachi program product VOS3 Data management function / library support DMFLSS operation guide ”(1993) P.29-31).

Among the empty volumes, those having a smaller volume serial number as the volume identification information are used in order. This makes it possible to easily manage the backup volume using the volume serial number. Select free volumes randomly (randomly) to minimize the bias in the volumes used. As a result, the average durability of the backup volume managed in the storage can be improved. The moving time of the accessor robot is optimized by preferentially selecting from an empty volume stored in the storage cabinet relatively close to the input / output device to be loaded. As a result, the time from volume request to mount can be suppressed to the necessary minimum.

[0005]

Since the portable data storage medium described above has a useful life depending on its physical characteristics, when selecting a backup volume to be actually backed up, how much data should be stored. It is necessary to fully consider whether the data should be saved over the period (retention period) and how long each free volume has a useful life. For example, if there is a free volume whose useful life will expire after 6 months (the useful life will expire after 6 months), you can use the free volume to back up the data whose retention period is specified as 3 months. However, it is not appropriate to use the above-mentioned empty volume for backing up the data whose retention period is specified as 2 years. Therefore, it may be necessary to constantly manage the period until the useful life of each volume expires (until the useful life expires).

However, in the above-mentioned conventional magnetic tape library apparatus, the management of the useful life of each volume as described above is not automated, and the useful life is not necessarily appropriate for the retention life of the data to be backed up. Since a free volume having a period is not always selected, there is a problem that it is difficult to reliably guarantee the reliability of data stored in a backup volume such as a cartridge type magnetic tape.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the above problems, automate the management of the life of each volume, and ensure the reliability of the data stored in the volume. It is to provide a medium management method.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the storage medium management method of the present invention is based on the contents of a volume management list in which the service life of each portable data storage medium is managed. The configuration is provided with a volume selection processing unit that performs selection processing of a specific portable data storage medium to be backed up for data having a specified retention period.

[0009]

The operation based on the above configuration will be described.

According to the storage medium management method of the present invention, based on the contents of the volume management book in which the useful life of each portable data storage medium is managed, the specific data to be backed up with a specified retention period can be backed up. With the configuration including the volume selection processing unit that performs the selection process of the portable data storage medium, a storage medium having an appropriate service life according to the data storage period is selected as the backup volume, and thus the storage volume is stored in the volume. The reliability of the data can be surely guaranteed, and each storage medium can be efficiently utilized according to its useful life.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a storage medium management system of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a system configuration for implementing the storage medium management system of the present invention. In FIG. 1, the central processing unit 101 is composed of an instruction execution processor 102 and a main storage device 103 capable of referring to and updating stored contents from the instruction execution processor 102. In the main storage device 103, an operating system 104 that performs overall control of the system
Is operating, and a device allocation control unit 105 that allocates an input / output device to a job is included therein. And further, under the operating system 104,
The volume selection processing unit 106 necessary for realizing the storage medium management system of the present invention is operating. Reference numeral 107 denotes a magnetic disk device, which also holds a volume management list 108 necessary for realizing the storage medium management method of the present invention. 1
Reference numeral 09 denotes a magnetic tape library device which is a target of the storage medium management system of the present invention, and includes one or more input / output devices 11
0, a large number of magnetic tape volumes 111, a large number of cells 112 where the magnetic tape volumes 111 are stored, and an accessor robot 113. The accessor robot 113 conveys the specified magnetic tape volume 111 from the cell 112 to the input / output device 110 and automatically loads it, or conversely, removes the magnetic tape volume 111 from the input / output device 110 and automatically. Cell 1
The operation of returning to 12 is performed.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the storage format of the management data in the volume management list in FIG. In the figure, in the volume management list 108, for all the magnetic tape volumes 111 existing in the magnetic tape library device 109, each magnetic tape volume 1
11, the volume serial number 201 assigned without duplication and the cell ID 202 representing the cell 112 in which the magnetic tape volume 111 is stored are registered as volume identification information for identifying the magnetic tape volume 111, In the corresponding item 203, the service life of the magnetic tape volume 111 is recorded. In addition, "durability period" described in the present embodiment means
"The period until the manufacturer's guaranteed life of the magnetic tape expires" or "the period until the manufacturer's guaranteed life of the magnetic tape comes"
It is defined as that.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a job control statement for designating a volume used for recording and saving output data by a job, which is used in an operating system provided by Hitachi, Ltd., the applicant of the present invention. An example of the "DD statement" described in the job control statement is shown. In the figure, the first line 301 [DSN = ZAIKO.DATA] is the designation of the data set name “ZAIKO.DATA” in which the data output from the job should be recorded, and the second line 302 [UNIT = TAPEL].
I] is the input / output device to be used (the input / output device 110 in FIG.
"TAPELI"), third line [DISP = (NEW, KEE
In P)], "NEW" of 303 is a designation to create a new data set, and "KEEP" of 304 is a designation that the created data set "ZAIKO.DATA" should be saved without being erased after the end of the job. , 305 [LABEL = (RETPD
= nnnn)] is a designation to be written on the label of the magnetic tape volume 111 including designation of the number of retention days "RETPD = nnnn".

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an outline of the input / output device allocation processing based on the job control statement. In this embodiment, the allocation processing for the input / output device 110 in the magnetic tape library device 109 is shown. In the figure, 401 is the DD sentence described in FIG. 3, and this DD sentence is given as input data. Reference numeral 105 denotes the device allocation control unit shown in FIG. 1, which passes the number of storage days specified in the DD sentence given as input data to the volume selection processing unit 106 as a parameter. Based on this, the volume selection processing unit 106 performs the selection processing of the magnetic tape volume 111 having the optimum useful life. After that, the device allocation control unit 105 allocates the selected magnetic tape volume 111 to the input / output device 110 for the job to be executed.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing in detail the processing procedure by the volume selection processing unit in FIG. Figure 5
First, based on the retention period of the data designated by the device allocation control unit, the volume management book 108 is referenced to search for a magnetic tape volume satisfying the condition of “(retention period) ≦ (durability period)” ( In step 501), it is determined whether there is a volume that meets the conditions (step 502). Then, if there is a volume that meets the conditions (step 502 = YES), “(save period)
The volume selection processing is terminated by selecting a volume having a minimum value of "(lifetime period)" and "(lifetime period)-(storage period)" (step 503). If there is no volume (step 502 =
For NO, a warning message indicating that there is a problem with the storage period is output (step 504), and then the volume with the minimum value of "(storage period)-(lifetime)" is selected (step 504). 505), and the volume selection processing ends.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the volume selection processing unit 106 makes the volume management list 1 based on the data retention period designated by the device allocation control unit 105.
08, the magnetic tape volume 111 having an appropriate useful life according to the data retention period is selected as a backup volume, so that the reliability of the data stored in the magnetic tape volume can be guaranteed without fail. The magnetic tape volume of can be efficiently utilized according to its useful life.

In this embodiment, the magnetic tape library apparatus is targeted, but portable data storage media such as general magnetic tapes and optical disks are also targeted by the storage medium management system of the present invention. You can Further, in the present embodiment, the “retention period” of the data and the “useful period” of the volume, which are represented by the relative number of days, are used for the volume selection process. The “retention period” of data represented by days and the “useful period” of a volume may be used for the volume selection process.

[0019]

As described above in detail, according to the storage medium management method of the present invention, the retention period of each portable data storage medium is managed based on the contents of the volume management list for managing the service life of the portable data storage medium. By having a configuration that includes a volume selection processing unit that performs selection processing of a specific portable data storage medium to which specified data should be backed up, a storage medium having an appropriate service life according to the data storage period is backed up. Since the volume is selected, it is possible to ensure the reliability of the data stored in the volume and to effectively utilize each storage medium according to its useful life.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a system configuration that realizes a storage medium management system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a storage format of management data in the volume management list in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a job control statement for designating a volume used for recording and saving output data by a job.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an outline of input / output device allocation processing based on a job control statement.

5 is a flowchart showing in detail a processing procedure by a volume selection processing unit in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 Central Processing Unit 102 Instruction Execution Processor 103 Main Storage Unit 104 Operating System 105 Device Allocation Control Unit 106 Volume Selection Processing Unit 107 Magnetic Disk Unit 108 Volume Management Book 109 Magnetic Tape Library Unit 110 I / O Device 111 Volume 112 Cell 113 Accessor Robot

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A process for selecting a specific portable data storage medium for backing up data having a designated retention period based on the contents of a volume management list for managing the useful life of each portable data storage medium. A storage medium management method characterized by comprising a volume selection processing unit for performing.