JPH10312327A - Mirroring monitor system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To inform a user of abnormality of a mirroring state. SOLUTION: A mirroring monitor tool 11 acquires mirroring states by logical volumes and displays information on abnormality such as inconsistency out in such a case to inform the user of that. This mirroring monitor tool 11 is actuated periodically by a job schedule setting module 113 and the mirroring states are monitored periodically at intervals determined by the user.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mirroring monitoring system capable of notifying a user of a mirroring state and logging in a mirroring function of a hard disk on a server.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional mirroring function, in order to know whether data in a mirrored logical volume on a hard disk or a logical volume on the original side of a mirror is the latest, a command input operation by an operator is required. Must show its status by
Also, there was no function to log the mirroring status. Further, when data on a mirrored logical volume does not normally reflect original data, there is no function for automatically notifying a user of the information.

[0003]

As described above, in the conventional mirroring function, there is no function for automatically notifying the user of the state of the mirrored logical volume, and therefore the logical volume on the mirror side or the original side is not provided. Mirroring is left in an incomplete state until the user intentionally checks the mirroring state by inputting a command after an error has occurred in the data above, resulting in system reliability. There was a problem.

[0004]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a means for periodically acquiring a mirroring state of a plurality of storage areas in which data is stored by mirroring, and a method for acquiring the acquired mirroring state. If there is an abnormality, a means for displaying and outputting the abnormality is provided.

[0005]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a software configuration diagram showing a first embodiment of a mirroring monitoring system according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a system configuration diagram having a mirroring function, and FIG. FIG. First,
The system configuration will be described with reference to FIG. 2. Reference numeral 1 denotes a server main body, and reference numerals 2 and 3 denote hard disks connected to different buses. The hard disks 2 and 3 may be on the same bus. Reference numerals 4, 5, and 6 denote logical volumes on the hard disk 2, respectively, which are the original sides of the mirror copy. 7, 8, and 9 are logical volumes on the hard disk 3 side.
Mirror copy for 5 and 6. Reference numeral 10 denotes a system console including a display device such as a display and input devices such as a keyboard and a mouse.

As shown in FIG. 3, a logical volume is usually composed of an area of 4 MB called an extent, and a mirror copy is managed in units of this extent. For example, taking logical volumes 4 and 7 as an example, extent 0 of logical volume 4 on the mirror copy side corresponds to extent 0 of logical volume 4 on the original side of the mirror copy.

Next, an embodiment of the software configuration of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 1. A mirroring monitoring tool 11 is a job schedule setting module 13 incorporated as a resident process in the OS 12 of the system shown in FIG. It is performed on a regular basis. The job schedule setting module 13 periodically activates the mirroring monitoring tool 11 at a timing designated by a user such as a system administrator, and the mirroring monitoring tool 11 mirrors the logical volumes 4 to 6 and the logical volumes 7 to 9. Acquire the status and display and output the abnormal location.
Further, the mirroring status is stored in a log file by the mirroring monitoring tool 11 so as to leave a history of which logical volume has a normal mirroring status and which logical volume has an abnormal mirroring status.

The operation will be described below. For example, when the data in the logical volumes 4 and 7 in FIG. 3 is updated, the update is performed for each corresponding extent, and the contents of the original and mirror copy-side extents are synchronized. If any failure occurs in the hard disk described in FIG. 2 and the data in the logical volume 4 cannot be updated, only the data in the logical volume 7 on the mirror copy side is updated.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation realized by the software configuration of the above-described first embodiment. When the mirroring monitoring tool 11 is executed by the job schedule setting module 13, the mirroring monitoring tool 11 executes a command for each logical volume and acquires the mirroring status of each logical volume (SA1).

The mirroring status is output for each extent in the logical volumes on the original and mirror copy sides, and when the extent is updated normally, for example, "current" or when there is an error such as inconsistency Outputs a result of, for example, “stale”. When recognizing that an error has occurred (SA2), the mirroring monitoring tool 11 displays on the system console 10 the logical volume in which the error has occurred and the hardware path of the hard disk including the logical volume (SA2).
3). For example, as described above, when the data in the logical volume 4 on the original side cannot be updated and only the data in the logical volume 7 on the mirror copy side are updated, the logical volume 4 and the logical volume 7 are inconsistent. As a result, the result of the command for the logical volume 4 is also obtained as “stale”. Accordingly, the mirroring monitoring tool 11 outputs a message indicating that an error has occurred in the logical volume 4 to the system console 10.

A user such as a system operator can recognize the mirroring abnormality by looking at the display, and can recognize which logical volume has an abnormality by displaying the hardware path. It is possible to take appropriate measures promptly. In the determination of the mirroring state in SA2, the mirroring state is output to the log file both when it is recognized that the update has been performed normally and when it is recognized that inconsistency has occurred (SA4).

The function of the mirroring monitoring tool 11 is periodically started and executed by the job schedule setting module 13, and its interval can be arbitrarily changed. As described above, in the first embodiment of the present invention, the mirroring monitoring tool for checking the mirroring state of the logical volume and finding an error such as inconsistency is provided as a shell script for displaying and outputting the result. Thus, the occurrence of mirroring inconsistency can be quickly found. Without the mirroring monitoring tool described above, even if the mirroring is inconsistent, the data on the hard disk and the logical volume on it will be abnormal until the user intentionally inputs a command and checks the mirroring status. It will be left in a state.

Further, since the mirroring monitoring tool is automatically started periodically by the job schedule setting module, for example, when the interval is 30 minutes, the mirroring abnormality can be recognized by the user within 30 minutes. Appropriate measures can be taken within a short time after the occurrence of the abnormality, and the reliability of the system can be improved.

Further, by storing the mirroring status in a log file, it is possible to refer to the status of the hard disk and its logical volume later. next,
A second embodiment of the mirroring monitoring method according to the present invention will be described. The configurations of the system and the logical volume are the same as those described with reference to FIGS. The software configuration is obtained by adding a function of automatically restoring a mirroring state abnormality to the function of the mirroring monitoring tool 11 of the first embodiment described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation realized by the software configuration of the second embodiment. When the mirroring monitoring tool 11 is executed by the job schedule setting module 13, the mirroring monitoring tool 11 executes a command for each logical volume and acquires the mirroring status of each logical volume (SB1).

The mirroring state is output for each extent in the original and mirror copy side logical volumes, and when the extent is updated normally, for example, "current" or when there is an error such as inconsistency. Outputs a result of, for example, “stale”. When recognizing that an error has occurred (SB2), the mirroring monitoring tool 11 displays the logical volume in which the error has occurred and the hardware path of the hard disk including the logical volume on the system console 10 (SB).
3). For example, if the data in the logical volume 4 on the original side cannot be updated and only the data in the logical volume 7 on the mirror copy side are updated, the logical volume 4 and the logical volume 7 are inconsistent. As a result of the command for the volume 4, a result of "stale" is obtained. Therefore, mirroring monitoring tool 1
1 displays on the system console 10 a message indicating that an error has occurred in the logical volume 4.

Further, the mirroring monitoring tool 11
Automatic recovery processing of the logical volume whose mirroring state is abnormal is performed (SB4). For example, as described above, if the data in the original logical volume 4 cannot be updated and only the data in the mirror copy logical volume 7 is updated, the data in the logical volume 4 is Perform processing to update to data.

If the recovery process failed in SB4 (SB5), hardware diagnosis is performed (SB5).
6) In the case of a hardware failure, a hard disk or the like needs to be replaced. The mirroring state is output to the log file both when the mirroring state is restored to normal and the mirroring state is not restored in the restoration processing of SB4 (S
B7).

The function of the mirroring monitoring tool 11 is periodically started and executed by the job schedule setting module 13 as in the first embodiment, and its interval can be arbitrarily changed. As described above, in the second embodiment of the present invention, in addition to the functions of the first embodiment, if there is an abnormality in the mirroring state,
Since the recovery processing for returning the mirroring state to the normal state is performed, it is possible to return the mirroring state to the normal state without any manual operation in the case of a simple failure.

Further, since the mirroring monitoring tool is automatically started periodically by the job schedule setting module, for example, when the interval is 30 minutes, the mirroring abnormality is automatically recovered within 30 minutes, and the hard disk and the hard disk drive are recovered. Since the time during which the data of the logical volume is in an incomplete state can be reduced, there is an effect that the reliability of the system can be further improved.

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention, the mirroring state of a plurality of storage areas in which data is stored by mirroring is checked, and if an abnormality such as inconsistency is found, the result is displayed and output to the user. , The occurrence of a mirroring abnormality can be quickly detected.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a software configuration diagram showing a first embodiment of a mirroring monitoring method according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a system configuration diagram having a mirroring function.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing components of a logical volume.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an operation according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an operation according to the second embodiment;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Server 2 Hard disk 3 Hard disk 10 System console 11 Mirroring monitoring tool 12 OS 13 Job schedule setting module

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A system comprising: a means for periodically acquiring a mirroring state of a plurality of storage areas in which data is stored by mirroring; and a means for displaying and outputting when there is an abnormality in the acquired mirroring state. A mirroring monitoring method characterized by the following. 2. The mirroring monitoring system according to claim 1, further comprising means for restoring an abnormal part in a mirroring state.