KR100940192B1 - Storage management system and process thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to the management of a storage system, and more particularly, in the management of a plurality of storage systems, the status information, RAID status information, controller status of individual hard disk drives from a RAID controller that controls a plurality of hard disk drives connected in series The present invention relates to a storage integrated management system and method that enables an administrator to converge and manage all information for efficiently managing a storage system in real time, from all event information accumulated during operation and system resource utilization information.

Storage, events

Description

Storage integrated management system and method

The present invention relates to the management of a storage system, and more particularly, in the management of a plurality of storage systems, the status information, RAID status information, controller status of individual hard disk drives from a RAID controller that controls a plurality of hard disk drives connected in series The present invention relates to a storage integrated management system and method that enables an administrator to converge and manage all information for efficiently managing a storage system in real time, from all event information accumulated during operation and system resource utilization information.

By 2006, the amount of digital data generated was 161 exabytes. That's roughly three million times all the books written so far, and the amount of digital data is expected to grow to 988 exabytes in 2010.

This increase in digital data is not only the digitization of existing accumulated analog information, but also the activity of more than one billion digital data generation equipments worldwide, including mobile devices such as digital camcorders and camera phones, medical equipment or industrial devices such as security cameras. Caused by.

In this rapidly expanding digital data, what is required is the easy management and control of distributed storage systems.

Looking at current storage systems, Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID), in which multiple hard disks constitute one storage system due to the advantage of being able to build high-capacity storage and parallel processing using relatively inexpensive hard disks. It is implemented in the form.

However, this type of conventional storage system is as inefficient as the number of hard disks in terms of management. The level of management services varies widely depending on the equipment and service provider, and it is difficult to purchase expensive branded systems. Documents, rigid services, and a closed approach do not provide timely and appropriate management activities, and the cost and other business losses associated with the maintenance of the storage system pose a significant burden.

Looking at the more detailed problems, the first is the approach to system administration.

The equipment of all existing companies must directly access the system and collect and analyze the desired information.If the number of systems to be managed is hundreds or hundreds, the limited administrator should monitor and cope with the failure of numerous hard disks manually. If the administrator is remote, it may not be possible to cope at all and an emergency situation may occur. This is a challenge that cannot be neglected in storage systems that must be guaranteed for integrity.

Moreover, from the point of view of the user who wants to introduce and operate the system because the information system is different for each system manufacturer and supplier, a separate technical learning is required for each target system. The management know-how is periodically discarded, resulting in the absence of skilled manpower. This creates a vicious cycle that increases the cost of introducing the system.

Although discussions are currently being made on the establishment of technical standards for inter-system compatibility, only a limited number of companies with a monopoly position are leading.

Next is the timeliness of system management information. Currently, each system manufacturer has its own independent method of providing system diagnosis information according to the system self-diagnosis method and notifying the administrator of the occurrence of system failure. Since it is very limited, managers are often constrained in time and space, such as checking whether or not an event has occurred, and they have not escaped the frame of delivery system limited to individual systems.

The present invention was created to solve the above-described problems of the conventional storage system, and an object thereof is to provide a storage integrated management system and method having general purpose.

The present invention, in order to achieve the above object, a storage unit capable of storing digital data; An event controller to recognize and store an event occurrence of the storage unit; An event processing unit converting the stored event into an information system of a specific format and transmitting the converted event; An event integration manager for classifying the converted event and storing event related data; Provided is a storage integrated management system capable of integrated management of events occurring in a plurality of storage unit, including an interface unit for displaying the classified events to a user in a GUI method.

At this time, the event integration management unit may further include an SMS transmission unit that can notify the specified user of the event content occurred, it is possible to enable real-time event delivery overcoming the limitations of space and time.

Storage integrated management method according to the invention, i) Recognizing whether the event occurs; ii) converting the event recognized in the step into an information system of a specific format and transmitting the event; iii) classifying the event information converted in the step; iv) displaying the classified event information on a web according to a user's request.

In addition, the step iii) may further include the step of notifying the event content in real time via SMS.

According to the present invention, since the unique information system for each storage system needs to install only the event processing unit according to the corresponding system, it provides versatility applicable to any kind of storage system.

The integrated management of events per storage greatly reduces the burden of management, and enables real-time notification (SMS) and display (GUI) of events to improve timely response and all data on events are made into DB. It is possible to build an intelligent system that can be reflected in future system management.

Above all, the direct expectation is that system management can significantly reduce the cost of storage system maintenance for companies currently serving data services through the integration and timeliness of information delivery.

1 is a block diagram of a system according to the present invention, the storage unit 10, the event control unit 20, the event processing unit 30, the event integrated management unit 40, the interface unit 50, and the SMS transmission unit ( Including the 401, the user can check the event occurred in the storage unit 10 in real time through the interface unit 50.

a, b, and c are for clearly explaining the data flow between the connected components with the Internet interposed therebetween, and the same reference numerals are displayed on the connecting lines between the components having direct data flow.

The storage unit is a storage device for a network, and is generally implemented in a RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disk) method and consists of a plurality of hard disk drives connected in series.

That is, one storage unit is formed by interconnecting a plurality of partitioned disks, and generally provides a capacity of several terabytes to several tens of terabytes. From two to as many as tens to hundreds are used.

In addition, the storage unit can be configured to have a single independent IP address, Internet-based integrated management is possible.

The storage unit of the present invention is capable of integrated management on a network, and in size, the storage unit may be integrated or subdivided into physical or logical units to form a management unit according to a user's needs.

The event controller generally operates in conjunction with a RAID controller, and recognizes event information including information required by a user, such as status information and disk array status information of individual hard disk drives generated in the storage unit.

Looking at the event information recognition process of the event control unit in more detail, the process of executing a set command by automatically activating the CLI (Command Line Interface) provided by the RAID controller according to a set period (for example: 1 minute unit) This can be achieved through

The event recognized by the event controller is converted into a common specific information system by the event processor.

In general, since the storage unit is configured according to each information system according to a manufacturer, in order to recognize and utilize events occurring in a plurality of storage units on a network, it is necessary to convert each information system into a common single information system.

Therefore, in the present invention, by having an event processing unit, it is possible to build a universal integrated management system by performing the process of processing the event information for each storage in the information system to be used in the system of the present invention.

The event processing unit is installed corresponding to each storage unit, and interprets the event information of the metadata state provided by the RAID controller through the event control unit, processes the event based on a specified common information system, and processes the file in a file format. You can save it with

Therefore, if you install the operating system that provides the CLI, that is, the event processing unit that can provide a variety of versions, such as MS Windows, Linux, FreeBSD-Unix series according to the characteristics of the storage unit, the storage unit using any operating system in the system according to the present invention The integrated management of the event information is possible, significantly reducing the maintenance cost of the storage system.

When the user subscribes to the service according to the present invention, the event processing unit may be installed according to the corresponding storage unit, and may set environment variables such as event information check period.

The event information interpreted and classified in the form of integrated management is transmitted to the event integrated management unit using the Internet standard protocol.

The event integrated management unit classifies the event information received from the event processing units installed in a plurality of storage units into schedule management units such as storage, customer, or manager, and classifies the storage content by the contents of the event or the urgency. DB is stored (stored), and the classified event information is provided to the user using an interface unit described later.

Whether the event is a routine event in the system operation (eg Information-Blue) or an exceptional event (eg Warning-Yellow) such as system shutdown, temporary stop, or lack of hard disk space, or the communication between the system configuration hardware and the configuration of the operating system The content and urgency are determined and classified accordingly, such as whether the event is a direct failure event (eg Error-Red) such as an element not recognized.

Most preferably, the storage unit is categorized by the user (storage provider's point of view, customer), and the storage unit is configured to store and classify event information according to contents and urgency. To reflect.

In addition, the event integrated management unit stores all event data related to system status and failure in a separate and securely stored storage and makes it into a DB so that users can continuously track and manage through statistics and relationship analysis based on the DB afterwards. In addition, intelligent management that predicts and copes with events in advance by deriving resource utilization information of the system is possible.

The interface unit may be implemented by a graphical user interface (GUI) method, which refers to a work environment in which a user exchanges information with a user computer through a graphic. In this case, the user may access the web provided by the interface unit on the Internet to quickly display event information. You will be able to confirm accurately.

Storage is as important to security as it is to manage. Storage management systems should be configured with security in mind so that the security of storage is not compromised under the name of management.

Therefore, the interface unit, which can be said to be the only access path to the integrated storage management system according to the present invention, should be designed according to the required security level. It is desirable to configure the security system so that only the authorized (authenticated) users can access through the user authentication procedure using a password or a certificate, and block the source at the source.

In the display process of the interface unit, a screen for classifying the storage unit is displayed initially so that the storage provider's storage system status can be viewed at a glance, and when the user selects one of the customers and enters the next step, The overall situation of the plurality of storage units assigned to the customer is displayed so that they can be seen at a glance, and selecting a storage unit of the plurality of storage units allows the user to grasp the detailed storage unit information. It can be implemented with a data approach.

Here, the type of information provided, the expansion and contraction of the management unit, the data access method, the display method, and the like can be changed as much as possible to meet the needs of the user.

In addition, since the user may not always be connected to the network, the event integrated management unit may notify the user in real time through the SMS transmission unit 401 in a short message to the event information for timely delivery of the generated event information. .

Looking back at the storage integrated management system according to the present invention from the perspective of the processing procedure, as shown in Figure 2, the step of recognizing whether the event occurs (s10); Converting the event recognized in the step into an information system of a specific format and transmitting it (s20); Classifying and storing the event information converted in the step (s30); And displaying the categorized event information on the web (s40).

In addition, the step (s30) may further include a step (s301) of real-time notification of the event information to the designated user.

In the step S10 of recognizing whether an event occurs, the event controller determines whether an event processing unit routine is activated by activating a CLI as a RAID controller and recognizing whether an event occurs in storage.

When the event is recognized in this way, the event processing unit interprets the event recognized in the step (s10), extracts the necessary information, and converts it into a common information system and transmits it to the event integrated management unit (S20).

The transmission method uses an internet protocol so that a management network can be constructed through an existing internet network.

The event integrated management unit collects event information for a plurality of storage units and classifies them by subject and content to make a database (s30).

Since the event information classified by the event integrated management unit is displayed to the user in a web-based GUI by the interface unit, the user can easily check the event information on the network after selecting and entering his storage system (S40).

In addition, the event information can be notified in real time to the user specified according to the pre-registered mobile communication information, in step (s30) by sending the event information to the SMS transmission unit SMS transmission unit to send the event information to the text message to the user It may be notified (s301).

1 is a system configuration according to the present invention.

2 is a process flow diagram of a system in accordance with the present invention.

<Description of the major reference numerals>

10: storage unit 20: event control unit

30: event processing unit 40: event integrated management unit

50: interface unit 401: SMS transmission unit

Claims (12)

A storage unit capable of storing digital data; An event controller to recognize and store an event occurrence of the storage unit; An event processing unit converting the stored event into an information system of a specific format and transmitting the converted event; An event integration manager for classifying the converted event and storing event related data; Storage integrated management that displays the classified events and includes an interface unit as a GUI that allows a user to select or input a command, and integrate and manage events occurring in a plurality of storage units regardless of the information system type of the storage unit. system. The storage integrated management system of claim 1, wherein the event integrated management unit further includes an SMS transmission unit configured to notify a specified user in real time of an event event occurring. The system of claim 1, wherein the event processor is configured to transmit event information using an internet protocol. The integrated storage management system of claim 1, wherein the interface unit comprises a web-based GUI. The system of claim 1, wherein the interface unit is configured to provide information in one direction through the Internet. The storage integrated management system of claim 1, wherein the interface unit is configured to be accessible only to a user authenticated through user authentication. The integrated storage management system of claim 1, wherein the integrated event management unit is configured to classify a subject and storage as a management unit, and the event information for each storage unit is classified and stored according to contents and urgency. The method of claim 1, further comprising: i) determining whether an event has occurred; ii) converting the event generated in the step into an information system of a specific format and transmitting the event; iii) classifying and storing the event information converted in the step; iv) classifying the user and storage as management units, and displaying event information classified according to contents and urgency of the event information for each storage unit. The method of claim 8, further comprising, after step iii), notifying the designated user of the event information in real time using a short message. The method of claim 8, wherein the transmission of the event information of step ii) is based on an internet protocol. The method of claim 8, wherein the step iv) provides event information to a web-based GUI. The method of claim 8, wherein the event information classification of step iii) is classified by the storage unit and the user, and the event information for each storage unit is classified and stored according to contents and urgency.

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