KR20030016076A - Apparatus for backing-up data using hard disk drives - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A backup device using a hard disk is provided to remove a mechanical trouble cause by operating a hard disk mechanically when a storing speed of data is increased using the hard disk and a plurality of hard disks are mounted detachably. CONSTITUTION: At least one hard disk(101) is provided for storing data. At least one detachable hard disk bay(103) is provided for mounting/dismounting the hard disk(101). A control unit(110) controls a data flow of a backup device(100) and a power source supply to the hard disk(101). An input/output bus(103) is provided for a data transmission/receipt between the hard disk bay(103) and the control unit(110). A signal opening and shutting power switch(120) supplies or disconnects a power source to the hard disk(101) in accordance with a control signal of the control unit(110) for preventing an overheating and an electric power consumption of the hard disk(101). In addition, a network interface(105) for a data transmission/receipt to an external network is provided.

Description

Backup device using hard disk {APPARATUS FOR BACKING-UP DATA USING HARD DISK DRIVES}

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a backup device using a hard disk, and more particularly, to a backup device that selectively controls a plurality of hard disk power sources and easily expands backup media.

Prior arts related to the present invention include Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM), Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID), Automatic Tape Library (ATL), and the like.

HSM is a system that automatically transfers files stored on hard disks, which are expensive storage media, after a certain period of time or as specified by the user, to other low-cost storage media. Of course, it's ideal to make all data available on high-speed storage at all times, but it's expensive, so HSM systems store most of the company's data on low-speed and low-cost storage and use it. Only when copying data to a faster hard disk. By monitoring how data is being used, the HSM system automatically estimates which files should be moved to the slower device and which ones should be left on the hard disk automatically, with the best estimate of what data should be left on the hard disk. By moving to low-cost storage, you can reduce the amount of backup data, allow users to access all files automatically and transparently, and reduce network traffic.

RAID is mainly used for servers that have important data, and when multiple hard disks exist, the same data is stored in different locations. A RAID is logically perceived by the operating system as a hard disk. RAID employs striping technology that allows you to divide the storage space of each drive into a range of sizes ranging from one sector (512 bytes) to several megabytes of space. Strips of all disks are interleaved and addressed sequentially. By storing data on multiple disks, I / O operations are balanced and overlapped, improving overall performance. As the number of disks increases, Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) increases, so storing data redundantly improves your ability to prepare for failures.

However, in the case of RAID, all hard disks must be assumed to be subject to data operations, so they must always be powered on. Therefore, there is a problem in that the power consumption is large and the heat generation amount is large. In addition, large RAID implementations require a lot of hardware resources, such as the number of data processing devices that control them.

The tape is contained in a cartridge, which is a protective container that can be easily carried, and is a device that is mounted on a tape drive in a cartridge unit and used to read or write recorded data. In the early days of business computers, tapes were the primary storage medium, and computer system operators had to spend a lot of time removing tapes for different tasks every day. However, with the development of magnetic disks, tapes were used primarily as a medium for backing up large amounts of data on the mainframe.

The main drawback of the tape is that it must be accessed from the beginning of the tape and idle to that position in order to find the desired data. For this reason, the main use of tape was to batch process large amounts of data. Payroll is a good example of such a batch job. Today, tape is still used for permanent storage of data such as mainframes. The new type of tape is also used for automatic backup. Large-capacity tape is used for backing up large systems, such as libraries that can be managed automatically using a robot arm with dozens or hundreds of tape cartridges that can store more than 50-100 GB of data. do.

Tape has many disadvantages in speed compared to hard disk. This is because the throughput of the tape in writing data is less than that of the hard disk, and in particular, it is not as randomly accessed as the hard disk for reading data. This can be a problem in configuring the HSM. In the case of the Automatic Tape Library (ATL), the tape is replaced by the mechanical operation of the automatic robot arm, which is expensive due to the use of an automatic drive for using the automatic robot arm. Another problem with ATL is that it is more likely to cause mechanical failures due to mechanical operation, resulting in increased management costs.

The present invention is to solve this problem, the object of the present invention is to improve the storage speed (especially the read speed) of the data using the hard disk and to configure a plurality of hard disks removable, but not mechanically operated It is to provide a backup device for removing the cause of mechanical failure.

In addition, the present invention provides a backup device for preventing overheating and power consumption that occur when the hard disk is used as a backup medium, and by using an input / output bus multiplexer between the control unit and the hard disk, It is aimed at maintaining.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a backup device using a hard disk according to the present invention;

2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a hard disk backup device using an input / output bus multiplexer according to the present invention.

<Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

100: backup device using a hard disk 101: hard disk

103: removable hard disk bay 103: input and output bus

104: data bus 105: network interface

106: signal for controlling the signal switch power switch

107: input and output control unit 110: control unit

120: signal switch power switch 130: control software

140: I / O bus multiplexer

In order to achieve the above object, a backup device using a hard disk according to the present invention comprises: one or more hard disks for storing data; One or more removable hard disk bays for attaching and detaching the hard disk; A control unit for controlling the data flow of the backup device and the power supply to the hard disk; An input / output bus for transmitting and receiving data between the removable hard disk bay and a control unit; And a signal open / close power switch for supplying or cutting off power to the hard disk according to a control signal from the control unit in order to prevent overheating and power consumption of the hard disk.

In addition, the backup device using a hard disk according to the present invention may include the following components for efficient expansion and selection of the backup media. That is, a backup device using a hard disk according to the present invention includes one or more hard disks for storing data; One or more removable hard disk bays for attaching and detaching the hard disk; One or more control units for controlling data flow of the backup device and power supply to the hard disk; An input / output bus multiplexer for controlling data flow between the hard disk bay and the control unit according to a control signal from the control unit; An input / output bus for transmitting and receiving data between the removable hard disk bay and the input / output multiplexer; An input / output bus for transmitting and receiving data between the input / output bus multiplexer and the control unit; And a signal open / close power switch for supplying or cutting off power to the hard disk according to a control signal from the control unit in order to prevent overheating and power consumption of the hard disk.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described an embodiment according to the present invention;

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a backup device using a hard disk according to the present invention.

The backup device 100 according to the present invention detaches the hard disk 101, which is a backup medium, to one or more hard disk bays 102 so as to perform a data backup or recovery operation. The control unit 110 drives the control software 130 to manage data movement, system operating policies, or operator interfaces. The hard disk bays 102 are connected to the input / output control unit 107 included in the control unit 110 through the input / output bus 103 to exchange data between the hard disk and the control unit. The input / output control unit 107 is connected to the data bus 104 to perform the operation on the data required by the control unit 110. The network interface 105 is connected to the data bus 104 and functions to exchange data with the external network 150.

In addition, the control software 130 performs functions of the existing ATL management software such as backup schedule, database operation of backup related information, response to a media management mistake of an operator, hardware device management, and the like. To this end, the control software 130 may be driven not only in the control unit 110 but also in conjunction with control software running in other computers (not shown) connected on the network 150 as necessary.

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a backup device in which the hard disk 101 is connected to the data bus 104 via the input / output bus 103 and the input / output control unit 107, but the hard disk 101 is a direct data bus. 104 or the network 150, in which case the hard disk 101 is directly attached to the data bus 104 or the network without passing through the input / output bus 103 or the control unit 110 and connected to the outside. Send and receive data.

The network 150 may be Ethernet, Fiber Channel, ESCON, or the like, and may be a combination of two or more kinds of networks as necessary. The data bus 104 may be configured with a PCI bus, a high performance PCI bus developed next, or an Infiniband. The input / output bus 103 may be ATA, SCSI or Fiber Channel. The control unit 110 may be configured as a server PC board, and may be configured as an intelligent router directly connecting the input / output bus 103 and the data bus 104 or directly connecting the input / output bus 103 and an external network. Can be, but is not limited to such a configuration.

In general, in performing data backup by a backup device using a hard disk, not only the amount of data backed up from one server is large, but also one backup device often backs up data from multiple servers. The backup using the hard disk is performed. Therefore, the backup apparatus according to the present invention receives data to be backed up through the network interface 105, and transmits the data to the specific hard disk 101 designated by the control software 130 via the input / output bus 103 and stores it. do. On the contrary, when the system needs to be restored from the backup data, the backup data is read from the specific hard disk 101 and then sent to the target system restored through the input / output bus 103, the data bus 104 and the network interface 105. .

If a hard disk 101 for storing or storing data is not attached to the system, the control unit 110 may operate the operator interface of the control software 130 so that the required hard disk 101 may be attached to the system. The location of the hard disk 101 and the hard disk bay 102 to which the hard disk 101 is attached may be designated through (not shown). The operator should prepare the necessary hard disk 101 and attach it to the system. After the backup is completed, the operator should take the hard disk 101 containing the backup data from the system and move it to a designated place. Operational information related to the removal and storage of such backup media is managed by the control software 130. If it is necessary to attach a new hard disk 101, which hard disk bay 102 to attach to, in particular when there is no empty hard disk bay 102 of which hard disk 101 is already attached? The control software 130 calculates whether or not to attach the new hard disk 101 and informs the operator through the operator interface.

In addition to the basic media management, the backup device according to the present invention by using the signal switch power switch 120 to cut off the power of the hard disk that is not currently in use, to alleviate the problem of power consumption and overheating, hard to be used as a backup media To extend the life of the disc. In addition, it may be possible to adjust the hard disk control parameters to stop the unused hard disk motor and to put the hard disk in a dormant state to assist in opening and closing the power supply. This hard disk power off and sleep is not done manually by the operator, but automatically by the control software 130 sending the appropriate electronic open / close control signal 106 to the signal open / close power switch 120.

2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a backup apparatus using an input / output bus multiplexer according to the present invention.

In general, the number of hard disks that can be physically connected to the control unit 110 is limited. This is especially true with IDE hard disks. In addition, in the backup system, generally, the number of hard disks used simultaneously by the user is not large. Therefore, the I / O bus 103 of the various hard disks is connected to the multiplexer 140 in an n: m (n≥2, m≥1) manner, and only the hard disk 101 that the control unit 110 currently uses is electrically connected. You can choose. By using this method, many hard disks are not directly connected to the input / output control unit 107, and can be used at a low cost. In particular, it is more effective if used in the same manner as the automatic power supply using the aforementioned signal switch power switch 120.

As described above, since the backup device according to the present invention performs a backup function while using a hard disk as a storage device, the characteristics of an on-line data server and an off-line backup server based on the hard disk It has all the characteristics of and can act as an HSM data server, which is an intermediate step between these two servers. That is, some of the hard disks 101 and the corresponding hard disk bays 102 are always in a power-on state so that RAID can be serviced by a data server after configuring RAID and performing only backups. And the hard disk bay 102, the power is turned on only part of the hard disk 101 to send and receive data currently, and the power off for the hard disk 101 data transfer batch job (batch job) is finished, Therefore, the administrator can tear it off and save it separately.

In addition, some hard disks can be fixedly used as on-line storage for data services. In this case, the control unit 110 in the backup device may include a buffer cache composed of RAM (Random Access Memory) and the like that can be quickly accessed, and the data in the buffer cache may be directly accessed without access to the hard disk. Fast reads and writes to.

More complex methods are needed to perform HSM services. The HSM using the backup device 100 according to the present invention allows some of the large-scale data to be directly accessible from the hard disk 101 as in the data of an online server, and the remaining data portion is contained in the hard disk 101 in an offline state. It is kept separate from the system. However, the HSM system using the backup device 100 according to the present invention properly manages the metadata so that when the data is accessed from the outside, the offline data also appears to be online, and there may be a demand for future data. If the data is offline, the operator is informed to attach the hard disk 101 containing the data to the system so that the data can be accessed from the outside. In the HSM service using the backup device 100 according to the present invention, the data contained in each hard disk 101 is in one of the following four states in detail.

First, the hard disk 101 is attached to the system, the power on / off switch 120 is in an ON state, connected to the control unit 110 through the input / output multiplexer 140, the motor of the hard disk 101 is It is rotating (state 1). The data in this hard disk 101 can be accessed immediately.

Second, the hard disk 101 is attached to the system, the power on / off switch 120 is in an ON state, connected to the control unit 110 through the input / output bus multiplexer 140, the motor of the hard disk 101 Is in a dormant state (state 2). The data in the hard disk 101 can be read by the control software 130 after the hard disk 101 is switched to the ready state.

Third, the hard disk 101 is attached to the system, but the power on / off switch 120 is in the OFF state (state 3). The control software 130 switches the power on / off switch to the ON state, and the data can be read when the motor rotation of the hard disk 101 reaches a sufficient speed and becomes ready.

Finally, the hard disk 101 is not attached to the system (state 4). The control software 130 notifies the operator to attach the hard disk 101 to the particular hard disk bay 102. When the hard disk 101 is attached, state 3 is obtained.

The control software 130 determines whether to insert each hard disk 101 into one of the states 1 to 4 mentioned above, and which hard disk 101 to attach or detach to which hard disk bay 102 in state 4. It can be automatically controlled by internal algorithm according to the operator's operation policy, system overheating and power consumption, and hard disk life extension request.

The backup apparatus according to the present invention can extend various functions including the following components.

Firstly, it is a hard disk bay display device. It may display information required by the operator in each hard disk bay 102 using LEDs or LCDs. For example, the position of the hard disk 101 to be attached or detached or the presence of an error is displayed.

Both are hard disk bay locks. This is a device that enables or disables attachment or detachment of the hard disk 101 to each hard disk bay 102 by an electronic signal. The electronic signal of the control software 130 determines whether the hard disk 101 can be attached or detached, thereby reducing the probability of a mistake that may occur when an operator attaches or detaches the hard disk 101 to the system. In particular, it can be effectively used to protect the data of currently serving hard disks.

Third is the batch removal device for a plurality of hard disk modules. In the backup device according to the present invention, a plurality of hard disks may be configured as one RAID or linearly connected storage for performance or data stability. In order to attach and detach a plurality of related hard disks into one, these hard disks may be mechanically connected. A plurality of connected hard disks can be removed and stored in the system in a batch to increase operational convenience.

Finally, it is a label sticker printing device. This allows the operator to visually attach a serial number or a barcode that the backup device according to the present invention can visually recognize and attach it to a hard disk by printing it on a sticker.

Although the present invention has been described by way of specific embodiments, it is not intended that the scope of the invention be limited to the foregoing, and various changes may be made without departing from the definition of the invention as defined in the following claims. .

As can be seen from the above description, the backup device according to the present invention uses a signal switching power switch to cut off the power supply of a hard disk that is not currently in use, thereby preventing power consumption and overheating problems unlike a conventional RAID system. It makes it easy to build systems inexpensively and to extend the life of hard disks used as backup media. In addition, the backup apparatus according to the present invention facilitates the expansion of the backup media through the input / output multiplexer, and makes it possible to selectively use a plurality of hard disks.

The backup apparatus according to the present invention can read and write to all hard disks attached to the system without distinguishing between a slot, which is a simple storage used in a tape library, and a drive on which read / write occurs. Therefore, there is no need for a robot arm or mechanical detachment through it, so that failure can be minimized and can be implemented at low cost.

The backup device according to the present invention has advantages in being resistant to temperature and humidity, and having a certain size and interface, compared to a backup device using a tape by using a hard disk. In terms of price, it is expected that the price of hard disks will be faster and cheaper than tape due to mass production, consumption, and intensive development of technology, and the price per unit capacity will be lower. In addition, as tape capacity increases, it becomes incompatible with existing drives and requires a lot of expensive drives, which complicates management.However, hard disks are more compatible with the same hard disk bays and other hardware even if the capacity increases. This makes it inexpensive and easy to manage.

The backup apparatus according to the present invention has the following advantages as a storage medium. That is, unlike a tape that must be idle from the beginning to the corresponding position to access specific data, the system according to the present invention using a hard disk as a media has an advantage of quickly and directly accessing the data. Thus, it can be effectively used not only as a backup device but also as a data server or near-line storage.

Claims (9)

In a backup device using a hard disk, One or more hard disks for storing data; One or more removable hard disk bays for attaching and detaching the hard disk; A control unit for controlling the data flow of the backup device and the power supply to the hard disk; An input / output bus for transmitting and receiving data between the removable hard disk bay and a control unit; And And a signal open / close power switch for supplying or cutting off power to the hard disk according to a control signal from the control unit in order to prevent overheating and power consumption of the hard disk. In a backup device using a hard disk, One or more hard disks for storing data; One or more removable hard disk bays for attaching and detaching the hard disk; One or more control units for controlling data flow of the backup device and power supply to the hard disk; An input / output bus multiplexer for controlling data flow between the hard disk bay and the control unit according to a control signal from the control unit; An input / output bus for transmitting and receiving data between the removable hard disk bay and the input / output multiplexer; An input / output bus for transmitting and receiving data between the input / output bus multiplexer and the control unit; And a signal open / close power switch for supplying or cutting off power to the hard disk according to a control signal from the control unit in order to prevent overheating and power consumption of the hard disk. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The backup device further comprises a network interface for transmitting and receiving data with an external network. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The control unit executes control software, wherein the control software displays, via an operator interface, information about a hard disk to be attached to or detached from the backup device and a hard disk bay to be attached to or detached from the hard disk. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The signal switching power switch is a backup device for stopping the drive motor of the currently unused hard disk by adjusting the control parameters of the hard disk to prevent overheating and power consumption of the hard disk. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The hard disk bay is a backup device for displaying the location of the hard disk to be removed or the operation error of the hard disk. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The hard disk bay is a backup device that can be attached or detached from the hard disk by the control signal of the control unit in order to reduce the operational error of the operator of the backup device. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The backup device further comprises a printing device for printing information on the hard disk. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The backup apparatus may further include a hard disk module batch detachable apparatus configured to bundle and detach the plurality of hard disks into one in order to configure the plurality of hard disks as one RAID or one linearly connected storage location. .