KR20150074546A - Method and system for providing mass storage - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed are a method and a system for providing a mass storage. The method comprises the steps of: receiving a request for generating a mass storing space based on a plurality of tape cartridges; allocating and mounting a plurality of tape cartridges needed in generating a mass storing space to a user; converting a linear tape file system of the mounted tape cartridges into an XFS file system to be combined; and allocating a storing space of the tape cartridges converted into the XFS file system to be combined to a virtual storage space.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001]

The present invention relates to a method and system for providing mass storage.

Due to data explosion, the cost of storage construction and operation of content related business is increasing. As a result, we are trying to use ultra low-cost tape storage, which was used for backup purposes, with hard disks in mass storage to reduce storage costs.

Mass storage with tape storage provides one physical storage space for a single tape cartridge, so you need to identify the tape cartridge to store and retrieve data, and you can store and retrieve data only when the tape cartridge is online. Therefore, when the tape cartridge is in an off-line state, there is a problem that it takes a waiting time for replacing the tape cartridge.

The present invention proposes a method and system for providing a mass storage capable of providing a plurality of tape cartridges as one logically integrated storage space and storing and inquiring data regardless of whether the tape cartridge is on-line or off-line.

According to an aspect of the present invention, a method for providing large capacity tape storage in a large capacity tape storage providing system is disclosed.

A method of providing a large capacity tape storage according to an embodiment of the present invention includes the steps of receiving a request for creating a large capacity storage space based on a plurality of tape cartridges, allocating and mounting a plurality of tape cartridges required for creating the large capacity storage space to a user, Converting and merging a linear tape file system of a plurality of tape cartridges into an XFS file system, and allocating a storage space of the plurality of tape cartridges converted and merged into the XFS file system to a virtual storage space.

The virtual storage space may be created as one space for the plurality of tape cartridges, or may be created as a plurality of spaces.

Recognizing an inquiry command for a directory or a file generated in the virtual storage space, converting the inquiry command into a format of the linear tape file system, checking a mount state of a plurality of tape cartridges corresponding to the virtual storage space, And executing an inquiry command in a storage space of a plurality of tape cartridges corresponding to the virtual storage space when the plurality of tape cartridges are mounted.

Further comprising mounting the plurality of tape cartridges and executing an inquiry command in a storage space of the plurality of tape cartridges when the plurality of tape cartridges are unmounted.

Wherein the step of assigning and mounting a plurality of tape cartridges required for creating the large capacity storage space to a user includes the steps of calculating the number of tape cartridges necessary for generation of the large capacity storage space and allocating the estimated number of tape cartridges to the user And mounting.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a system for providing a large capacity tape storage is disclosed.

The system for providing a large capacity tape storage according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a user application including a virtual tape storage file manager, a linear tape file system, a tape library, a data management kernel, and an automount module for managing a large- Wherein the data management kernel comprises a mapping database and a file system converter for converting the format between the linear tape file system and the XFS file system using the mapping database, An auto-mount daemon for executing mounts or unmounts in the auto-mount daemon, and an auto-file daemon for requesting the automount daemon for mounting or unmounting requested by the user application Wherein the virtual tape storage file manager allocates and mounts a plurality of tape cartridges required for creating the requested mass storage space to a user and converts the linear tape file system of the mounted plurality of tape cartridges into an XFS file system And allocates the storage space of the plurality of tape cartridges converted and merged into the XFS file system to the virtual storage space.

The virtual storage space may be created as one space for the plurality of tape cartridges, or may be created as a plurality of spaces.

Wherein the virtual tape storage file manager recognizes an inquiry command for a directory or a file generated in the virtual storage space and transfers the recognized inquiry command to the file system converter and the file system converter transmits the inquiry command to the linear tape The virtual storage space is converted into a format of a file system, and a mount state of a plurality of tape cartridges corresponding to the virtual storage space is confirmed through the auto file system interface. When the plurality of tape cartridges are mounted, And executes an inquiry command in a storage space of a corresponding plurality of tape cartridges.

The file system converter mounts the plurality of tape cartridges through the automount daemon when the plurality of tape cartridges are unmounted, and then executes an inquiry command in a storage space of the plurality of tape cartridges.

The virtual tape storage file manager calculates the number of tape cartridges necessary for generation of the mass storage space, and allocates and mounts the estimated number of tape cartridges to the user.

The present invention provides a single logical integrated storage space for a plurality of tape cartridges so that identification of the corresponding tape cartridges is unnecessary for data storage and retrieval, and data storage and retrieval is possible regardless of whether the tape cartridges are online or offline So that the waiting time for the tape cartridge to be replaced can be minimized.

Brief Description of the Drawings Fig. 1 shows an example of the use of a mass storage with tape storage applied. Fig.
FIG. 2 schematically illustrates a configuration of a mass storage providing system to which a tape storage is applied; FIG.
3 is a flow chart illustrating a method for creating a mass storage space in the mass storage provision system of FIG.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a directory or file inquiry method in the mass storage provision system of FIG. 2;

While the present invention has been described in connection with certain exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but, on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and similarities. It should be understood, however, that the invention is not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments, but includes all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In addition, numerals (e.g., first, second, etc.) used in the description of the present invention are merely an identifier for distinguishing one component from another.

Also, in this specification, when an element is referred to as being "connected" or "connected" with another element, the element may be directly connected or directly connected to the other element, It should be understood that, unless an opposite description is present, it may be connected or connected via another element in the middle.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In order to facilitate a thorough understanding of the present invention, the same reference numerals are used for the same means regardless of the number of the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of using a mass storage with tape storage.

As shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of tape cartridges mounted on a plurality of tape drivers of a tape library can be virtualized into one logical disk volume. Accordingly, a user can easily use multiple physical tape cartridges as one logical mass storage, and can perform directory or file management of tape storage in the same manner as a local disk such as a hard disk. In order to manage the tape storage using the linear tape file system (LTFS) under the XFS file system environment, which is the file system of the existing hard disk storage, the mass storage system is required to mutually format the XFS file system and the linear tape file system Gt; This will be described later with reference to Fig.

2 is a diagram schematically illustrating a configuration of a mass storage providing system to which a tape storage is applied.

2, the mass storage provision system includes a user application 10, a policy database 20, a linear tape file system 30, a tape library 40, a data management kernel 50, Mount module (60). Here, the data management kernel 50 includes a mapping database 51, a file system converter 52, and a linear tape driver port 53. The automount module 60 then includes a mount database 61, an autofs interface 62, an automount daemon 63, and an automount 64.

The user application 10 calls an operation such as read and write to retrieve or store a file in the storage of either the hard disk storage 2 or the tape storage 3, wrapping system operation (sys_operation) to the data management kernel 50.

The user application 10 also invokes the operations associated with the file system and simultaneously accesses the desired storage of the hard disk storage 2 and the tape storage 3 with the auto file system interface 62 of the automount module 60 Request a mount on. To this end, the user application 10 requests the policy database 20 to designate the file system value for the storage so that the user application can inquire or store the file in the desired storage according to the service policy. For example, the file system value may be designated as 1 for the hard disk storage 2 and 2 for the tape storage 3.

In particular, the user application 10 includes a virtual tape storage file manager (not shown) for managing large-capacity storage to which tape storage is applied.

The virtual tape storage file manager calculates the number of tape cartridges necessary for generation of the requested mass storage space according to the input of the mass storage space creation request from the user and allocates and mounts the estimated number of tape cartridges to the user. For example, the virtual tape storage file manager can request mounting of the tape cartridge to the auto file system interface 62. [

The virtual tape storage file manager then converts and merges the linear tape file system of the mounted tape cartridges into the XFS file system. For example, conversion and merging can be performed as follows.

LFTS1 (Tape Cartridge 1, Index Partition, Data Partition) + LFTS2 (Index Partition, Data Partition) + LFTS3 (Tape Cartridge 3, Index Partition, Data Partition) )

⇒ XFS (Zone1, Tape Cartridge (1..4), Index Partition (1..4), Data Partition (1..4))

The virtual tape storage file manager then allocates the storage space of the plurality of tape cartridges converted and merged into the XFS file system to the virtual storage space. For example, a virtual tape storage file manager can allocate Zone1 volumes in a merged XFS file system as virtual storage space in an OS environment.

At this time, the virtual tape storage file manager allocates a virtual storage space (for example, D: \) to one space for the storage space of a plurality of tape cartridges, allocates a virtual storage space to a plurality of divided partitions (For example, D: \ / E: \ / F: \ / G: \).

After that, the virtual tape storage file manager recognizes the inquiry commands (for example, creation, deletion, renaming, file list inquiry, etc.) of directories or files occurring in the virtual storage space, To the file system converter 52 of the data management kernel 50, it is possible to execute the inquiry command in the storage space of the plurality of tape cartridges corresponding to the virtual storage space.

The policy database 20 stores and manages service policies.

The linear tape file system 30 is a file system of the tape storage 3. For example, the linear tape file system 30 may be a file system of linear tape-open (LTO) tape storage capable of storing large amounts of data at high speed.

The tape library 40 includes a plurality of tape drivers and tape cartridges. The tape library 40 mounts or unmounts the tape cartridges to or from the tape driver, loads the requested content files from the mounted tape cartridges, Store it in a tape cartridge.

The data management kernel 50 performs data management functions for the hard disk storage 2 and the tape storage 3 and basically performs management functions of the XFS file system.

The mapping database 51 maps and stores storage format information between the linear tape file system 30 and the XFS file system.

The file system converter 52 immediately performs the operation of the XFS file system if the mounted storage is the hard disk storage 2 and if the mounted storage is the hard disk storage 2 from the user application 10 using the mapping database 51 Converts the format of the invoked operation. That is, when the mounted storage is the tape storage 3, the file system converter 52 converts the operation of the XFS file system format into the format of the linear tape file system 30 with reference to the mapping database 51.

In particular, the file system converter 52 refers to the mapping database 51 and converts the inquiry command transmitted from the virtual tape storage file manager into the format of the linear tape file system 30.

Then, the file system converter 52 confirms mount states of the plurality of tape cartridges corresponding to the virtual storage space through the auto file system interface 62 of the automount module 60. If a plurality of corresponding tape cartridges are mounted, the file system converter 52 executes an inquiry command in a storage space of a plurality of tape cartridges corresponding to the virtual storage space. Alternatively, if the corresponding plurality of tape cartridges are unmounted, the file system converter 52 mounts the corresponding plurality of tape cartridges through the automount daemon 63, and then stores the plurality of tape cartridges Execute the query command in space.

The linear tape driver port 53 recognizes the tape drive of the tape library 40 and performs input and output operations on the file stored in the tape storage in accordance with the format operation of the converted operation.

The automount module 60 automatically mounts or unmounts tapes in the tape library 40 separately from the data management kernel 50. [

The mount database 61 stores the mounted storage information.

The auto file system interface 62 requests the automount daemon 63 to mount or unmount the requested application from the user application 10.

The automount daemon 63 executes mounting or unmounting in the tape library 40 upon request.

The automounter 64 searches the mount database 61, mounts the storage that is not in the mount database 61 from the connected storage when the system is started, and unmounts the storage when it is not used for a predetermined time or more . Here, the automount 64 can request mounting or unmounting of the tape library 40 with the automount daemon 63.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method for creating a large-capacity storage space in the large-capacity storage providing system of FIG.

In step S310, the virtual tape storage file manager included in the user application 10 receives a request for creating a large capacity storage space from the user.

In step S320, the virtual tape storage file manager calculates the number of tape cartridges required to generate the requested mass storage space according to the input of the mass storage space creation request, and allocates and mounts the estimated number of tape cartridges to the user. For example, the virtual tape storage file manager can request mounting of the tape cartridge to the auto file system interface 62. [

In step S330, the virtual tape storage file manager converts and merges the linear tape file system of the mounted tape cartridges into the XFS file system.

In step S340, the virtual tape storage file manager allocates the storage space of the plurality of tape cartridges converted and merged into the XFS file system to the virtual storage space. For example, a virtual tape storage file manager can allocate Zone1 volumes in a merged XFS file system as virtual storage space in an OS environment.

At this time, the virtual tape storage file manager allocates a virtual storage space (for example, D: \) to one space for the storage space of a plurality of tape cartridges, allocates a virtual storage space to a plurality of divided partitions (For example, D: \ / E: \ / F: \ / G: \).

4 is a flowchart illustrating a directory or file inquiry method in the mass storage provision system of FIG.

In step S410, the virtual tape storage file manager recognizes an inquiry command (for example, creation, deletion, renaming, file list inquiry, etc.) of a directory or a file generated in the virtual storage space, Command to the file system converter 52 of the data management kernel 50. [

In step S420, the file system converter 52 refers to the mapping database 51 and converts the inquiry command transmitted from the virtual tape storage file manager into the format of the linear tape file system 30.

In step S430, the file system converter 52 confirms the mount status of a plurality of tape cartridges corresponding to the virtual storage space through the auto file system interface 62 of the automount module 60. [

In step S440, the file system converter 52 executes an inquiry command in a storage space of a plurality of tape cartridges corresponding to the virtual storage space when a plurality of corresponding tape cartridges are mounted.

If a plurality of corresponding tape cartridges are unmounted, the file system converter 52 mounts the corresponding plurality of tape cartridges through the automount daemon 63, and then, in a storage space of the plurality of tape cartridges Execute the query command.

Meanwhile, the method for generating a large capacity storage space and the directory or file inquiry method according to an embodiment of the present invention may be implemented in a form of a program command that can be executed through a variety of means for processing information electronically and recorded in a storage medium. The storage medium may include program instructions, data files, data structures, and the like, alone or in combination.

Program instructions to be recorded on the storage medium may be those specially designed and constructed for the present invention or may be available to those skilled in the art of software. Examples of storage media include magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks and magnetic tape, optical media such as CD-ROMs and DVDs, magneto-optical media such as floptical disks, magneto-optical media and hardware devices specifically configured to store and execute program instructions such as ROM, RAM, flash memory, and the like. The above-mentioned medium may also be a transmission medium such as a light or metal wire, wave guide, etc., including a carrier wave for transmitting a signal designating a program command, a data structure and the like. Examples of program instructions include machine language code such as those produced by a compiler, as well as devices for processing information electronically using an interpreter or the like, for example, a high-level language code that can be executed by a computer.

The hardware devices described above may be configured to operate as one or more software modules to perform the operations of the present invention, and vice versa.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. It will be understood that the invention may be varied and varied without departing from the scope of the invention.

10: User application
20: Policy database
30: Linear Tape File System
40: Tape Library
50: Data management kernel
51: mapping database
52: File System Converter
53: Linear Tape Driver Port
60: Automount Module
61: Mount database
62: Auto File System Interface
63: Automount Daemon
64: Auto Mount

Claims (10)

A method for providing large-capacity tape storage in a large-capacity tape storage providing system,
Receiving a request for creating a mass storage space based on a plurality of tape cartridges;
Allocating and mounting a plurality of tape cartridges required for creating the mass storage space to a user;
Converting and merging a linear tape file system of the mounted plurality of tape cartridges into an XFS file system; And
And allocating the storage space of the plurality of tape cartridges converted and merged into the XFS file system to a virtual storage space.
The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the virtual storage space is created as one space for the plurality of tape cartridges, or is created as a plurality of spaces.
The method according to claim 1,
Recognizing an inquiry command for a directory or a file generated in the virtual storage space;
Converting the inquiry command into a format of the linear tape file system;
Confirming a mount state of a plurality of tape cartridges corresponding to the virtual storage space; And
And executing an inquiry command in a storage space of a plurality of tape cartridges corresponding to the virtual storage space when the plurality of tape cartridges are mounted.
The method of claim 3,
Further comprising mounting the plurality of tape cartridges and executing an inquiry command in a storage space of the plurality of tape cartridges when the plurality of tape cartridges are unmounted.
The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the step of assigning and mounting a plurality of tape cartridges necessary for creating the large-
Calculating a number of tape cartridges necessary for generating the mass storage space; And
And allocating and mounting the estimated number of tape cartridges to the user.
A user application including a virtual tape storage file manager for management of mass storage with tape storage;
Linear tape file system;
Tape library; And
Data management kernels, and kernels including automount modules,
The data management kernel
Mapping database; And
And a file system converter for converting a format between the linear tape file system and the XFS file system using the mapping database,
The automount module
An automount daemon that mounts or unmounts from the tape library; And
And an auto file system interface for requesting the automount daemon for mounting or unmounting requested by the user application,
The virtual tape storage file manager
Allocating and mounting a plurality of tape cartridges required for creating the requested mass storage space to a user, converting and merging a linear tape file system of the mounted plurality of tape cartridges into an XFS file system, And allocating the storage spaces of the plurality of tape cartridges to the virtual storage space.
The method according to claim 6,
Wherein the virtual storage space is created as one space for the plurality of tape cartridges, or is created as a plurality of spaces.
The method according to claim 6,
The virtual tape storage file manager
Recognizing an inquiry command for a directory or a file generated in the virtual storage space, transmitting the recognized inquiry command to the file system converter,
The file system converter
Converting the inquiry command into a format of the linear tape file system, confirming a mount state of a plurality of tape cartridges corresponding to the virtual storage space through the auto file system interface, Wherein the inquiry command is executed in a storage space of a plurality of tape cartridges corresponding to the virtual storage space.
9. The method of claim 8,
The file system converter
Wherein when the plurality of tape cartridges are unmounted, the plurality of tape cartridges are mounted through the automount daemon, and an inquiry command is executed in a storage space of the plurality of tape cartridges. Delivery system.
The method according to claim 6,
Wherein the virtual tape storage file manager calculates the number of tape cartridges necessary for generating the large capacity storage space and allocates and mounts the estimated number of tape cartridges to the user.

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