International Business Machines Corporation

David John Carr

Barry Douglas Whyte

John Paul Agombar

Christopher B Beeken

Robert Bruce Nicholson

William James Scales

Michael John Jones

Andrew Key

A system and computer program product of handling multiple backup processes have been provided. The system comprises receiving one or more instructions initiating a plurality of backup processes from a single source storage volume to a plurality of target storage volumes, adding each target storage volume to a cascade of target storage volumes from the source storage volume, the target storage volumes added to the cascade in an order inversely proportional to the copy rate of the respective backup process such that a first target storage volume added to the cascade of target storage volumes has a slowest copy rate, a next added target storage volume to the cascade of target storage volumes has a faster copy rate than an immediately prior added target storage volume, and a most recent target storage volume added to the cascade of target storage volumes has a fastest copy rate.

Cascade ordering

A method comprises creating a cascade of target storage volumes from a plurality of target storage volumes by inserting each most recent target storage volumes between a last added target storage volume and a source storage volume, the most recent target storage volumes each having a copy rate faster than the last added target storage volume, such that each added target storage volume has a faster copy rate than an immediately prior added target storage volume, and a most recent target storage volume added to the cascade of target storage volumes has a fastest copy rate; and receiving one or more instructions initiating a plurality of backup processes from the source storage volume to a plurality of target storage volumes.

A method of handling multiple served backup processes comprising creating a cascade of target storage volumes from a plurality of target storage volumes by inserting each most recent target storage volumes between a last added target storage volume and a source storage volume, the most recent target storage volumes each having a copy rate faster than the last added target storage volume, such that each added target storage volume has a faster copy rate than an immediately prior added target storage volume, and a most recent target storage volume added to the cascade of target storage volumes has a fastest copy rate; and receiving one or more instructions initiating a plurality of served backup processes from the source storage volume to a plurality of target storage volumes.

A storage management method for use in a storage area network is provided. The storage area network comprises a plurality of host data processors coupled to a virtualization engine, which is coupled to a plurality of physical storage media. Each physical storage media is assigned a tier level. The method comprises storing a threshold storage access value associated with each tier level, presenting virtual disk(s) to a host data processor and receiving I/O requests to the virtual disk from the host data processor. Additionally, metadata is stored which identifies the tier level of the physical storage to which the block corresponds, mappings between the block and blocks of a virtual disk, and an access rate to the data. The access value is periodically compared to at least one threshold rate associated with its tier level. Depending on the result, storage block(s) may be marked for migration to another tier level.

Virtualization engine and method, system, and computer program product for managing the storage of data

A method comprises receiving one or more instructions initiating a plurality of backup processes from a single source storage volume to a plurality of target storage volumes, adding each target storage volume to a cascade of target storage volumes from the source storage volume, the target storage volumes added to the cascade in an order inversely proportional to the copy rate of the respective backup process, and starting each backup process in turn, the backup processes started in an order from the most recent target storage volume added to cascade to the first target storage volume added to cascade.

For handling multiple backup processes, computer-readable program code is described for receiving one or more instructions initiating a plurality of backup processes from a single source storage volume to a plurality of target storage volumes, adding each target storage volume to a cascade of target storage volumes from the source storage volume, the target storage volumes added to the cascade in an order inversely proportional to the copy rate of the respective backup process, and starting each backup process in turn, the backup processes started in an order from the most recent target storage volume added to cascade to the first target storage volume added to cascade.

A storage control apparatus, in communication with a cluster of storage devices in a storage network having plural administrator systems, comprises a cluster lock requester component, a cluster lock receiver component and a configuration component, wherein, responsive to receipt of a cluster lock by said cluster lock receiver component, the configuration component is operable to configure a logical resource object within said cluster. The apparatus may also include a cluster lock granter component operable to grant a cluster lock to the cluster lock receiver component responsive to said cluster lock requester component. A method of operating a storage control apparatus includes method steps corresponding to functional components of an apparatus and may be embodied in computer program codes.

Low-overhead storage cluster configuration locking

An arrangement and method for update of configuration cache data in a disk storage subsystem in which a cache memory () is updated using two-phase () commit technique. This provides the advantage that known changes to the subsystem do not require an invalidate/rebuild style operation on the cache. This is especially important where a change will invalidate the entire cache.

Growing community of inventors

Southampton, United Kingdom

David John Carr