Hitachi, Ltd.

Eiju Katsuragi

Mikio Fukuoka

Toshiya Seki

Akira Yamamoto

Shintaro Inoue

Hisaharu Takeuchi

Yutaka Takata

Akira Kurano

Naoya Takahashi

Mikito Ogata

Takashi Sakaguchi

Toshihiko Tamiya

Takao Sato

Takeki Okamoto

Ai Satoyama

Toshio Nakano

Hiroaki Akutsu

Takao Satoh

Hidenori Suzuki

Hiroki Fujii

Noboru Morishita

Yoshinori Okami

Yoshihiro Yoshii

Yoshinori Igarashi

Shoji Sugino

Yusuke Saito

Yutaka Ohshima

Katsuya Sato

Masaki Aizawa

Sho Sawada

Shintarou Inoue

A storage controller of a storage system performs, when failures occur in at least two drives, priority rebuilding and normal rebuilding in parallel, the priority rebuilding being performed so as to perform rebuilding using a reading drive for reading data for restoration of priority rebuild data to be preferentially rebuilt and a writing drive specified for writing the priority rebuild data restored, the normal rebuilding being performed so as to rebuilt normal rebuild data by using a specified reading drive and a specified writing drive.

Storage system and rebuilding method for storage system

A storage control system reads a data set from a storage apparatus if necessary in response to an I/O request. A data set contains data and an address. The storage control system performs an all-type address check which is a check to determine whether one of a first address and second address which correspond to a read-target data set in address translation information, which is information indicating a mapping relationship between one or more first addresses and one or more second addresses, matches the address among the data and address contained in the data set. The one or more first addresses are each an address which belongs to the first address type. The one or more second addresses are each an address which belongs to the second address type. The storage control system performs processing according to the I/O request when the result of the all-type address check is true.

Storage control system and storage control method

The storage apparatus has a control unit that includes: an identification unit that is configured to determine that a first data element contained in the data is incorrect, when a first restoration calculation first data element, which is restored from the first data element using other data elements of the data excluding the first data element and a new redundancy code obtained from the data by a first calculation method, coincides with a second restoration calculation first data element, which is restored from the first data element using the other data elements and a new redundancy code obtained from the data by a second calculation method; and a restoration unit that is configured to correct the first data element in the storage devices that is determined to be incorrect by the identification unit, to either the first restoration calculation first data element or the second restoration calculation first data element.

Storage apparatus, storage system, and data management method

[This invention] inhibits the response time of the storage control apparatus from being longer even if the response time of the storage apparatus is long. The disk adapter (DKA), receiving a read message from the channel adapter (CHA), sets the timeout time in accordance with specified conditions, and tries to read data from the storage apparatus. As the timeout time, either the normal value or the shortened value is selected. If a timeout error occurs, the read job is reset, and correction read is started.

Storage control apparatus and control method of storage control apparatus

This storage apparatus for providing a dynamically expandable virtual volume to a host system to access the virtual volume comprises an allocation unit for configuring a group with a plurality of disks for providing a storage area to be allocated to the virtual volume, and allocating the storage area respectively from a plurality of the groups to the virtual volume; and a storage area arrangement unit for rearranging the storage area in each of the groups being used by the virtual volume to become optimal among each of the groups based on external operation.

Storage apparatus and method for arranging storage areas and managing error correcting code (ECC) groups

A storage controller having a plurality of storage devices and a control circuit providing a plurality of virtual volumes, to each of which a storage area in a plurality of pool volumes provided with the plurality of storage devices can be mapped for writing data in response to a write access sent from an information processing apparatus to a logical area in one of the plurality of virtual volumes, respectively. The control circuit, according to a search of the plurality of pool volumes for a certain storage area in which a certain data pattern is written, releases the certain storage area from mapping to a logical area in the plurality of virtual volumes, so that the control circuit can use the released certain storage area for mapping to a virtual volume of the plurality of virtual volumes as a destination of another write access from the information processing apparatus.

Storage controller and storage control method

A virtualization system, upon judging that a write operation from a higher-level device is an operation to write in the format of the virtual volume, even when the write position of the write operation is in a virtual area different from a virtual area to which an allocated actual area has been allocated, if there is an unused area in the allocated actual area, writes management information to the unused area according to the write operation, and if there is no unused area in the allocated actual area, newly allocates an unallocated actual area, and writes management information to the newly allocated actual area according to the write operation.

Virtualization system and area allocation control method

A storage controller detects error with relative ease when reading data from a storage apparatus. An address data appending device appends address data to each of logical blocks with respect to the data received from a host. A device communication control device determines a divisional position in every data with a size of a predetermined number of blocks, counterchanges the data in anterior and posterior parts around the divisional position, and stores the data in the storage apparatus. When reading the data from the storage apparatus, an address data checking device determines whether or not the value of the address data appended to the block read out and an expected value of the address data calculated based on the divisional position match with each other. If the values match, the data is sent to the cache memory. If the values do not match, an error is detected.

Storage controller and method for controlling input and output of data between a storage apparatus and a host computer

A storage controller having a plurality of storage device and a control circuit providing a plurality of virtual volumes, to each of which a storage area in a plurality of pool volumes provided with the plurality of storage devices can be mapped for writing data in response to a write access sent from an information processing apparatus to a logical area in one of the plurality of virtual volumes, respectively. The control circuit, according to a search of the plurality of pool volumes for a certain storage area in which a certain data pattern is written, release the certain storage area from mapping to a logical area in the plurality of virtual volume, so that the control circuit can use the released certain storage area for mapping to a virtual volume of the plurality of virtual volume as a destination of another write access from the information processing apparatus.

A storage controller of the present invention can input and output data even when the track size, which is the host management unit, is not consistent with the block size of the storage device. A boundary correction unit adds gap data corresponding to a gap size to data in a buffer memory so that the boundary of the track and boundary of the block inside the storage device match. A guarantee code is added to each logical block received from the host, and these guarantee code-appended blocks are stored in a cache memory. By providing a gap in the storage device every 116 extended logical blocks, the start position of the lead block of a track matches up with the start position of the logical blocks of the storage device.

Storage controller and method for control of a data storage device

A storage control technique with which, even if not data, but only its management information is deleted, a host system can recognize storage areas storing unnecessary data and so use them effectively. When a file system in the host system deletes the management information for data stored in a page in a pool volume, a control circuit writes '0' in all the areas in the deletion target page in response to a command from the host system. The control circuit then detects the page where '0' is written in all of its areas and releases it from allocation to the corresponding virtual volume.

The expansion of a mapping table with additional mapping information involved in the access to virtual volumes is prevented and so a search in the mapping information within a valid time period is ensured, thereby preventing degradation of system performance. A storage apparatus, which defines virtual volumes to which storage areas are dynamically allocated, has a data migration function to migrate data between the virtual volumes and real volumes. With the data migration function, the mapping information for the migrated data is deleted from the mapping table, and accordingly, the size of the mapping table can be limited.

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Odawara, Japan

Eiju Katsuragi