Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitoshi Kakuta

Yoshihisa Kamo

Atsushi Tanaka

Yoshifumi Takamoto

Yosuke Seo

Toyohiko Kagimasa

Hajime Aoi

Yasuhide Ouchi

Naoki Watanabe

Yoshito Tsunoda

Hiroki Kanai

Hiromichi Fujisawa

Hiroaki Fujii

Akihiko Ohba

Tosuke Seo

Mitsuo Ohyama

A data storage system connectable to a host unit which issues data read/write requests to the data storage system, and which includes a plurality of disc units, and a controller connected to the disc units. A fault can occur in any of the disc units. The disc units store data in a plurality of data groups and error correcting data corresponding to each of the data groups. The controller, operable in different modes, performs processing of reconstructing data stored in any of the disc units in which a fault has occurred based on all other data belonging to any of the data groups to which the data to be reconstructed belongs and error correcting data corresponding to any of the data groups to which the data to be reconstructed belongs, and performs processing of data read/write requests from the host unit.

Data reconstruction method and system wherein timing of data of data reconstruction is controlled in accordance with conditions when a failure occurs

With respect to the disk drives provided power from a single power source in a disk drive system, start up power is first supplied to a first start-up group of the disks, preferably comprising all of the master disks, with the size of the group being selected so that the required current does not exceed the capacity of the power source. When the disk drives of the first group have substantially reached steady state, start-up is conducted with respect to a second start-up group of the disk drives so that the current required during start-up for the second group and the current required for steady state drive of the first start-up group does not exceed the capacity of the power source. With respect to each start-up group, the number of disk drives is the maximum integer value and decreases or remains the same with respect to subsequent start-up groups. When simultaneously transferring subdivided data in parallel to all of the disk drives of a parity group, respectively, seek operations in such a system are prevented from occurring simultaneously by offsetting the indices on the disks, by varying the seek operation start timing or by varying the head addresses for the start of reading and writing, all within one revolution, but the seek operations are ended at the same time, to reduce peak current requirements of the power source.

Disk system and power-on sequence for the same

In a disk array system of RAID (level) improving the system performance by distributing data, duplicated fields are allocated in a parity group in order to reduce an overhead of data write. In the data write process, write data is tentatively and duplicately written in the duplicate fields. At this time, a write completion is reported to CPU. The parity is generated later at a proper timing and written in a SCSI drive. Generating a parity and writing data can be efficiently scheduled.

Disk array system and its control method

A data storage system connectable to a host unit which issues data read/write requests to the data storage system, and which includes a plurality of disc units, and a controller connected to the disc units. A fault can occur in any of the disc units. The disc units store data in a plurality of data groups and error correcting data corresponding to each of the data groups. The controller performs processing of reconstructing data stored in any of the disc units in which a fault has occurred based on all other data belonging to any of the data groups to which the data to be reconstructed belongs and error correcting data corresponding to any of the data groups to which the data to be reconstructed belongs, and performs processing of data read/write requests from the host unit. The controller is operable in a first mode wherein the processing of reconstructing data has priority over the processing of data read/write requests, and a second mode wherein the processing of data read/write requests has priority over the processing of reconstructing data. The controller may determine whether to operate in the first mode or the second mode based on an urgency of data reconstruction, or may determine whether to operate in the first mode or the second mode in order to complete data reconstruction within a fixed time.

Data reconstruction method and system wherein timing of data reconstruction is controlled in accordance with conditions when a failure occurs

In a disk array system of RAID (level 5) improving the system performance by distributing data, duplicated fields are allocated in a parity group in order to reduce an overhead of data write. In the data write process, write data is tentatively and duplicately written in the duplicate fields. At this time, a write completion is reported to CPU. The parity is generated later at a proper timing and written in a SCSI drive. Generating a parity and writing data can be efficiently scheduled.

In a disk array system of RAID (level 5) improving the system performance by distributing data, duplicated fields are allocated in a parity group in order to reduce an overhead of data write. In the data write process, write data is tentatively and duplicately written in the duplicate fields. At this time, a write completion is reported to the CPU. The parity is generated later at a proper timing and written in a SCSI drive. Generating a parity and writing data can be efficiently scheduled.

An array disk subsystem including a command selector for separating a signal from a host into a data item and a command, a data dividing unit for subdividing the data item, an ECC generator for producing an ECC for each of the obtained subdata items, a group of data disks for respectively storing thereon the subdata items and the ECCs, a command interpreting unit for interpreting the command, an I/O counter for counting I/O commands in the command, a backup processor for requesting a backup command based on count information of the I/O counter, and a backup unit responsive to the backup command for sequentially reading the subdata items and the ECCs from the data disks to record therein the subdata items and the ECCs.

Array disk subsystem

A storage data reconstruction system including a plurality of storage units for storing therein divided data, the plural independent storage units forming a set; units for storing therein ECC data corresponding to the divided data; a spare storage unit for storing therein reconstructed data; an I/O-reconstruction control circuit; a timer; a data reconstructing table for a storage unit which has failed and a circuit for reconstructing faulty data. When a failure occurs in any of the storage units, the failure is detected by an error check, a state of the failure is discriminated, a preferred processing suitable for the state of the failure is selected from a processing of a normal access or read/write, and a data reconstruction processing, and the selected processing is carried out, or the frequency of the processing of the normal access or read/write and the data reconstruction processing, or the ratio of the amount of the data reconstruction processing within a unit time, is set. The time taken to reconstruct the faulty data does not exceed a fixed period of time.

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Kokubunji, Japan

Hitoshi Kakuta