International Business Machines Corporation

John Charles Elliott

Gregg Steven Lucas

Robert Akira Kubo

Brian James Cagno

Lokesh M Gupta

Matthew G Borlick

Todd Charles Sorenson

Carl Evan Jones

Enrique Q Garcia

Brian Anthony Rinaldi

Larry Juarez

Gary William Batchelor

Chiahong Chen

William Griswold Sherman

Angel E Delgado

Andrew Dale Walls

Yolanda Colpo

Kevin J Ash

Karthick Rajamani

Charles Robert Lefurgy

Malcolm Scott Allen-Ware

David Blair Whitworth

Dale Huber Anderson

Ronald David Martens

Will A Wright

Matthew David Bomhoff

Shawn P Authement

Linda Van Patten Benhase

Jiwu Duan

J Carlos A Pratt

Karl Allen Nielsen

Kenny Nian Gan Qiu

Micah Robison

Shah Mohammad Rezaul Islam

Linda V Benhase

Andrew Ellis Seidel

Markus Navarro

Eric Alan Eckberg

Aaron Roger Cox

Yu-Cheng Hsu

Scott Alan Shurson

Lee Dale Cleveland

Donald Scott Smith

Katherine S Tyldesley

Heidi Lynn McCook

Roger Gregory Hathorn

Beth Ann Peterson

Clint Alan Hardy

Richard Anthony Ripberger

Richard Victor Kisley

Camillo Sassano

Stephen LaRoux Blinick

Kevin Lavern Schultz

Mark Elliott Hack

Michael P Vageline

Katherine Tyldesley Blinick

Paula Besterman

Matthew D Carson

Robert Earl Medlin

Trung Le

Steven Mark Groff

Kenny N Qiu

Keith Geoffrey Morrison

Gordon Leon Washburn

Dennis W Fried

Ronald A Case

D Scott Smith

Kenneth J Hallam

Pauline Hallam, Legal Representative

Stephen Manthorpe

Grady A Maass

Robert D Medlin

Provided are a storage device, system, and method for performance enhancing measures for storage in which high-performance volumes reside. Indication is made of a volume configured in the arrays to have high-performance. An array is determined storing the indicated volume. A determination is made of storage devices in which the determined array resides. The storage devices are enabled to perform garbage collection on blocks of data having valid and invalid pages in the storage devices at a first garbage collection rate and a second garbage collection rate. The second garbage collection rate causes a storage device to perform garbage collection with respect to a greater number of blocks than the first garbage collection rate. A command is sent to the determined storage devices to garbage collect at the second garbage collection rate.

Garbage collection for storage in which high-performance volumes reside

A method is disclosed for maintaining a current operating state of an enclosure when a controller card of the enclosure is repaired and/or replaced. In one embodiment, such a method maintains, within a controller card of an enclosure, operating parameters used to establish an operating state of the enclosure. The method further offloads, from the controller card while the controller card is installed in the enclosure, the operating parameters to a location external to the controller card. Upon removal of the controller card from the enclosure, the method maintains the operating state of the enclosure using the operating parameters stored in the external location. Upon reinstalling the controller card in the enclosure, the method optionally retrieves the operating parameters from the external location and initializes the controller card with the operating parameters. A corresponding system and computer program product are also disclosed.

Non-disruptive repair of enclosure controller components

A method for protecting data in a storage system is disclosed. In one embodiment, such a method includes detecting, by a first hardware management console, first battery-on status associated with a first uninterruptible power supply. The method further detects, by a second hardware management console, second battery-on status associated with a second uninterruptible power supply. The method communicates, from the first hardware management console to the second hardware management console, the first battery-on status. The method then triggers, by the second hardware management console, a dump of modified data from memory to more persistent storage upon detecting both the first battery-on status and the second battery-on status. A corresponding system and computer program product are also disclosed.

Hardware-management-console-initiated data protection

A method for protecting data in a storage system is disclosed. In one embodiment, such a method includes detecting, by a first rack power controller, first battery-on status associated with a first uninterruptible power supply. The method further detects, by a second rack power controller, second battery-on status associated with a second uninterruptible power supply. The method communicates, from the first rack power controller to the second rack power controller, the first battery-on status. The method then triggers, by the second rack power controller, a dump of modified data from memory to more persistent storage upon detecting both the first battery-on status and the second battery-on status. A corresponding system and computer program product are also disclosed.

Rack-power-controller-initiated data protection

Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for recovering storage devices in a storage array having errors. A determination is made to replace a first storage device in a storage array with a second storage device. The storage array is rebuilt by including the second storage device in the storage array and removing the first storage device from the storage array resulting in a rebuilt storage array. The first storage device is recovered from errors that resulted in the determination to replace. Data is copied from the second storage device included in the rebuilt storage array to the first storage device. The recovered first storage device is swapped into the storage array to replace the second storage device in response to copying the data from the second storage device to the first storage device.

Recovering storage devices in a storage array having errors

A portable handheld device receives from a central repository, information on a failed hardware component of a computational device, wherein the information includes an authentication code to permit access to the failed hardware component and a time window in which the failed hardware component is permitted to be accessed. The portable handheld device uses the authentication code to access the failed hardware component for repair or replacement during the time window.

Detection and repair of failed hardware components

An apparatus for performing local service at a management console includes an accessory interface configured to engage a local service permission tool with a management console in a management enclosure for a computing system, the management enclosure having a closed position with predetermined boundary dimension and an open position, where during engagement with the management console, the local service permission tool prevents the management enclosure from being in the closed position. The apparatus includes a status module that detects whether the local service permission tool is engaged and an access module that disables one or more predetermined remote service functions of the management console in response to the status module detecting that the local service permission tool is engaged. A method and a system for performing local service at a management console perform similar functions to those of the apparatus.

Control of local service modes for a management console

A method to ensure that a hardware management console powers up after a storage system loses external AC power is disclosed. In one embodiment, such a method includes detecting loss of external AC power to a storage system. The loss of external AC power causes the storage system to operate on battery power. The method further initiates, in response to the loss, shutdown of a hardware management console associated with the storage system. The method starts a timer in response to initiation of the shutdown. When the timer expires, the method power cycles the hardware management console, thereby causing the hardware management console to power up and restart. A corresponding system and computer program product are also disclosed.

Ensuring hardware-management-console powerup after external AC power loss

A method includes establishing, for a transaction processing system, a maximum number of transactions that the transaction processing system can optimally handle at a time, as well as an optimal transaction rate. The method monitors a current number of transactions being processed by the transaction processing system. Incoming transactions that would cause the current number to exceed the maximum number are received into a queue, and transactions are released from the queue in accordance with the optimal transaction rate. The method further monitors a number of transactions waiting in the queue. When the number reaches an upper threshold, the method declines to admit additional transactions into the queue. When the number reaches a lower threshold, the method begins to admit additional transactions into the queue. A corresponding system and computer program product are also disclosed.

Transaction optimization during periods of peak activity

Mechanisms for controlling access to storage volumes on the secondary storage system is provided. A determination is made as to whether a first site computing device has sent a notification of a failure condition of a first site. In response to a determination that the notification of the failure condition of the first site has not been received, secondary workloads of a second site computing device are permitted to access storage volumes on the secondary storage system. In response to a determination that the notification of the failure condition of the first site has been received, a mode of operation of the second site is modified from a normal mode of operation to a failure mode of operation. In the failure mode of operation, the storage system controller of the second site blocks at least a portion of access requests from secondary workloads of the second site computing device.

Maximizing use of storage in a data replication environment

Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for mirroring information on modified data from a primary storage controller to a secondary storage controller for the secondary storage controller to use to calculate parity data. New primary parity data is calculated from modified data for a primary group of tracks in the primary storage and difference data from the modified data and a pre-modified version of the modified data. The difference data and one of the modified data and the new primary parity data are sent to the secondary storage controller to cause the secondary storage controller to write new secondary parity data and the modified data to a secondary group of tracks at the secondary storage. The modified data and the new primary parity data are written to the primary group of tracks in the primary storage.

Mirroring information on modified data from a primary storage controller to a secondary storage controller for the secondary storage controller to use to calculate parity data

In accordance with one aspect of the present description, a node of the distributed computing system has multiple communication paths to a data processing resource lock which controls access to shared resources, for example. In this manner, at least one redundant communication path is provided between a node and a data processing resource lock to facilitate reliable transmission of data processing resource lock signals between the node and the data processing resource lock. Other features and aspects may be realized, depending upon the particular application.

Data processing lock signal transmission

Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for receiving, at a secondary storage controller, information on modified data from a primary storage controller to use to calculate parity data. The secondary storage controller receives from the primary storage controller difference data calculated from modified data and a pre-modified version of the modified data for a primary group of tracks at the primary storage and one of the modified data and new primary parity data calculated at the primary storage controller from the modified data and the difference data. The secondary storage controller uses the difference data and one of the modified data and the new primary parity data to write new secondary parity data and the modified data to a secondary group of tracks at the secondary storage.

Receiving, at a secondary storage controller, information on modified data from a primary storage controller to use to calculate parity data

Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for performing workload balancing of tracks in storage areas assigned to processing units. For each processing unit, there is an assignment of a storage area of tracks in the storage to the processing unit, at least one queue having I/O requests to the storage area, and queue usage information indicating a quantity related to the I/O requests in the at least one queue. A determination is made from the queue usage information whether to perform workload balancing for a source processing unit having at least one source queue. A target processing unit is selected in response to determining to perform the workload balancing for the source processing unit. Tracks in a source storage area assigned to the source processing unit are moved to a target storage area assigned to the target processing unit.

Performing workload balancing of tracks in storage areas assigned to processing units

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Tucson, AZ, United States of America

John Charles Elliott