International Business Machines Corporation

Lisa Joan Gundy

Warren Keith Stanley

David Michael Shackelford

Jeffrey Richard Suarez

John Glenn Thompson

Alfred Emilio Sanchez

Beth Ann Peterson

Robert Stanley Gensler, Jr

Christopher J Miller

Nicolas Marc Clayton

Susan Kay Candelaria

Erika Dawson

Lyn Lequam Ashton

Stanley Mark Kissinger

Michael Ray Noel

Eduard Aaron Diel

Corey G Smeaton

Theresa Mary Brown

Nedlaya Yazzie Francisco

John Richard Paveza

Gregory E McBride

Gail Andrea Spear

Clint Alan Hardy

Robert Nelson Crockett

William Frank Micka

William J Rooney

Kenneth Wayne Boyd

David Randall Blea

David B Petersen

Robert Frederic Kern

Michael Koester

Alan George McClure

Kevin L Miner

Tri M Hoang

Nadim P Shehab

Michael J Shannon

Bengt E Larsson

Yufen Lin Davis

Nils Torbjorn Kaving

A computer-implemented method according to one embodiment includes receiving a first command to inhibit one or more tracks within a volume of a storage system, in response to the first command, identifying the one or more tracks within the volume of the storage system, utilizing the first command or a previous command, and inhibiting the one or more tracks within the volume of the storage system, receiving a second command to copy data to the one or more tracks within the volume of the storage system, identifying the one or more tracks within the volume of the storage system as inhibited, and rejecting the second command, in response to the identifying.

Inhibiting tracks within a volume of a storage system

Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for performing a remote point-in-time copy to a source and target storages in further mirror copy relationships. Each of a plurality of source copy relationships is from the source storage to one corresponding source copy storage. Each of a plurality of target copy relationships is from the target storage to one corresponding target copy storage, where in each relationship an indicator indicates whether to use a remote first type copy operation. The first type copy operation is used to copy data from the source storage to the target storage and copy data from the source copy storage to the target copy storage for the determined source and target copy relationships having the indicator set. A second type of copy operations is used for source and target relationships not having the indicator set.

Performing a remote point-in-time copy to a source and target storages in further mirror copy relationships

A method for copying data from a primary fully provisioned volume to a secondary thin-provisioned volume is disclosed. In one embodiment, such a method includes hosting, on a primary storage system, a fully provisioned volume comprising a plurality of storage elements. A volume table of contents (VTOC) associated with the fully provisioned volume is analyzed to determine which storage elements in the fully provisioned volume have been allocated to data sets. In certain embodiments, the VTOC is copied into memory of a secondary host system and the secondary host system analyzes the copy to determine which storage elements in the fully provisioned volume have been allocated to data sets. The method then copies, from the fully provisioned volume to a secondary thin-provisioned volume, data in only those storage elements that have been allocated to data sets. A corresponding system and computer program product are also disclosed.

Efficient asynchronous mirror copy of fully provisioned volumes to thin-provisioned volumes

A method for copying data from a primary thin-provisioned volume to a secondary thin-provisioned volume includes issuing a query to a primary storage system. The primary storage system hosts a thin-provisioned volume made up of multiple storage elements. The method returns, in response to the query, a reply indicating which storage elements in the thin-provisioned volume are backed by physical storage. In certain embodiments, the reply contains a bitmap having a bit for each storage element in the thin-provisioned volume. In other embodiments, the reply contains a starting address and ending address for each storage area that is backed, or not backed, by physical storage. The method then copies, from the primary storage system to a secondary storage system, data in only those storage elements that are backed by physical storage. A corresponding system and computer program product are also disclosed.

Efficient asynchronous mirror copy of thin-provisioned volumes

A storage controller maintains extent space efficient storage volumes in a primary allocation space and a secondary allocation space. An indicator is used to indicate that extents of the secondary allocation space are available for an extent pool, without releasing the extents from the secondary allocation space.

Management of physical extents for space efficient storage volumes

Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for pre-allocating storage space for an application operation in a space efficient volume. To transmit application requests to a storage controller managing a space efficient volume, a determination is made of an amount of space required for an application operation requiring a series of write operations over a period of time to the space efficient volume. A space pre-allocation request for the application operation is transmitted to the storage controller. The space pre-allocation request indicates a requested amount of physical space to pre-allocate to the application operation to cause the storage controller to pre-allocate the requested amount of space in advance of the application operation needing the requested amount of space in the volume for the series of write operations.

Preallocating storage space for an application operation in a space efficient volume

Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for pre-allocating storage space for an application operation in a space efficient volume where a host system transmits writes to the space efficient volume. Physical storage space is allocated to the space efficient volume when the host system submits a write request. An amount of space needed by the write request is allocated to the volume in response to receiving the write request. A space allocation request is received from the host system for an application operation indicating a requested amount of space to allocate in the space efficient volume for the application operation. The requested amount of space is pre-allocated in the space efficient volume for the application operation in advance of the application operation needing the requested amount of space for a series of write operations that will be generated during the execution of the application operation.

A storage controller maintains an allocation space for extent space efficient storage volumes, in response to a request from a host application for storage space, wherein an extent pool is configured to allocate available extents to the host application. In response to a request from the host application to delete data stored in selected extents that are already allocated to the host application, the storage controller deletes the data but continues to maintain the selected extents as being allocated to the host application. In response to a request to write new data, the storage controller writes the new data to the selected extents that are already allocated.

Management of extents for space efficient storage volumes by reusing previously allocated extents

When the mirrored point in time copy fails, at that point in time all the data for making the source and target of the point in time copy consistent is available on secondary volumes at disaster recovery site. The data for the source and target of the failed point in time copy are logically and physically equal at that point in time. This logical relationship can be maintained, and protected against ongoing physical updates to the affected tracks on the source secondary volume, by first reading the affected tracks from the source secondary volume, copying the data to the target secondary volume, and then writing the updated track to the source secondary volume.

Resolving failed mirrored point-in-time copies with minimum disruption

Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for establishing copy pairs from primary volumes to secondary volumes in multiple secondary storage systems for a failover session. For each of the copy pairs, data is mirrored from the primary storage system to the associated secondary storage system in the copy pair. A failure is detected at the primary storage system. Selection is made of a selected secondary storage system of the secondary storage systems in response to detecting the failure, wherein a plurality of the secondary storage systems are available for selection. The selected secondary storage system is indicated as a new primary storage system to which host requests are directed.

Establishing copy pairs from primary volumes to secondary volumes in multiple secondary storage systems for a failover session

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Tucson, AZ, United States of America

Lisa Joan Gundy