Hitachi, Ltd.

Michiaki Sekine

Takeaki Murakoso

Akira Matsui

Hiroshi Suzuki

Norichika Hatabe

Hiroyuki Takabayashi

Tsunehiro Arai

A host computer includes a virtual disk control part for controlling an input/output request into a virtual disk. A plurality of storage subsystems includes a load monitoring part for measuring a load on a physical disk by the input/output request and storing load information in a disk management table. The virtual disk control part identifies, upon receiving the input/output request into a not-ever-outputted space in a virtual disk, an appropriate logical disk on the virtual disk based on the load information in the disk management table, sends the input/output request to the storage subsystem having the identified logical disk, and updates, upon receiving a completion acknowledgement of the input/output request, the load information in the disk management table based on the load information in the logical disk map information table.

Storage system, load distribution management method, and storage medium

A tape management method capable of easily using a file on a virtual tape from a plurality of programs in a system virtually emulating a magnetic tape apparatus by a disk apparatus. When a use request is generated from other program to a volume of a virtual tape used by one program, a host computer generates and uses a volume of a temporal virtual tape and can thus permit the use of the temporal tape volume from a plurality of programs without drastically changing the specification of an existing tape interface. The volume of the virtual tape temporarily generated is generated in a virtual tape management table and a virtual tape file uses a file of the same type.

Tape management method and tape management system

An object of the present invention is to shorten a transfer time when a virtual tape volume is used on another computer. A system A incorporating a virtual tape unit is connected to a system B at a remote place via a network. A virtual tape transfer processing unit of the present invention inputs and outputs a virtual tape volume of the system A between virtual tape management information and a virtual tape file. The virtual tape file is copied using a copy function between magnetic disk drives so as to be asynchronous to the systems. An input/output request conversion part allows a tape using task of the system B to use the virtual tape file as a magnetic tape file.

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Kawasaki, Japan

Michiaki Sekine