Hitachi, Ltd.

Tsuyoshi Sasagawa

Takahiko Iwasaki

Chikazu Yokoi

Akihiro Inamura

Kiyoshi Honda

Midori Kurokawa

Minoru Shimokawa

Hirokazu Takahashi

Taro Takahashi

Toru Yoneyama

Yuri Oyama

Azuma Kano

Daisuke Isobe

Yuki Sakuma

Takuji Ito

Rei Arikawa

First and second units are mounted on a rear side of a housing of a storage system. Either of the first and second units includes a fan. The rear side of the housing includes an upper-tier portion defining an upper-tier opening, and a lower-tier portion defining a lower-tier opening, and the housing further includes a boundary portion that is a boundary between the upper-tier portion and the lower-tier portion, and a shutter unit. The boundary portion includes a first through hole that is a through hole connecting an upper-tier passage and a lower-tier passage. When the fan is operating, if the first unit is removed from the upper-tier portion, the shutter unit blocks the upper-tier passage, and if the second unit is removed from the lower-tier portion, the shutter unit blocks the lower-tier passage.

Cooling technique for a storage system

A storage unit is provided with a plurality of sub storage units configured to include a plurality of hard disk drives, an enclosure, a printed wiring board, a power supply device, and a cable holder. The sub storage units each operate separately. The enclosure is provided in the array of the hard disk drives so that the distance can be shorter between the enclosure and each of the hard disk drives. With the provision of the cable holder, communications cables can be both brought closer to the printed wiring board. With such a configuration, the coupling point among the communications cables and the printed wiring board, and the enclosure can be favorably reduced. The resulting storage control apparatus can be mounted with a larger number of storage devices, thereby being able to maintain good signal quality.

Storage control apparatus

A storage unit is provided with a plurality of sub storage units configured to include a plurality of hard disk drives, an enclosure, a printed wiring board, a power supply device, and a cable holder. The sub storage units each operate separately. The enclosure is provided in the array of hard disk drives so that the distance can be shorter between the enclosure and each of the hard disk drives. With the provision cable holder, communications cables can be both brought closer to the printed wiring board. With such a configuration, the coupling point among the communications cables and the printed wiring board, and the enclosure can be favorably reduced. The resulting storage control apparatus of the invention can be mounted with a larger number of storage devices, thereby being able to keep the signal quality.

In the disk array system, in the basic chassis, HDD modules are installed from a front surface in a front part of a backboard, and duplex CTL modules are installed up and down from a rear surface in a rear part, and duplex power source modules containing fans are installed in the left and right sides thereof. By the operation of the fans, in the rear part, the cooling air flows separately into each CTL module and into each power source module, and the cooling air having passed through the area of the duct by a block in the CTL module is drawn by the fans in the power source module through a ventilation hole and is then exhausted outside. The cooling air flow path to the plurality of ICs is divided by the block. The rotation speed of the fans is controlled by using a temperature sensor.

Disk array system

With the storage control device of the present invention, it is possible to mount a larger number of storage devices and to cool them effectively. A plurality of sub-storage units are provided within one storage unit. Each sub-storage unit includes a plurality of hard disk drives, a plurality of enclosures, and a plurality of power supply devices. A cover is divided into a front cover which covers over the front side of a case, and a rear cover which covers over the rear side of the case. Shield portions are provided on the upper sides of the hard disk drives and the enclosures. By these shield portions contacting the adjacent modules (other disk drives and other enclosures), it is possible to reduce the negative influence upon cooling air draft passages within the case, even when a cover has been removed.

Storage control device

The disk array system includes: controller modules, power source modules, and battery modules of a basic chassis; enclosure modules and power source modules of an expanded chassis; and operation levers which are commonly used for operations of insertion/removal and fixation of the modules. The operation lever includes a rotary shaft portion serving as a fulcrum point, a lever main body and a latch portion located on one side of the lever, and a hook portion located on the other side thereof. When a module is inserted and fixed, a user rotates the lever main body. By this means, the latch portion and the hook portion are fixed to a receiving portion and the module is connected and fixed to the backboard with a connector.

A controller performs data communication with a host system based on fiber channel protocol and controls data input/output to or from a SATA disk drive. The controller includes an FC/SATA converter powered by a main power supply, and a resource management processor powered by a standby power supply. The resource management processor controls the power supply from the main power supply to the FC/SATA converter.

Growing community of inventors

Odawara, Japan

Tsuyoshi Sasagawa