Hitachi, Ltd.

Yoshiki Kano

Manabu Kitamura

Akira Yamamoto

Kouji Arai

Sadahiro Sugimoto

Masayuki Yamamoto

Hiroshi Arakawa

Kenichi Takamoto

Jun Kitahara

Akihiko Araki

Dan Ritchie

Akira Fujibayashi

Naoto Matsunami

Yusuke Nonaka

Junichi Hara

Abid Masood

Randy Chong

Masaaki Iwasaki

Ikuya Yagisawa

Takashige Iwamura

Masanori Takada

William Zietzke

Yuichi Taguchi

Kazuhiko Mogi

Kenji Yamagami

Shoji Kodama

Hiroaki Akutsu

Naoko Iwami

Kazuyoshi Serizawa

Hisaharu Takeuchi

Shigeo Homma

Katsunori Nakamura

Kyosuke Achiwa

Nobumitsu Takaoka

Yoshimasa Masuoka

Takashi Amano

Hidehisa Shitomi

Haruaki Watanabe

Atsushi Murase

Naoki Utsunomiya

Atsuo Kawaguchi

Yasuto Nishii

Robert Eugene Down, Jr

Hiromichi Ota

Fumimasa Nakane

Data migration includes copying between normal volumes and thin provisioned volumes. Data in a normal volume can be copied to a thin provisioned volume. Alternatively, data structures can be provided to facilitate converting a normal volume into a thin provisioned volume without actual copying of data. Copying from a thin provisioned volume to a normal volume is also disclosed.

Storage system having a thin provisioning function

Exemplary embodiments of the invention provide a technique to validate physical cabling and logical path before provisioning volume. In accordance with an aspect, a computer comprises a memory storing software and a processor executing the software. The software is operable to: identify first server port and second server port forming redundant ports of a server and first storage port and second storage port forming redundant ports of a storage system; and check whether a redundant relationship is formed by at least one of (i) a physical connection between the first server port and the first storage port and a physical connection between the second server port and the second storage port, or (ii) a logical connection between the first server port and the first storage port and a logical connection between the second server port and the second storage port.

Method and apparatus of redundant path validation before provisioning

A management server is provided in a computer system having one or more hosts, one or more storage systems and one or more switches, the hosts having a plurality of virtual machines, each virtual machine being defined according to a service level agreement. The management server is operable to manage the virtual machines and resources associated with the virtual machines; receive a notification of an event from a node in the computer system; determine if the event affects a service level agreement for any of the virtual machines defined in the computer system, the service level agreements listing required attributes for the corresponding virtual machines; allocate a new resource for a virtual machine whose service level agreement is affected by the event; and move the virtual machine whose service level agreement is affected by the event to the newly allocated resource.

Method and apparatus for maintaining a workload service level on a converged platform

A storage system, coupled to an external storage system, manages a virtual volume, such as a thin provision volume. The storage system also manages a first logical device created by using storage area of internal storage devices and a second logical device created by using storage area of external storage devices in the external storage system. A storage area in the first logical device or the second logical device is allocated to the virtual volume after receiving a write request to the virtual volume. The storage system has advantage that a storage area in the first logical device and the second logical device can be managed uniformly in thin provisioning function of the storage system.

The amount of data to be stored in a semiconductor nonvolatile memory can be reduced and overhead associated with data processing can be reduced. When a microprocessor receives a write request from a host computer and data Dto Dexist in a cache slot, the microprocessor reads the LBA of each piece of the data, manages each piece of the data Dto Dusing a bitmap table by associating them with their LBAs, generates a specific command CMD based on the LBAs of the data Dto D, adds the data Dto Dand addresses ADDto ADDindicating where the data Dto Dare to be stored, to the specific command CMD, and sends it to an FMPK. The FMPK stores each piece of update data in a specified block in the flash memory based on the specific command CMD.

Storage subsystem and its data processing method for reducing the amount of data to be stored in nonvolatile memory

For a storage apparatus where flash memory disks and hard disks coexist, high-density mounting of flash memory modules is achieved. The storage apparatus includes flash memories and a storage controller. A second storage apparatus including magnetic disks is connected to the storage apparatus. The storage controller can form a storage area using a flash memory or a magnetic disk to create a logical volume. When an input/output request is issued from a host computer, if a storage area is formed with a flash memory, the storage controller directly accesses the flash memory to handle the request. When the storage apparatus defines a storage area formed with a flash memory, the storage apparatus defines the storage area by adding up the capacity of a storage area to be provided for the host computer and a substitute area capacity determined in consideration of restrictions on the number deletions of the flash memory.

Accessing a hard disk drive and a flash memory with different formats in a storage system

One of a backup apparatus and a storage system performs control to store backup data in a storage system which belongs to an organization and/or location different from an organization and/or location to which a storage-target storage system for original data belongs, based on information (P) and/or (Q) below: (P) information relating to original data, and information relating to backup data, which is a copy of the original data; (Q) information indicating an organization and/or location to which each storage system belongs.

Computer system for controlling backups using wide area network

Embodiments of the invention provide a capability to validate volume status on the host and storage system stored virtual machine image in the datacenter management server. In one embodiment, a server system includes a storage system having a plurality of volumes, a plurality of host systems, and a management server coupled with the storage system and the host systems via a network. A method of managing the server system comprises: generating a golden image in the storage system corresponding to a virtual machine image file; copying virtual machine data from the golden image to some of the plurality of volumes in the storage system; and keeping track, by the management server, of status of the volumes which have copied virtual machine data by monitoring activity of the virtual machines.

Method and apparatus of data center file system

A method selects an interface in a storage subsystem for processing storage operations, each interface associated with a corresponding processor. A management server has plural providers, each for executing storage operations on one of the processors via the corresponding interface. The method comprises: collecting information on status of each of the providers; based on the status of each provider, determining an operational characteristic of operation time as a function of a number of operational units for each provider; comparing the operational characteristics of the providers; for a given number of operational units in the storage operations to be processed, selecting from among the providers one provider which has the lowest operation time for the given number of operational units; and identifying the interface based on the selected provider to be used for executing the storage operations via the identified interface on the corresponding processor.

Method and apparatus of selection interface by queue and workload for storage operation

A technique for increasing the speed of data entry into a distributed processing platform is provided. According to a computer system of the present invention, when data is entered into each node in a distributed manner, the most efficient entry method (a method with the highest processing speed) is selected from among a plurality of entry methods, so that the data is entered into each node with no overlaps in accordance with the selected method.

Data processing method and computer system

For betterment, by putting a virtual storage device into a suspend mode, physical resources are turned OFF on a virtual storage device basis. Moreover, control information and volume data of the virtual storage device are stored in any external volume, for example, and the resources that have been used by the virtual storage device are deallocated. At the time of resumption of operation, using any resources not in use, the virtual storage device is restored based on the control information in storage. When a change is made to a WWN on the side of a host, the storage device receives a WWN change notification from a management server, and makes settings again to a WWN table, thereby making it accessible from the host.

Storage device and control method for managing resources of a storage system

To extend endurance and reduce bit cost, a storage apparatus includes a controller and a first storage device and a second storage device having a smaller erase count upper limit than the first storage device. Area conversion information includes correspondence of a first address of a data storage destination and a second address of a data storage area The controller selects an area corresponding to the first address, determines whether a rewrite frequency of the selected area is equal to or larger than a first threshold and, when the rewrite frequency is equal to or larger than the threshold, selects an area of the first storage device, and, when the rewrite frequency is smaller than the threshold, selects an area of the second storage device and maps the address of the selected area to the first address.

Storage apparatus and method of managing data storage area

De-duplication operations are applied to mirror volumes. Data stored to a first volume is mirrored to a second volume. The second volume is a virtual volume having a plurality of logical addresses, such that segments of physical storage capacity are allocated for a specified logical address as needed when data is stored to the specified logical address. A de-duplication operation is carried out on the second volume following a split from the first volume. A particular segment of the second volume is identified as having data that is the same as another segment in the second volume or in the same consistency group. A link is created from the particular segment to the other segment and the particular segment is released from the second volume.

Method and apparatus for de-duplication after mirror operation

Growing community of inventors

Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Yoshiki Kano