Computer system, storage and storage utilization and monitoring method

#The present invention relates to a computer system, a storage apparatus and a storage apparatus utilization and monitoring method, and more particularly to a computer system connected with at least a storage apparatus, and a storage apparatus (hereafter also referred to as “storage”), as well as a storage utilization monitoring method, in which the storage itself can utilize and monitor the usage status of the storage.

#The amount of data in storage in computer systems that corporations utilize and manage has been increasing in recent years, which has caused the utilization and management of storage to become more complex and increased the costs for such utilization and management. One way to solve this problem is to have the utilization of storage in the computer systems of corporations handled by vendors called storage service providers (SSP), who utilize and manage storage for their clients.

#An SSP is a business that has a plurality of storages and divides the storages to provide them to a plurality of users. Users who let an SSP utilize the storage and entrust their data with the SSP can reduce the cost of utilizing and managing their data (see “SSPs That Support Service Enterprises.” Nikkei System Provider Mar. 16, 2001).

#FIG. 1 shows a block diagram indicating the configuration of a computer system in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

#FIG. 2 shows a drawing illustrating an example of storage information.

#FIG. 3 shows a flowchart illustrating processing operations that take place to monitor the used capacity of volumes within a storage.

#A computer system, a storage and a storage utilization and management method in accordance with embodiments of the present invention are described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

#FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a computer system according to one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a drawing that illustrates an example of storage information. In FIGS. 1 and 2, 10a-10n are each a computer, 11a-11n are each a storage, 110 is a management module, 111 is storage information, 112 is a data management information obtaining function, 113 is a storage management control function, 114 is a communication function, 12a-12n are each a volume, 120 is a group of volumes, 130 is a communication path such as a cable, 200 is a volume information table, 210 is a volume management policy table, 220 is a storage capacity table, and 230 is a user information table.

#The computer system according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a plurality of computers 10a-10n and a plurality of storages 11a-11n connected by the cable 130. The plurality of storages 11a-11n all may have the same configuration, and FIG. 1 shows the internal configuration only of the storage 11a. By using the storage 11a as a representative of the entire storages, its internal configuration will be described.