Storage apparatus and storage controller of storage apparatus

A storage controller communicatively coupled to a physical storage medium to control data input/output processing between an external apparatus and a logical storage area in a storage apparatus including the physical storage medium for providing the external apparatus with the logical storage area as a data storage area, the storage controller comprising:

• a circuit package including a circuit board which implements a predetermined function of the storage controller and a circuit board case to accommodate the circuit board;
• a plurality of cooling fan units that generate cooling air for cooling a circuit component mounted on the circuit board of the circuit package;
• and
• a chassis having a structure for accommodating the circuit package and the cooling fan units, wherein
• at least some of the plurality of circuit packages are inserted to be accommodated in the chassis from one opening thereof and are arranged side by side across a width direction of the chassis,
• at least some of the plurality of cooling fan units are inserted to be accommodated in the chassis from the other opening opposing the one opening and are arranged side by side across the width direction of the chassis,
• the plurality of cooling fan units arranged side by side are placed in such a manner that a cooling air intake side or a cooling air discharge side of the cooling fan units faces the at least some of the plurality of circuit packages, and
• a pressure adjustment area extending in the width direction of the chassis is formed between the at least some of the plurality of circuit packages and the plurality of cooling fan units that face each other.

A storage apparatus configured to provide an external apparatus with a logical storage area as a data storage area, the storage apparatus comprising:

• a physical storage medium configured to generate the logical storage area;
• and
• a storage controller communicatively coupled to the physical storage medium to control data input/output processing between the external apparatus and the logical storage area, wherein the storage controller includes
• a circuit package including a circuit board which implements a predetermined function of the storage controller and a circuit board case to accommodate the circuit board,
• a plurality of cooling fan units that generate cooling air for cooling a circuit component mounted on the circuit board of the circuit package, and
• a chassis having a structure for accommodating the circuit package and the cooling fan units,
• at least some of the plurality of circuit packages are inserted to be accommodated in the chassis from one opening thereof and are arranged side by side across a width direction of the chassis,
• at least some of the plurality of cooling fan units are inserted to be accommodated in the chassis from the other opening opposing the one opening and are arranged side by side across the width direction of the chassis,
• the plurality of cooling fan units arranged side by side are placed in such a manner that a cooling air intake side or a cooling air discharge side of the cooling fan units faces the at least some of the plurality of circuit packages, and
• a pressure adjustment area extending in the width direction of the chassis is formed between the at least some of the plurality of circuit packages and the plurality of cooling fan units that face each other, each of the cooling fan units includes two cooling fans arranged in series in a flowing direction of the cooling air, and a regulating grating provided downstream of and adjacent to a downstream-side cooling fan of the two cooling fans and configured to regulate a flow of the cooling air,
• the circuit packages arranged side by side in the width direction of the chassis include a cache memory package having a cache memory that temporarily stores data to be written to or read from the physical storage medium,
• the storage apparatus includes a backup power supply that provides the circuit package with emergency power supply in a case of a power supply failure of the storage apparatus, and
• when destaging processing by which the data temporarily stored in the cache memory is written to the physical storage medium is executed at the time of the power supply failure by using the emergency power supply provided by the backup power supply, the cooling fan included in the cooling fan unit substantially facing the cache memory package is driven among the plurality of cooling fan units facing the circuit packages arranged side by side in the width direction of the chassis, the plurality of circuit packages are divided into two circuit package groups having mutually equivalent processing functions,
• individual power supply systems are coupled to the respective circuit package groups,
• the cooling fan units each include the two cooling fans arranged in series in the flowing direction of the cooling air, and
• among the upstream-side cooling fans and the down-stream side cooling fans in the cooling fan units, a group of the upstream-side cooling fans is coupled to one of the power system, while a group of the downstream-side cooling fans is coupled to the other power supply system,
• when either group of the upstream-side cooling fans and the downstream-side cooling fans stops due to a failure in one of the power supply systems, the cooling fans belonging to the other group of cooling fans are driven at an operating rotational speed higher than an operating rotational speed when the power supply systems normally operate,
• the circuit component mounted on the circuit board included in one of the circuit packages is thermally coupled to the circuit board case of the circuit package to dissipate heat generated from the circuit component, a chassis frame of the storage apparatus is provided with a bottom plate member and the storage controller is installed on the bottom plate member, and
• a through-hole into which a power supply cable for supplying power to the storage controller and a disk unit which are accommodated in the storage apparatus is drawn is formed in a portion of the bottom plate member that is on a front side of the storage controller and on at least one side outward from two sides of the storage controller.