# US 2014/0156927 A1 · Computing device system and information managing method for rearrangement of data based on access characteristic related to a task

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- Number: US 2014/0156927 A1
- Document ID: US20140156927A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 14/163,653
- Filed: 2014-01-24
- Published: 2014-06-05
- Earliest claimed: 2012-01-19
- Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd.
- Applicants: Hitachi, Ltd.
- Inventors: NOBUHITO MORI; Masaaki Iwasaki; Junichi Hara
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20140156927A1

## CPC

- G06F 3/0604: {Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management}
- G06F 3/061: {Improving I/O performance}
- G06F 3/0611: {in relation to response time}
- G06F 3/0619: {in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors}
- G06F 3/0644: {Management of space entities, e.g. partitions, extents, pools}
- G06F 3/0649: {Lifecycle management}
- G06F 3/0653: {Monitoring storage devices or systems}
- G06F 3/0665: {at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes}
- G06F 3/067: {Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]}
- G06F 3/0685: {Hybrid storage combining heterogeneous device types, e.g. hierarchical storage, hybrid arrays}
- G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N)

## Abstract

Technique for decision criterion for determining a transfer destination layer in rearrangement processing. A computer configures rearrangement reference information showing whether an access characteristic related to a task executed on a plurality of host computing devices is considered as a decision criterion for transfer destination determination in rearrangement processing of transferring data between actual storage areas of physical storage devices of different response performance. Storage subsystem refers to the rearrangement reference information and, based on an access characteristic of the plurality of computing devices with respect to the actual storage areas assigned to the plurality of computing devices, executes rearrangement processing of transferring data stored in the actual storage areas to different actual storage areas in the physical storage devices of different response performance.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A computing device system comprising at least one storage subsystem and a plurality of computing devices connected to the at least one storage subsystem, the at least one storage subsystem comprising:
a plurality of physical storage devices of different response performances;
a memory configured to store virtual logical volume management information associating a pool including actual storage areas of the plurality of physical storage devices with at least one virtual logical volume comprising the pool; and
a processor configured to execute processing of assigning an actual storage area included in the at least one virtual logical volume to one of the plurality of computing devices,
wherein at least one computing device of the plurality of computing devices is configured to manage rearrangement reference information showing whether a characteristic of accesses counted with respect to each of a plurality of predetermined units is considered as a decision criterion for transfer destination determination in rearrangement processing of transferring data between actual storage areas of the plurality of physical storage devices of the different response performances, and
wherein the processor of the at least one storage subsystem is configured to refer to the rearrangement reference information and, based on the characteristic of accesses of the plurality of computing devices with respect to the actual storage areas assigned to the plurality of computing devices, to execute rearrangement processing of transferring data stored in the actual storage areas to different actual storage areas in the plurality of physical storage devices of the different response performances.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The computing device system according to claim 1,
wherein the characteristic of accesses is an access characteristic related to a task executed on the plurality of computing devices, and
wherein at least one computing device of the plurality of computing devices is configured to manage rearrangement reference information showing whether the access characteristic related to the task executed on the plurality of computing devices is considered as a decision criterion for transfer destination determination in rearrangement processing of transferring data between the actual storage areas of the physical storage devices of different response performances.

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

The computing device system according to claim 2, wherein the at least one computing device of the plurality of computing devices is configured to generate and output rearrangement occurrence information showing a rearrangement occurrence amount of data per storage area used by the task executed on a subset of the plurality of computing devices.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

The computing device system according to claim 3, wherein, based on the rearrangement occurrence information, the at least one computing device is configured to determine rearrangement necessity/unnecessity information showing a task requiring the rearrangement processing, and to manage the rearrangement reference information based on the rearrangement necessity/unnecessity information.

### Claim 5 (depends on 4)

The computing device system according to claim 4, wherein the at least one computing device is configured to determine the rearrangement necessity/unnecessity information in response to an instruction input by a user according to an output of the rearrangement occurrence information.

### Claim 6 (depends on 4)

The computing device system according to claim 4, wherein the at least one computing device is configured to:
hold decision elimination candidate information showing a task that is a candidate to be eliminated from the decision criterion for the transfer destination determination in the rearrangement processing with respect to a plurality of tasks;
calculate first rearrangement occurrence ratio information showing a ratio of data rearrangement occurrence amounts of tasks for each of the computing devices;
specify a task which is included in the decision elimination candidate information and in which the first rearrangement occurrence ratio information exceeds a first threshold; and
output the specified task as the rearrangement necessity/unnecessity information.

### Claim 7 (depends on 4)

The computing device system according to claim 4, wherein the at least one computing device is configured to:
generate the rearrangement occurrence information over a plurality of time zones in which the rearrangement processing is executed;
specify at least two consecutive time zones in which a sum value of rearrangement occurrence amounts of data related to all computing devices executing tasks exceeds a second threshold;
calculate second rearrangement occurrence ratio information showing a ratio of rearrangement occurrence amounts of the data related to all computing devices executing the task, in each of the specified consecutive time zones;
specify a task in which the second rearrangement occurrence ratio information of one of the at least two specified consecutive time zones exceeds a third threshold, and the second rearrangement occurrence ratio information of another of the at least two specified consecutive time zones is below the third threshold; and
output the specified task as the rearrangement necessity/unnecessity information.

### Claim 8 (depends on 2)

The computing device system according to claim 2, wherein the plurality of computing devices comprises a plurality of host computing devices and at least one management computing device, and
wherein the at least one computing device that is configured to manage the rearrangement reference information is the at least one management computing device.

### Claim 9 (depends on 2)

The computing device system according to claim 2, wherein the plurality of computing devices comprises a plurality of host computing devices and at least one management computing device, and
wherein each of the plurality of host computing devices is configured to manage the rearrangement reference information related to an own host computing device.

### Claim 10 (depends on 2)

The computing device system according to claim 2, wherein the at least one computing device is configured to manage the rearrangement reference information in a unit of the virtual logical volume, in a unit of access for the at least one storage subsystem by the computing devices executing the task, or in a unit of access for the actual storage area of the at least one virtual logical volume.

### Claim 11 (depends on 3)

The computing device system according to claim 3, wherein the at least one computing device employs a data amount rearranged from a first layer to a second layer as the rearrangement occurrence amount of the data,
wherein the first layer comprises a physical storage device having a response performance equal to a predetermined value, and
wherein the second layer comprises a physical storage device having a higher response performance than that of the first layer.

### Claim 12

An information management method for a computing device system comprising at least one storage subsystem and a plurality of computing devices connected to the at least one storage subsystem, the at least one storage subsystem comprising:
a plurality of physical storage devices of different response performances;
a memory configured to store virtual logical volume management information associating a pool including actual storage areas of the plurality of physical storage devices with at least one virtual logical volume comprising the pool; and
a processor configured to execute processing for assigning an actual storage area included in the at least one virtual logical volume for one of the plurality of computing devices,
the information management method comprising:
configuring, by at least one computing device of the plurality of computing devices, rearrangement reference information showing whether a characteristic of accesses counted with respect to each of a plurality of predetermined units is considered as a decision criterion for transfer destination determination in rearrangement processing of transferring data between the actual storage areas of the plurality of physical storage devices of the different response performances,
referencing, by the processor, the rearrangement reference information, and
executing, by the processor, rearrangement processing so as to transfer data stored in the actual storage areas to different actual storage areas in the plurality of physical storage devices of the different response performances, based on an access characteristic of the plurality of computing devices with respect to the actual storage areas assigned to the plurality of computing devices.

### Claim 13 (depends on 12)

The information management method according to claim 12,
wherein the characteristic of accesses is an access characteristic related to a task executed on the plurality of computing devices, and
wherein the method further includes managing, by at least one computing device of the plurality of computing devices, rearrangement reference information showing whether the access characteristic related to a task executed on the plurality of computing devices is considered as a decision criterion for transfer destination determination in rearrangement processing of transferring data between the actual storage areas of the plurality of physical storage devices of the different response performances.

### Claim 14 (depends on 13)

The information management method according to claim 13, further comprising:
generating and outputting, by the at least one computing device of the plurality of computing devices, rearrangement occurrence information showing a rearrangement occurrence amount of data per storage area used by the task executed on a subset of the plurality of computing devices.

### Claim 15 (depends on 14)

The information management method according to claim 14, further comprising:
determining, by the at least one computing device, rearrangement necessity/unnecessity information showing a task requiring the rearrangement processing, based on the rearrangement occurrence information, and
managing, by the at least one computing device, the rearrangement reference information based on the rearrangement necessity/unnecessity information.

### Claim 16 (depends on 15)

The information management method according to claim 15, further comprising the at least one computing device performing the steps:
holding, by the at least one computing device, decision elimination candidate information showing a task that is a candidate to be eliminated from the decision criterion for the transfer destination determination in the rearrangement processing with respect to a plurality of tasks,
calculating first rearrangement occurrence ratio information showing a ratio of data rearrangement occurrence amounts of tasks for each of the computing devices,
specifying a task which is included in the decision elimination candidate information and in which the first rearrangement occurrence ratio information is over a first threshold, and
outputting the specified task as the rearrangement necessity/unnecessity information.

### Claim 17 (depends on 15)

The information management method according to claim 15, further comprising the at least one computing device performing the steps:
generating the rearrangement occurrence information over a plurality of time zones in which the rearrangement processing is executed;
specifying at least two consecutive time zones in which a sum value of rearrangement occurrence amounts of the data related to all computing devices executing tasks exceeds a second threshold;
calculating second rearrangement occurrence ratio information showing a ratio of rearrangement occurrence amounts of the data related to all computing devices executing the task, in each of the specified consecutive time zones;
specifying a task in which the second rearrangement occurrence ratio information of one of the specified at least two consecutive time zones exceeds a third threshold and in which the second rearrangement occurrence ratio information of another of the specified at least two consecutive time zones is below the third threshold; and
outputting the specified task as the rearrangement necessity/unnecessity information.