Method and apparatus for monitoring update activity in a data storage facility
AssigneeEMC Corporation
InventorsDouglas E. LeCrone, Daniel A. Murphy, Denis Hall
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus for monitoring update activity, particularly in the form of write requests, to a data storage facility, over at least one cycle to identify any write operation or update that occurs to that data storage facility on a track-by-track basis. At the end of each cycle a list of changed tracks is stored in a data set. After information has been accumulated by a collector application, a reporter application manipulates the data to obtain information concerning the track changes and to estimate communication path requirements.
Claims50
A method for obtaining information about the number of updates to data blocks in data block locations in a disk storage facility over a time interval wherein said disk storage facility stores data groups as a plurality of data blocks, said method comprising the steps of:
- A) defining a data group set of at least one of the data blocks,
- B) defining an interval corresponding to the time period for which update information is desired,
- C) recording, during the defined interval, only a first update to each data block location for data in the data group set,
- D) after the defined interval transferring the information obtained by said recording to the data group set,
- E) determining, from the information in the data group set, the total number of data block locations in the data group set that were updated at least one time during the defined interval, and
- F) converting the total number of data block locations changed during into bandwidth based information about all the transfers involved in updating during the defined interval.
A method for determining, from a local site with a local data storage facility, bandwidth related characteristics for a communications path that transfers data, produced by update operations, between first and second remote data storage facilities over a communications path wherein each of the data storage facilities stores data in datasets on disk tracks, said method comprising the steps of:
- A) defining a set of disk tracks in the local site data storage facility,
- B) defining a time interval,
- C) recording an identification of each disk track in the local data storage facility that is updated during the interval,
- D) upon completion of the time interval determining the number of tracks in the defined set of disk tracks that were updated during the time interval, and
- E) converting the information based upon the number of disk tracks that were changed during the defined time interval into bandwidth related properties of the communications oath.
Apparatus for obtaining information about the number of updates to data blocks stored in data block locations in a disk storage facility over a time interval wherein said disk storage facility stores data groups as a plurality of data blocks, said apparatus comprising:
- A) means for defining a data group set of at least one of the data blocks,
- B) means for defining an interval corresponding to the time period for which update information is desired,
- C) a collector application that records, during the defined interval, only a first update to each data block location for data in the data group set,
- D) means responsive for transferring the information obtained by said collector application to the data group set, and
- E) a reporter application, activated after the defined interval, that determines, for converting the information in the data group set obtained by said transfer means, the total number of data data block locations in the data group set that were updated at least one time during the defined interval and bandwidth based information about all the transfers involved in the updating during the defined period.
Apparatus for determining, from a local site with a local data storage facility, bandwidth related characteristics for a communications path that transfers data, produced by update operations, between first and second remote data storage facilities over a communications path wherein each of the data storage facilities stores data in datasets on disk tracks, said method comprising the steps of:
- A) means for defining a set of disk tracks in the local site data storage facility,
- B) means for defining a time interval,
- C) a collector application for recording an identification of each disk track in the local data storage facility that is updated during the interval, and
- D) a reporter application for converting the number of disk tracks in the defined set of disk tracks that were updated during the time interval into bandwidth related properties of the communications path.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.