Disk time-sharing apparatus and method

A disk time-sharing method for a disk time-sharing apparatus comprising a disk apparatus having one or a plurality of disk drives, an input/output request unit for issuing an input/output request to said disk apparatus, and an input/output scheduling unit for scheduling the use of said disk apparatus in accordance with said input/output request, said method comprising:

• forming input/output groups obtained by grouping inputs/outputs to/from said disk apparatus in accordance with their kinds and defining an allocating time (quantum) during which each of said input/output groups can continuously use the disk apparatus;
• in the case where requests for input/output are received from a plurality of input/output groups to said disk apparatus, sequentially switching said allocating time among the input/output groups which competed and using the disk apparatus;
• and
• fluctuating said allocating time in accordance with a degree of jam of the input/output processing requests of said input/output groups.

A disk time-sharing apparatus comprising:

• a disk apparatus having one or a plurality of disk drives;
• an input/output request unit for issuing an input/output request to said disk apparatus;
• and
• an input/output scheduling unit for forming input/output groups obtained by grouping inputs/outputs to/from said disk apparatus in accordance with their kinds, defining an allocating time (quantum) during which each of said input/output groups can continuously use the disk apparatus, and in the case where requests for input/output are received from a plurality of input/output groups to the disk apparatus, sequentially switching said allocating time among the input/output groups which competed, and using the disk apparatus,
• wherein said input/output scheduling unit provides group queues in correspondence to said input/output groups, provides a definition table for setting a valid flag or an invalid flag of time-sharing for each of said group queues, issues the input/output request to said input/output scheduling unit in the case where said valid flag is recognized with reference to said definition tables on an input/output request unit side, and directly issues an input/output request to said disk apparatus in the case where said invalid flag is recognized.

A disk time-sharing apparatus comprising:

• a disk apparatus having one or a plurality of disk drives;
• an input/output request unit for issuing an input/output request to said disk apparatus;
• and
• an input/output scheduling unit for forming input/output groups obtained by grouping inputs/outputs to/from said disk apparatus in accordance with their kinds, defining an allocating time (quantum) during which each of said input/output groups can continuously use the disk apparatus, and in the case where requests for input/output are received from a plurality of input/output groups to the disk apparatus, sequentially switching said allocating time among the input/output groups which competed, and using the disk apparatus,
• wherein said input/output scheduling unit has group queues corresponding to said input/output groups, and after the input/output requests were taken out from said group queues and issued to said disk apparatus, if an error end is received, said input/output scheduling unit again stores the error ended input/output requests into the group queues and processes them.