High speed data transfer between mainframe storage systems
AssigneeHitachi, Ltd.
InventorAkira Yamamoto
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A local disk system in a local mainframe computer includes one or more local disk units. Data in at least one of the local disk units are backed-up to a designated remote disk unit in a remote disk system. Data transfer between the local disk system and the remote disk system occurs over a fixed block infrastructure to increase data transfer rates. Accordingly, variable-length data received in the local disk system and destined to be backed-up to a remote disk system are first converted to fixed-length data prior to transmission over the fixed block infrastructure. In the remote disk system, fixed-length data received over the fixed block infrastructure are converted back to variable-length format.
Claims20
A system for transferring data between storage systems comprising:
- a local disk system capable of converting data in variable-length data format to fixed blocks, the local disk system having a local disk unit;
- a local fixed block I/O interface coupled to receive fixed blocks from the local disk system;
- a remote fixed block I/O interface coupled to receive fixed blocks from the local fixed block I/O interface;
- and
- a remote disk system capable of converting fixed blocks from the remote fixed block I/O interface to data in the variable-length data format, the remote disk system having a remote disk unit assigned to store data that are also destined for storage in the local disk unit.
A method for transferring data between storage systems comprising:
- receiving first data in variable-length data format in a local storage system, the first data being destined for storage in a local storage unit of the local storage system and a remote storage unit of a remote storage system;
- converting the first data to second data in fixed-length data format in the local storage system;
- sending the second data to the remote storage system over a fixed block I/O channel;
- and
- converting the second data back to data in the variable-length data format in the remote storage system.
A system for transferring data between storage systems comprising:
- a local storage system coupled to a local host system, the local storage system being capable of converting data in variable-length data format received from the local host system to fixed blocks, the local storage system having a local storage unit;
- a local fixed block I/O interface coupled to receive fixed blocks from the local storage system;
- a remote fixed block interface coupled to receive fixed blocks from the local fixed block I/O interface;
- and
- a remote storage system coupled to receive fixed blocks from the remote fixed block I/O interface, the remote storage system being capable of converting fixed blocks from the remote fixed block I/O interface to data in the variable-length data format and vice versa, the remote storage system having a remote storage unit designated as a back-up for the local storage unit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.