US 8,285,933 B2Granted

Avoiding use of an inter-unit network in a storage system having multiple storage control units

AssigneeHitachi, Ltd.

InventorsJunichi Hara, Takashi Oeda

Life of this patent

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Abstract

A storage system provides virtual ports, and is able to transfer the virtual ports among physical ports located on multiple storage control units making up the storage system. The storage system is able to manage logical volumes and/or virtual volumes and virtual ports as a group when considering whether to move logical/virtual volumes and/or virtual ports to another storage control unit in the storage system. When the storage system is instructed to transfer volumes, virtual ports, or a group of volumes and virtual ports among the storage control units, the storage system determines whether an inter-unit network will be required to be used following the transfer. When the storage system determines that the inter-unit network will be required if the transfer takes place, the storage system determines and presents an alternate storage control unit for the transfer to avoid use of the inter-unit network, thereby avoiding degraded performance.

Claims12

Dependent claims

A storage system comprising:

multiple storage control units including a first storage control unit and a second storage control unit in communication with each other via a network, each storage control unit including at least one physical port for communication with a first Fibre Channel (FC) switch;
a first virtual port created for a first physical port in the first storage control unit;
and
a first virtual volume created on the first storage control unit, the first virtual volume mapping to a logical volume on an external storage system,
wherein if a first frontend virtual port and the first virtual volume in the first storage control unit are transferred to the other control unit, whether a second physical port of the second storage control unit on a path to the same logical volume exists or not is determined, and
when the second physical port of the second storage control unit on the path to the same logical volume exists, the first frontend virtual port is transferred to the determined second physical port of the second storage control unit;
and
wherein, if the first frontend virtual port in the first storage control unit is transferred, a backend virtual port corresponding to the first frontend virtual port is determined, and
the backend virtual port is transferred to the determined second physical port of the second storage control unit together with the first frontend virtual port.

6 more elements

A storage system comprising:

multiple storage control units including a first storage control unit and a second storage control unit in communication with each other via a network, each storage control unit including at least one physical port for communication with a first Fibre Channel (FC) switch;
a first virtual port created for a first physical port in the first storage control unit;
and
a first virtual volume created on the first storage control unit, the first virtual volume mapping to a logical volume on an external storage system,
wherein if a first backend virtual port and the first virtual volume in the first storage control unit are transferred to the other control unit, whether a second physical port of the second storage control unit on a path to the same logical volume exists or not is determined, and
when the second physical port of the second storage control unit on the path to the same logical volume exists, the first backend virtual port is transferred to the determined second physical port of the second storage control unit;
and
wherein, if the first backend virtual port in the first storage control unit is transferred, a frontend virtual port corresponding to the first backed virtual port is determined, and
the fronted virtual port is transferred to the determined second physical port of the second storage control unit together with the first backend virtual port.

6 more elements

A method of operating a storage system having multiple storage control units including a first storage control unit and a second storage control unit in communication with each other via a network, each storage control unit including at least one physical port for communication with a first Fibre Channel (FC) switch, the method comprising:

creating a first virtual port for a first physical port in the first storage control unit;
and
creating a first virtual volume on the first storage control unit, the first virtual volume mapping to a logical volume on an external storage system,
wherein if a first frontend virtual port and the first virtual volume in the first storage control unit are transferred to the other control unit, whether a second physical port of the second storage control unit on a path to the same logical volume exists or not is determined, and
when the second physical port of the second storage control unit on the path to the same logical volume exists, the first frontend virtual port is transferred to the determined second physical port of the second storage control unit;
and
wherein, if the first frontend virtual port in the first storage control unit is transferred, a backend virtual port corresponding to the first frontend virtual port is determined, and
the backend virtual port is transferred to the determined second physical port of the second storage control unit together with the first frontend virtual port.

5 more elements

A method of operating the storage system having multiple storage control units including a first storage control unit and a second storage control unit in communication with each other via a network, each storage control unit including at least one physical port for communication with a first Fibre Channel (FC) switch, the method comprising:

creating a first virtual port for a first physical port in the first storage control unit;
and
creating a first virtual volume on the first storage control unit, the first virtual volume mapping to a logical volume on an external storage system,
wherein if a first backend virtual port and the first virtual volume in the first storage control unit are transferred to the other control unit, whether a second physical port of the second storage control unit on a path to the same logical volume exists or not is determined, and
when the second physical port of the second storage control unit on the path to the same logical volume exists, the first backend virtual port is transferred to the determined second physical port of the second storage control unit;
wherein, if the first backend virtual port in the first storage control unit is transferred, a frontend virtual port corresponding to the first backend virtual port is determined, and
the frontend virtual port is transferred to the determined second physical port of the second storage control unit together with the first backend virtual port.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 12/942,175Filed 9 Nov 2010 · continuation
Priority: 18 Dec 2007
Published: US 2011/0055477 A13 Mar 2011
Granted: 9 Oct 2012
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification9 codes

G06F 3/0665
Virtualisation aspects: at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
G06F 3/061
Specifically adapted to achieve a particular effect: improving I/O performance
G06F 3/067
Adopting a particular infrastructure: distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
H04L 41/0893
Configuration management of networks or network elements: assignment of logical groups to network elements

Family

Application12/000,821Parent of this continuation · filed 18 Dec 2007
US 2011/0055477 A1Pre-grant publication · published 3 Mar 2011
US 7,849,265 B2Parent of this continuation
US 2009/0157984 A1Published application
US 8,285,933 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.