US 8,751,765 B2Granted

Computer system, storage system and method for saving storage area by integrating same data

AssigneeHitachi, Ltd.

InventorTakaki Nakamura

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Abstract

Provided is a storage system capable of saving actually used physical storage areas and of achieving a high speed in write processing. There is disclosed a computer system including a server and a storage system, in which physical storage areas of a disk drive are managed for each one or more physical blocks of predetermined sizes, and allocation of one or more physical blocks to a plurality of logical blocks of predetermined sizes is managed, and the storage system stores data written in a first logical block in a first physical block allocated to the first logical block and allocates the first physical block to a second logical block where the same data as the data stored in the first physical block is to be written.

Claims8

Dependent claims

A computer system comprising:

a server;
and
a storage system coupled to the server and configured to provide a logical volume to the server, the logical volume including a plurality of logical blocks, comprising:
a plurality of disk drives, each of which includes a plurality of physical blocks;
and
a processor being configured to allocate one of the physical blocks to one of the logical blocks in response to a write request issued to the logical block;
wherein, in response to a single initialization command in the write request, said single initialization command including information identifying a plurality of initialization target areas, each of which is configured to predetermined logical blocks of said plurality of logical blocks, an initialization process is carried out by a storage application in said server such that:
1) initial data is written into an area of one of the physical blocks allocated to first logical blocks of a first
initialization target area of the plurality of initialization target areas;
2) the area of said one of said physical blocks is designated as a source;
and
3) the area of said one of said physical blocks designated as the source is allocated to second logical blocks
of a second initialization target area of the plurality of initialization target areas, different from the first logical blocks, which second logical blocks are configured to be written with the same data as the initial data while maintaining the allocation of the first logical blocks to the area of said one of said physical blocks.

10 more elements

A method of operating a computer system including a server and a storage system coupled to the server, said storage system providing a logical volume to the server, the logical volume including a plurality of logical blocks, the storage system including a plurality of disk drives, each of which includes a plurality of physical blocks and a processor, said method comprising, in response to a single initialization command in a write request to allocate one of the physical blocks to one of the logical blocks, said single initialization command including information identifying a plurality of initialization target areas, each of which is configured to predetermined logical blocks of said plurality of logical blocks:

writing initial data into an area of one of the physical blocks allocated to first logical blocks of a first initialization target area of the plurality of initialization target areas;
designating the area of said one of the physical blocks into which the initial data is written as a source;
and
allocating the area of said one of said physical blocks into which said initial data is written to second logical blocks of a second initialization target area of the plurality of initialization target areas, which are to be written with the same data as the initial data while maintaining allocation of the first logical blocks to the area of said one of said physical blocks.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 13/442,930Filed 10 Apr 2012 · continuation
Priority: JP 2006-2401695 Sep 2006
Published: US 2012/0198147 A12 Aug 2012
Granted: 10 Jun 2014
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification5 codes

G06F 3/0608
Specifically adapted to achieve a particular effect: saving storage space on storage systems
G06F 3/0611
Improving I/O performance: in relation to response time
G06F 3/064
Organizing or formatting or addressing of data: management of blocks
G06F 3/0689
Plurality of storage devices: disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

Family

Application11/582,451Parent of this continuation · filed 18 Oct 2006
Application12/723,315Parent of this continuation · filed 12 Mar 2010
Application13/118,105Parent of this continuation · filed 27 May 2011
US 2012/0198147 A1Pre-grant publication · published 2 Aug 2012
US 8,161,259 B2Parent of this continuation
US 7,958,328 B2Parent of this continuation
US 7,689,796 B2Parent of this continuation
US 2008/0059751 A1Published application
US 2010/0169568 A1Published application
US 2011/0231603 A1Published application
US 8,751,765 B2This patent

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

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