Storage system and control method thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10282136-B1
Application number	US-201815910085-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Mar 2, 2018
Priority date	Nov 30, 2017
Publication date	May 7, 2019
Grant date	May 7, 2019

Abstract

A capacity control module which manages a physical storage area provided by each of storage devices in a cluster by dividing the physical storage area into a physical storage area having a predetermined size, in a plurality of storage nodes configuring a storage system, and, a storage control module which receives an I/O request from a higher-level device are provided, two storage control modules, which are arranged in different storage nodes and configure a redundancy configuration, are managed as a storage control module pair, the capacity control module preferentially allocates each of the physical storage areas in the vicinity of an arrangement destination of each of the storage control modules configuring the storage control module pair, to the storage control module pair, and storage data is read from or is written on the physical storage area, according to a command applied from the storage control module.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A storage system, comprising:
a plurality of storage nodes,
wherein at least one of the storage nodes includes: a capacity control module which manages physical storage areas provided by storage devices included in each of the plurality of storage nodes, respectively, and
a storage control module which receives an I/O request from a device at a higher level than a level of the plurality of storage nodes, generates a command according to the received I/O request, and transmits the command to the capacity control module to write or read data,
wherein two or more associated storage control modules comprise at least a first storage control module in a first storage node and a second storage control module in a second storage node,
wherein the first storage control module is in a first state in which the I/O request can be processed, and the second storage control module is in a second state in which the I/O request cannot be processed,
wherein the storage system is configured to form a redundancy configuration of a data set including a plurality of data stored in different storage nodes,
wherein the capacity control module is configured to allocate, to the two or more associated storage control modules, the physical storage areas from the first storage node, the second storage node and other storage nodes different from the first and second storage nodes, and
wherein when allocating the physical storage areas for storing particular data of the data set in the redundancy configuration to the two or more associated storage control modules, the capacity control module sets a storage node, included in the first, second or other storage nodes, which already stores other data of the data set in the redundancy configuration as an exclusion storage node and selects a storage node, other than the exclusion storage node, from which the physical storage area is to be allocated to the two or more associated storage control modules so that the plurality of data of the data set in the redundancy configuration is stored in different storage nodes.

2. The storage system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the capacity control module is configured to:
allocate the physical storage area provided by the storage device of the first or second storage node to the two or more associated storage control modules, upon determining there is a free capacity that is greater than a threshold value in the first or second storage node, and
allocate the physical storage area provided by the storage device of the storage node other than the first or second storage node, to the two or more associated storage control modules, upon determining that the free capacity is less than the threshold value, in the first and second storage node.

3. The storage system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the redundancy configuration of the data set is formed by storing data in at least two different storage nodes,
wherein the capacity control module allocates the physical storage area provided by the storage device of the storage node other than the first or second storage node, to the two or more associated storage control modules, upon determining there is no free capacity greater than the threshold value in the first or second storage node.

4. The storage system according to claim 3 ,
wherein the capacity control module sets the physical storage area in the first storage node to a master storage area.

5. The storage system according to claim 4 ,
wherein the capacity control module switches the physical storage area in the second storage node to the master storage area, when a state of the second storage control module in the second storage node in the second state is switched to the first state.

6. The storage system according to claim 1 ,
wherein a plurality of sets of storage nodes, which are influenced simultaneously due to a single power failure, are managed as fault sets,
wherein the first storage node and the second storage node are arranged to belong to different fault sets, and
wherein each of the capacity control modules associate the physical storage area provided by the storage device of the storage node belonging to the fault set which is the same fault set as that of one of the storage control modules configuring the two or more associated storage control modules.

7. The storage system according to claim 6 ,
wherein the redundancy configuration of the data set is formed by storing data in both the first storage node and the second storage node, and
wherein the first storage node belongs to the same fault set of the first storage control module and the second storage node belongs to the same fault set of the second storage control module.

8. The storage system according to claim 1 ,
wherein a plurality of types of storage devices having response speeds different from each other are mounted on each of the storage nodes,
each of the physical storage areas provided by each of the types of storage devices is associated with the two or more associated storage control modules.

9. The storage system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the redundancy configuration of the data of data set is formed by storing data in at least two different storage nodes.

10. The storage system according to claim 9 ,
wherein in the redundancy configuration of the data set, the data is stored in the first storage node and in the second storage node.

11. The storage system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the redundancy configuration of the data set is formed by creating a redundant code from the data and storing the data and the redundant code in different storage nodes.

12. The storage system according to claim 1 ,
wherein a third storage control module and a fourth storage control module form another two or more associated storage control modules and the first storage control module and the third storage control module are arranged in the first storage node, and
wherein a fifth storage control module and a sixth storage control module form another two or more associated storage control modules and the second storage control module and the fifth storage control module are arranged in the second storage node.

13. A control method of a storage system including a plurality of storage nodes,
in which at least one of the storage nodes includes:
a capacity control module which manages physical storage areas provided by storage devices included in each of the plurality of storage nodes in a cluster; and
a storage control module which receives an I/O request from a device at a higher level than a level of the plurality of storage nodes, generates a command according to the received I/O request, and transmits the command to the capacity control module to write or read data,
wherein two or more storage control modules comprise at least a first storage control module in a first storage node and a second storage control module in a second storage node,
wherein the first storage control module is in a first state in which the I/O request can be processed, and the second storage control module is set to be in a second state in which the I/O request cannot be processed, and
the storage system is configured to form a redundancy configuration of a data set including a plurality of data stored in different storage nodes, the method comprising:
setting an exclusion storage node, which is a storage node that stores one data of the data set in the redundancy configuration and the data is stored in the physical storage areas allocated to the two or more associated storage control modules; and
allocating another physical storage area for storing other data of the data set in the redundanc

Assignees

• Hitachi Ltd

Inventors

• Ito Shintaro
• Matsui Yuko
• Agetsuma Masakuni
• Saito Hideo
• Chiba Takeru
• Yamamoto Takahiro

Classifications

• G06F11/2094

  Redundant storage or storage space (G06F11/2056 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F11/2092

  Techniques of failing over between control units · CPC title

• G06F3/0631

  by allocating resources to storage systems · CPC title

• G06F3/064

  Management of blocks · CPC title

• G06F3/0644

  Management of space entities, e.g. partitions, extents, pools · CPC title