Storage management method, storage management system, computer system, and program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016117259-A1
Application number	US-201514800284-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 15, 2015
Priority date	Oct 28, 2014
Publication date	Apr 28, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A storage management method and the like for managing a hierarchical storage are provided. A storage management method is provided for managing a hierarchical storage including a lower storage tier, and a higher storage tier having higher speed than the lower storage tier, on a computer system including at least one computer. This storage management method includes a step of causing the computer system to copy a target data item from the higher storage tier to the lower storage tier, and a step of causing the system to determine whether or not to delete the entity of the data item on the higher storage tier having been subjected to the copying based on a time required for reading the copy of the data item.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A storage management method for managing a hierarchical storage including a lower storage tier, and a higher storage tier having higher speed than the lower storage tier, on a computer system including at least one computer, the method comprising the steps, executed by the computer system, of:
copying a target data item from the higher storage tier to the lower storage tier; and determining whether or not to delete an entity of the data item on the higher storage tier having been subjected to the copying, based on a time required for reading a copy of the data item.

2 . The storage management method according to claim 1 , wherein the lower storage tier includes at least one tape medium, and the step of determining based on the required time is a step of determining whether or not to delete the entity of the data item having been subjected to the copying, based on the time required for reading the copy of the data item according to a storage position on the tape medium as a copy destination on the lower storage tier.

3 . The storage management method according to claim 2 , further comprising a step of deleting the entity of the data item having been subjected to the copying and being determined to be deleted from the higher storage tier, and storing, on the higher storage tier, information for accessing the copy of the data item on the tape medium as the copy destination on the lower storage tier.

4 . The storage management method according to claim 2 , wherein the copying step includes the steps of:
instructing a tape drive device on the lower storage tier to copy the target data item onto the tape medium; obtaining information on the time required for reading the copy of the target data item from the tape medium as the copy destination by querying the tape drive device with information on a logical position of the copy; and storing the obtained information on the required time in association with the target data item.

5 . The storage management method according to claim 2 , wherein the step of determining based on the required time performs determination based on a time required for locating on the tape medium as the copy destination, or a total time of the time required for locating and a time required for reading after the locating.

6 . The storage management method according to claim 2 , wherein the step of determining based on the required time includes a step of:
adopting, as a determination target, a data item having been copied to the lower storage tier but having an entity having not been deleted from the higher storage tier.

7 . The storage management method according to claim 6 , wherein the step of determining based on the required time further includes the steps of:
assigning orders to each of one or more data items adopted as the determination targets, based on the required time; and selecting a data item whose entity is to be deleted, among the one or more data items adopted as the determination target, based on a result of the assigning the orders.

8 . The storage management method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of determining based on the required time further evaluates an attribute of the data item, and determines whether or not to delete the entity.

9 . The storage management method according to claim 1 , wherein the copying step includes a step of determining the target data item based on an attribute of the data item.

10 . A storage management system including at least one computer, for managing a hierarchical storage including a lower storage tier, and a higher storage tier having higher speed than the lower storage tier, the system comprising:
a copy manager managing copying a target data item from the higher storage tier to the lower storage tier; and a deletion manager determining whether or not to delete an entity of the data item on the higher storage tier having been subjected to the copying, based on a time required for reading a copy of the data item.

11 . The storage management system according to claim 10 , wherein the lower storage tier includes at least one tape medium, and the deletion manager determines whether or not to delete the entity of the data item having been subjected to the copying, based on the time required for reading the copy of the data item according to a storage position on the tape medium as a copy destination on the lower storage tier.

12 . The storage management system according to claim 11 , wherein the deletion manager manages deleting the entity of the data item having been subjected to the copying and being determined to be deleted from the higher storage tier, and storing, on the higher storage tier, information for accessing the copy of the data item on the tape medium as the copy destination on the lower storage tier.

13 . The storage management system according to claim 11 , further comprising a copy executor instructing a tape drive device on the lower storage tier to copy the target data item onto the tape medium, obtaining information on the time required for reading the copy of the target data item from the tape medium as the copy destination by querying the tape drive device with resultantly obtained information on a logical position of the copy, and storing the obtained information on the required time in association with the target data item.

14 . The storage management system according to claim 13 , further comprising at least one tape drive device on the lower storage tier, the device returning information on the required time in response to a query with the information on the logical position of the copy.

15 . The storage management system according to claim 11 , wherein the storage management system comprises the lower storage tier and the higher storage tier, the higher storage tier including at least one type of storage tier.

16 . The storage management system according to claim 11 , further comprising:
a processor; a memory communicating with the processor; and at least one interface device for communicating with a lower storage tier, and a higher storage tier having higher speed than the lower storage tier, wherein the processor determines whether or not to delete an entity of a data item on the higher storage tier having been subjected to copying, based on a time required for reading a copy of the data item, the entity and the copy of the data item being on the higher storage tier, and the lower storage tier, respectively, and stores, on the higher storage tier, information for accessing the copy of the data item on the lower storage tier having been subjected to the copying and being determined to be deleted.

17 . The storage management system according to claim 16 , wherein the lower storage tier includes at least one tape medium, and the processor determines a target data to be copied, instructs a tape drive device on the lower storage tier to copy the target data on the higher storage tier onto the tape medium, obtains information on the time required for reading the copy of the target data item from the tape medium as a copy destination, by querying the tape drive device with information on a logical position of the copy, and stores obtained information on the required time in association with the target data item.

18 . A computer program product for managing a hierarchical storage including a lower storage tier, and a higher storage tier having higher speed than the lower storage tier, the program product causing a computer to function as:
a copy manager managing copying a target data item from the hig

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Hasegawa Tohru
• Iwanaga Masayuki
• Oishi Yutaka

Classifications

• G06F2212/313

  In storage device · CPC title

• G06F2212/1024

  Latency reduction · CPC title

• G06F12/121 Primary

  using replacement algorithms · CPC title

• G06F2212/69

  Physics · mapped topic