Method and apparatus for managing file system of unified storage system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016173603-A1
Application number	US-201514933080-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Nov 5, 2015
Priority date	Dec 10, 2014
Publication date	Jun 16, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a method and apparatus of managing a file system of a unified storage system. According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the method comprises: creating a thin provisioning storage pool in a block level; mapping the thin provisioning storage pool to a file storage pool in a file level; and creating a file system by using the file storage pool. In this way, a capacity of the file system is expanded or shrunk without rebalancing or migrating data in the storage system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for managing a file system of a unified storage system, the unified storage system comprising a file level and a block level having a block-based physical storage space, the method comprising:
creating a thin provisioning storage pool in the block level; mapping the thin provisioning storage pool to a file storage pool in the file level; and creating the file system by using the file storage pool.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a request to change a capacity of the file system; and in response to the request, changing the capacity of the file system by changing a capacity of the thin provisioning storage pool.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
prompting a user to add a new physical storage space in the block level in response to an amount of data in the file system exceeding a pre-defined proportion of the block-based physical storage space.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising, in response to the thin provisioning storage pool being shrunk to be less than a pre-defined threshold, performing at least one of the following:
refusing a shrinking request; and prompting a user to delete data in the file system.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising creating a plurality of storage volumes for the mapping according to the thin provisioning storage pool.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein a total capacity of the plurality of storage volumes is equal to a maximum capacity of the thin provisioning storage pool.

7 . An apparatus for managing a file system of a unified storage system, the unified storage system comprising a file device and a block device having a block-based physical storage space, the apparatus comprising:
a thin provisioning storage pool creating unit configured to create a thin provisioning storage pool in the block device; a mapping unit configured to map the thin provisioning storage pool to a file storage pool in the file device; and a file system creating unit configured to create the file system by using the file storage pool.

8 . The apparatus of claim 7 , further comprising:
a capacity change request receiving unit configured to receive a request to change a capacity of the file system; and a thin provisioning storage pool capacity changing unit configured to change the capacity of the file system by changing a capacity of the thin provisioning storage pool in response to the request.

9 . The apparatus of claim 7 , further comprising:
a physical storage space addition prompting unit configured to prompt a user to add a new physical storage space in the block device in response to an amount of data in the file system exceeding a pre-defined proportion of the block-based physical storage space.

10 . The apparatus of claim 7 , further comprising:
a thin provisioning storage pool shrink prompting unit configured to perform at least one of the following in response to the thin provisioning storage pool being shrunk to be less than a pre-defined threshold: refusing a shrinking request; and prompting a user to delete data in the file system.

11 . The apparatus of claim 7 , further comprising:
a storage volume creating unit configured to create a plurality of storage volumes for the mapping according to the thin provisioning storage pool.

12 . The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein a total capacity of the plurality of storage volumes is equal to a maximum capacity of the thin provisioning storage pool.

13 . A computer program product for managing a file system of a unified storage system, the unified storage system comprising a file level and a block level having a block-based physical storage space, the computer program product comprising:
one or more computer readable storage media and program instructions stored on the one or more computer readable storage media, the program instructions comprising instructions for: creating a thin provisioning storage pool in the block level; mapping the thin provisioning storage pool to a file storage pool in the file level; and creating the file system by using the file storage pool.

14 . The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein the program instructions comprise instructions for:
receiving a request to change a capacity of the file system; and in response to the request, changing the capacity of the file system by changing a capacity of the thin provisioning storage pool.

15 . The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein the program instructions comprise instructions for:
prompting a user to add a new physical storage space in the block level in response to an amount of data in the file system exceeding a pre-defined proportion of the block-based physical storage space.

16 . The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein, in response to the thin provisioning storage pool being shrunk to be less than a pre-defined threshold, the program instructions comprise instructions for performing at least one of the following:
refusing a shrinking request; and prompting a user to delete data in the file system.

17 . The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein the program instructions comprise instructions for creating a plurality of storage volumes for the mapping according to the thin provisioning storage pool.

18 . The computer program product of claim 17 , wherein a total capacity of the plurality of storage volumes is equal to a maximum capacity of the thin provisioning storage pool.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Ainscow Alexander H
• Guo Li Hui
• Lan Long Wen

Classifications

• G06F3/0605

  by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator · CPC title

• G06F3/0643

  Management of files · CPC title

• G06F3/0644

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

• H04L67/1097 Primary

  for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS] · CPC title

• G06F3/0689

  Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD · CPC title