Method and management system for calculating billing amount in relation to data volume reduction function

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017359221-A1
Application number	US-201515539212-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 10, 2015
Priority date	Apr 10, 2015
Publication date	Dec 14, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

A logical volume (VOL) is provided from a storage system to a host system of a service user. A data volume reduction process is applied to data stored in the VOL. A management system determines whether at least one of a provided total capacity (provided to the service users) and a user used total volume (prior to the data volume reduction process) exceeds a storage volume capacity (upper limit of capacity of a storage space for the service provider). If so, a billing amount is calculated based on at least one amount among a first excess capacity (the difference between the user used total volume and the storage volume), a second excess capacity (the difference between the provided total capacity and the storage volume), and an amount corresponding to the service user defined as relating to at least one of the first excess capacity and the second excess capacity.

First claim

1 . A method of calculating a billing amount to a service provider in an environment in which a logical volume is provided from a storage system to a host system of a service user as a service of the service provider or for use of the service and a data volume reduction process is applied to data stored in the logical volume by a data volume reduction function, the method comprising:
(A) receiving first information and second information from at least one of a provider system and the storage system, the first information being information for identifying at least one of a provided total capacity and a user used total volume, the provided total capacity being a total capacity of one or more logical volumes provided to one or more service users, the user used total volume is a total volume of one or more pieces of data before the data volume reduction process stored in the one or more logical volumes, the second information being information for identifying a storage volume, the storage volume being an upper limit of a capacity of a storage space that is held by the storage system concerning the service provider and in which data is stored, and the provider system being a computer system of the service provider; (B) determining, on the basis of the received first and second information, whether at least one of the user used total volume and the provided total capacity exceeds the storage volume; and (C) calculating, when a result of the determination in (B) is affirmative, a billing amount based on at least one of a first excess capacity, which is a difference between the user used total volume and the storage volume, a second excess capacity, which is a difference between the provided total capacity and the storage capacity, and an amount corresponding to a service user defined as relating to at least one of the first and second excess capacities.

2 . The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
(D) identifying a billing scheme selected concerning the service provider by referring to third information in which a billing scheme selected out of a plurality of billing schemes and the service provider are associated; comparing, when the billing scheme identified in (D) includes a user used total volume base, the user used total volume with the storage volume in (B) and calculating the billing amount on the basis of at least one of the first excess capacity and the amount corresponding to the service user defined as relating to the first excess capacity in (C); and comparing, when the billing scheme identified in (D) includes a provided total capacity base, the provided total capacity with the storage volume in (B) and calculating the billing amount on the basis of at least one of the second excess capacity and the amount corresponding to the service user defined as relating to the second excess capacity in (C).

3 . The method according to claim 2 , wherein
when the billing scheme identified in (D) includes being on a provided total capacity basis and fixing arrangement order of contracting service users, in a respective series of processing, when the determination result in (B) is affirmative, the service user defined as relating to the second excess capacity is managed as a billing target user, and even if the determination result in (B) is negative, when a service user managed as the billing target user is present, a billing amount including an amount concerning the service user is calculated.

4 . The method according to claim 2 , wherein
when the billing scheme identified in (D) includes being on a user used total volume basis and varying arrangement order of contracting service users, in a respective series of processing, when the determination result in (B) is affirmative, a plurality of kinds of arrangement order of one or more user used volumes respectively corresponding to one or more contracting service users are identified, by referring to fourth information in which a unit price based on an amount per a unit capacity is associate with each service user, one billing amount among a plurality of kinds of billing amounts respectively corresponding to the identified plurality of kinds of arrangement order is calculated, and each of the plurality of kinds of billing amounts is a billing amount based on a unit price corresponding to the service user relating to the first excess capacity in arrangement order corresponding to the billing amount, and when the billing scheme identified in (D) includes being on a provided total capacity basis and varying the arrangement order of the contracting service users, in the respective series of processing, when the determination result in (B) is affirmative, a plurality of kinds of arrangement order of one or more provided capacities respectively corresponding to one or more contracting service users are identified, and by referring to the fourth information, one billing amount among a plurality of kinds of billing amount respectively corresponding to the identified plurality of kinds of arrangement order is calculated, and each of the plurality of kinds of billing amounts is a billing amount based on a unit price corresponding to the service user relating to the second excess capacity in arrangement order corresponding to the billing amount.

5 . The method according to claim 2 , further comprising, when the one or more logical volumes includes a virtual volume, which is a virtual logical volume to which a storage area is allocated from a pool in response to a write request from the host system, concerning at least the virtual volume, controlling selection of the provided total capacity base to be impossible as the billing scheme, wherein
concerning at least the virtual volume, the storage volume is a capacity of the pool.

6 . The method according to claim 1 , further comprising
managing, when the determination result in (B) is affirmative, the service user defined as relating to the first excess capacity as a billing target user, and calculating, even if the determination result in (B) is negative, when a service user managed as the billing target user is present, a billing amount including an amount concerning the service user.

7 . The method according to claim 1 , further comprising
Identifying, when the determination result in (B) is affirmative, a plurality of kinds of arrangement order of one or more user used volumes or provided capacities respectively corresponding to one or more contracting service users; and calculating, by referring to fourth information in which a unit price based on an amount per a unit capacity is associate with each service user, one billing amount among a plurality of kinds of billing amounts respectively corresponding to the identified plurality of kinds of arrangement order, each of the plurality of kinds of billing amounts being a billing amount based on a unit price corresponding to the service user relating to the first or second excess capacity in arrangement order corresponding to the billing amount.

8 . The method according to claim 1 , further comprising displaying billing result information, which is information including information indicating the determined billing amount and at least one ground for the billing amount, wherein
information indicating the ground for the determined billing amount is associated with the billing result information.

9 . The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying an actual used total volume conforming to a total volume of one or more pieces of data after the data volume reduction processing from the storage system; and displaying (X) and (Y) described below,
(X) information indicating at least one of the actual used total volume and the user used total volume and a

Assignees

• Hitachi Ltd

Inventors

• Hori Koichi
• Nishimoto Akira
• Haga Futoshi

Classifications

• G06F3/0665

  at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes · CPC title

• G06Q30/06

  Buying, selling or leasing transactions · CPC title

• H04L41/5029

  Service quality level-based billing, e.g. dependent on measured service level customer is charged more or less · CPC title

• G06Q50/10

  Services · CPC title

• H04L41/0896 Primary

  Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities (flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76) · CPC title