Management and utilization of storage capacities in a converged system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018196700-A1
Application number	US-201715400741-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 6, 2017
Priority date	Jan 6, 2017
Publication date	Jul 12, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

A computer-implemented method according to one embodiment includes identifying a request to create a consumer within a converged system. Additionally, the method includes defining the consumer within a hierarchy of consumers, where the consumer represents a function in an organization. Further, the method includes associating the consumer with a plurality of storage resources and a plurality of computing resources. Further still, the method includes setting a storage capacity attribute for the consumer.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A computer-implemented method, comprising:
identifying a request to create a consumer within a converged system; defining the consumer within a hierarchy of consumers, where the consumer represents a function in an organization; associating the consumer with a plurality of storage resources and a plurality of computing resources; and setting a storage capacity attribute for the consumer.

2 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the storage capacity attribute is pre-set with a disabled value for the consumer when the consumer is created.

3 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the storage capacity attribute is set to an unlimited value when the consumer has no parent, or a parent with a storage capacity attribute set to an unlimited value, within a hierarchy of consumers.

4 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the storage capacity attribute is set to a first limited value when the consumer has no parent, or has a parent with a storage capacity attribute set to an unlimited value, or has a parent with a storage capacity attribute set to a limited value less than a predetermined value, within the hierarchy of consumers for the organization.

5 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising determining a current free capacity for the consumer when the storage capacity attribute for the consumer is set to a limited capacity value, wherein the current free capacity is determined by subtracting from the limited capacity value a storage capacity of all child consumers nodes of a consumer within a hierarchy of consumers.

6 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising maintaining a current free capacity for the consumer as a non-negative number.

7 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising identifying a request to change the storage capacity attribute for the consumer to a new value, and allowing the change of the storage capacity attribute when it is determined that the new value or a difference between the new value and an existing value is not larger than a current free capacity for a parent consumer of the consumer.

8 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising identifying a root consumer within a hierarchy of consumers, and setting the storage capacity attribute for the root consumer to be less than or equal to a total amount of the plurality of storage resources provided by a plurality of storage systems.

9 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising identifying an increase or decrease in a physical storage capacity provided by a plurality of storage systems.

10 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising, in response to identifying an increase in a physical storage capacity provided by a plurality of storage systems, assigning at least a portion of the increased physical storage capacity to a root consumer by increasing a value of a storage capacity attribute of a root consumer.

11 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein, while a value for a storage capacity attribute assigned to a root consumer is greater than a physical storage capacity, no additional data volumes may be defined for the consumers within the organization, and a storage capacity attribute for all consumers within the organization may not be increased.

12 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the hierarchy of consumers for the organization is formed as a tree structure.

13 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein when a free capacity value for a consumer is determined to be zero, then a capacity value for the consumer is assigned a disabled value.

14 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising, in response to identifying a removal of a portion of a physical storage capacity provided by a plurality of storage systems, performing one or more reductions to a storage capacity attribute of one or more consumers within a converged system and adjusting one or more data volumes within the converged system.

15 . The computer-implemented method of claim 14 , wherein the reductions are iteratively performed until a value for the storage capacity attribute assigned to a root consumer is equal to or less than the physical storage capacity provided by the plurality of storage systems.

16 . The computer-implemented method of claim 14 , wherein adjusting the one or more data volumes within the converged system includes one or more of reducing a size of a data volume and removing a data volume.

17 . The computer-implemented method of claim 14 , further comprising decreasing a value of the storage capacity attribute of the one or more consumers so that, for each of the one or more consumers, the value of the storage capacity attribute for the consumer is not greater than a current free capacity for the consumer.

18 . The computer-implemented method of claim 14 , wherein a value of the storage capacity attribute of the one or more consumers within the organization is decreased utilizing a bottom-up method.

19 . The computer-implemented method of claim 14 , wherein performing the one or more reductions to the storage capacity attribute of one or more consumers within the organization includes:
reducing a size of a data volume for the one or more consumers to a size not less than an actual size used by data written in the data volume; or reducing a size of a data volume for the one or more consumers to a size less than an actual size used by data written in the data volume, where further data is not written to the data volume until previous data is removed from the data volume to bring the actual size used by the data lower than the reduced size of the data volume.

20 . A computer program product for managing storage resources in a converged system, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, wherein the computer readable storage medium is not a transitory signal per se, the program instructions executable by a processor to cause the processor to perform a method comprising:
identifying a request to create a consumer within the converged system, utilizing the processor; defining, utilizing the processor, the consumer within a hierarchy of consumers, where the consumer represents a function in an organization; associating the consumer with a plurality of storage resources and a plurality of computing resources, utilizing the processor; and setting a storage capacity attribute for the consumer, utilizing the processor.

21 . The computer program product of claim 20 , wherein the storage capacity attribute is pre-set with a disabled value for the consumer when the consumer is created.

22 . The computer program product of claim 20 , wherein the storage capacity attribute is set to an unlimited value when the consumer has no parent, or a parent with a storage capacity attribute set to an unlimited value, within a hierarchy of consumers.

23 . A system, comprising:
a processor; and logic integrated with the processor, executable by the processor, or integrated with and executable by the processor, the logic being configured to: identify a request to create a consumer within a converged system; define the consumer within a hierarchy of consumers, where the consumer represents a function in an organization; associate the consumer w

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Aronovich Lior
• Haertel Stephen Ronald
• Mantripragada Kiran
• Xue Ting

Classifications

• G06F3/0631

  by allocating resources to storage systems · CPC title

• G06F3/0605

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

• G06F9/5016 Primary

  the resource being the memory · CPC title

• G06F3/067

  Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS] · CPC title

• G06F3/0685

  Hybrid storage combining heterogeneous device types, e.g. hierarchical storage, hybrid arrays · CPC title