Storage apparatus and controller

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8930748-B2
Application number	US-201213371503-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 13, 2012
Priority date	Mar 17, 2011
Publication date	Jan 6, 2015
Grant date	Jan 6, 2015

Abstract

A storage apparatus includes a plurality of first storage mediums in which data is redundantly stored and a controller. The controller includes a formatting section which performs formatting in each of the plurality of first storage mediums, a detection section which detects a failure that has occurred in the plurality of first storage mediums, a control section which makes the formatting section stop the formatting at the time of the detection of the failure by the detection section and which rebuilds the data stored in the plurality of first storage mediums in which the failure has occurred in a second storage medium other than the plurality of first storage mediums, and a rebuild processing section which rebuilds the data stored in the plurality of first storage mediums in the second storage medium in accordance with instructions from the control section.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A storage apparatus comprising:
a plurality of first drives configured to redundantly store data; and
one or more processors connected to the first drives via a communication line for controlling writing of information to the first drives and configured to perform a procedure comprising:
performing, in response to an I/O request received from a host apparatus, formatting in each storage area of the first drives that is corresponding to the received I/O request, before executing the received I/O request,
detecting a failure that has occurred in one of the first drives, and
stopping the formatting in entirety of the first drives in response to the detection of the failure and rebuilding the data originally stored in the first drives by using a second drive instead of the one of the first drives in which the failure has been detected.

2. The storage apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein:
the formatting is performed according to the logical storage areas logically set in the first drives; and
the procedure further comprises:
managing a table indicative of whether or not data is written according to the logical storage areas in which the formatting is being performed, and
referring to the table, determining whether or not data is written to a logical storage area in which the formatting is being performed and which is included in the first drives in which the failure has occurred, and omitting, in the case of data not being written to the logical storage area, to rebuild data stored in the logical storage area in the second drive.

3. The storage apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the formatting is performed from first in logical storage areas which are included in a first drive in which a failure has not occurred and for which the rebuilding is omitted.

4. The storage apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein, in copying back the data rebuilt in the second drive to a third drive prepared in place of the first drive in which the failure has occurred, the procedure further comprises referring to the table, determining whether or not data is written to a logical storage area in which formatting is being performed, and omitting, in the case of data not being written to the logical storage area, to copy back data stored in the logical storage area to the third drive.

5. The storage apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein, after temporarily stopping the formatting in the first drives regardless of an access request from a host apparatus, the procedure further comprises determining whether or not data is written to a logical storage area in which the formatting is being performed and which is included in the first drives in which the failure has occurred.

6. A controller that is connected via a communication line to a plurality of first drives in which data is redundantly stored and that controls writing of information to the first drives, the controller comprising:
one or more processor configured to perform a procedure comprising:
performing, in response to an I/O request received from a host apparatus, formatting in each storage area of the first drives that is corresponding to the received I/O request, before executing the received I/O request,
detecting a failure that has occurred in one of the first drives, and
stopping the formatting in entirety of the first drives in response to the detection of the failure and rebuilding the data originally stored in the first drives by using a second drive instead of the one of the first drives in which the failure has been detected.

Assignees

• Ikeuchi Kazuhiko
• Daikokuya Hidejirou
• Maeda Chikashi
• Kubota Norihide
• Igashira Atsushi
• Kobayashi Kenji
• Tsukahara Ryouta
• Fujitsu Ltd

Inventors

• Ikeuchi Kazuhiko
• Daikokuya Hidejirou
• Maeda Chikashi
• Kubota Norihide
• Igashira Atsushi
• Kobayashi Kenji
• Tsukahara Ryouta

Classifications

• G11B27/002

  Programmed access in sequence to a plurality of record carriers or indexed parts, e.g. tracks, thereof, e.g. for editing; (transfer of record carriers from magazine G11B15/68, G11B17/10; G11B17/22) · CPC title

• G06F11/2082

  Data synchronisation · CPC title

• G06F11/2094

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

• G11B27/36 Primary

  Monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing {(for digital recording G11B20/00 and s.gr.; for monitoring, testing or measuring of TV recorders of the type covered by H04N5/76 and subgroups, see H04N17/06)} · CPC title