System and method for management of cache configuration

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9098422-B2
Application number	US-77680110-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 10, 2010
Priority date	May 10, 2010
Publication date	Aug 4, 2015
Grant date	Aug 4, 2015

Abstract

Systems and methods for managing cache configurations are disclosed. In accordance with a method, a system management control module may receive access rights of a host to a logical storage unit and may also receive a desired caching policy for caching data associated with the logical storage unit and the host. The system management control module may determine an allowable caching policy indicator for the logical storage unit. The allowable caching policy indicator may indicate whether caching is permitted for data associated with input/output operations between the host and the logical storage unit. The system management control module may further set a caching policy for data associated with input/output operations between the host and the logical storage unit, based on at least one of the desired caching policy and the allowable caching policy indicator. The system management control module may also communicate the caching policy to the host.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, by a system management control module, access rights for input/output operations of one or more hosts to one or more logical storage units, wherein at least one of the one or more hosts is communicatively coupled to at least one of the one or more logical storage units;
receiving, by the system management control module, a desired caching policy for locally caching data associated with the at least one logical storage unit and the at least one host;
determining, by the system management control module, an allowable caching policy indicator for the at least one logical storage unit based on the access rights of the at least one host to the at least one logical storage unit, the allowable caching policy indicator indicating whether local caching is permitted for data associated with input/output operations between the at least one host and the at least one logical storage unit, the determination comprising:
comparing access rights of all hosts with access to the one or more logical storage units;
selecting the allowable caching policy indicator to indicate that local caching is allowable if the one or more hosts has exclusive access rights to the one or more logical storage units; and
selecting the allowable caching policy to indicate that local caching is not allowable if other hosts besides the one or more hosts have access rights to the one or more logical storage units;

setting, by the system management control module, a caching policy for data associated with input/output operations between the at least one host and the at least one logical storage unit, based on at least one of the desired caching policy and the allowable caching policy indicator, the allowable caching policy indicator governing conflicts between the desired caching policy and the allowable caching policy indicator; and
communicating the caching policy to the at least one host;
wherein the allowable caching policy indicator indicates that caching data associated with input/output operations between the at least one host and the at least one logical storage unit is not permitted if the access rights indicate that the at least one host does not have exclusive access to the at least one logical storage unit.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining whether the desired caching policy is permitted based on the allowable caching policy indicator.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein setting the caching policy includes setting the caching policy to the desired caching policy if the desired caching policy is permitted.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising changing the caching policy from one of “write-back,” “write-through,” and “read-only” to “no-caching” in response to the allowable caching policy indicator indicating that caching data associated with input/output operations between the at least one host and the at least one logical storage unit is not permitted.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising storing on a logical unit access table, by the storage management module, at least one of the access rights and the caching policy of the at least one host with respect to the at least one logical storage unit.

6. A system comprising:
one or more logical storage units;
one or more hosts communicatively coupled to the one or more logical storage units; and
an information handling system including a storage management module, the storage management module communicatively coupled to the one or more hosts, the storage management module configured to:
receive access rights for input/output operations of at least one of the one or more hosts to at least one of the one or more logical storage units;
receive a desired caching policy for locally caching data associated with the at least one logical storage unit and the at least one host;
determine an allowable caching policy indicator for the at least one logical storage unit based on the access rights of the at least one host to the at least one logical storage unit, the allowable caching policy indicator indicating whether local caching is permitted for data associated with input/output operations between the at least one host and the at least one logical storage unit, the determination including:
compare access rights of all hosts with access to the one or more logical storage units;
select the allowable caching policy indicator to indicate that local caching is allowable if the one or more hosts has exclusive access rights to the one or more logical storage units; and
select the allowable caching policy indicator to indicate that local caching is not allowable if other hosts besides the one or more hosts have access rights to the one or more logical storage units;

set a caching policy for data associated with input/output operations between the at least one host and the at least one logical storage unit, based on at least one of the desired caching policy and the allowable caching policy indicator, the allowable caching policy indicator governing conflicts between the desired caching policy and the allowable caching policy indicator; and
communicate the caching policy to the at least one host, wherein the at least one host is configured to cache data associated with input/output operations between the at least one host and the at least one logical storage unit according to the caching policy;

wherein the allowable caching policy indicator indicates that caching data associated with input/output operations between the at least one host and the at least one logical storage unit is not permitted if the access rights indicate that the at least one host does not have exclusive access to the at least one logical storage unit.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the system management control module is further configured to determine whether the desired caching policy is permitted based on the allowable caching policy indicator.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the system management control module is further configured to set the caching policy to the desired caching policy if the desired caching policy is permitted.

9. The system of claim 6 , wherein the system management control module is further configured to change the caching policy from one of “write-back,” “write-through,” and “read-only” to “no-caching” in response to the allowable caching policy indicator indicating that caching data associated with input/output operations between the at least one host and the at least one logical storage unit is not permitted.

10. The system of claim 6 , wherein the at least one host is configured to cache data associated with input/output operations between the at least one host and the at least one logical storage unit using a non-volatile memory.

11. The system of claim 6 , wherein the storage management module is further configured to store, on a logical unit access table, at least one of the access rights and the caching policy of the at least one host with respect to the at least one logical storage unit.

12. An information handling system comprising:
a network interface communicatively coupled to one or more hosts, wherein at least one of the hosts is communicatively coupled to one or more logical storage units;
a user interface;
a processor communicatively coupled to the user interface and the network interface; and
a non-transitory computer readable medium communicatively coupled to the processor and having stored thereon a program of instructions configured to, when executed by the processor:
receive, from a user via the user interface, access rights for input/output operations of the at least one host to at least one of the one or more logical storage units;
determi

Assignees

• Dawkins William Price
• Dell Products Lp

Inventors

• Dawkins William Price

Classifications

• G06F2212/60

  Details of cache memory · CPC title

• G06F2212/621

  Coherency control relating to peripheral accessing, e.g. from DMA or I/O device · CPC title

• G06F12/0888 Primary

  using selective caching, e.g. bypass · CPC title

• G06F12/0897 Primary

  with two or more cache hierarchy levels (with multilevel cache hierarchies G06F12/0811) · CPC title

• G06F12/0835 Primary

  for main memory peripheral accesses (e.g. I/O or DMA) · CPC title