Storage system and storage area allocation method having an automatic tier location function

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9311013-B2
Application number	US-201113125467-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 25, 2011
Priority date	Mar 25, 2011
Publication date	Apr 12, 2016
Grant date	Apr 12, 2016

Abstract

If a monitor measurement cycle is set as a long cycle, promotion in a short cycle cannot be performed; and even if the number of I/Os is very large in response to fluctuations of the number of I/Os in several minutes to several hours of normal work, pages will be promoted after waiting for several weeks. As a result, I/Os which could have normally accepted by an upper tier will be accepted by a lower tier, which results in a problem of worsening the performance efficiency. A monitoring system capable of preventing demotion due to temporary reduction of the number of I/Os for specific pages from a viewpoint of a long cycle and enabling prompt promotion in response to an increase of the number of U/Os for 3 the specific pages is realized.
A load index value defined from a viewpoint of a long cycle and a load index value defined from a viewpoint of a short cycle are updated based on the number of I/Os which is counted cyclically for each storage area. Promotion and demotion are implemented based on a value(s) calculated from these load index values.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A storage system comprising:
a plurality of kinds of storage media, wherein a plurality of pools are configured from the plurality of kinds of storage media;
a processor configured to allocate a virtual storage area to a storage area of one storage medium from among the plurality of kinds of storage media; and
a memory configured to have monitoring information indicating a number of accesses to an allocated storage area, a first load index value of a first cycle for the allocated storage area, and a second load index value of a second cycle for the allocated storage area,
wherein the processor is configured to:
cyclically record the number of accesses to the allocated storage area in the memory;
update the first load index value of the first cycle for the allocated storage area, based on a first weighted average of the recorded number of accesses and the first load index value of the first cycle for the allocated storage area;
update the second load index value of the second cycle for the allocated storage area based on a second weighted average of the recorded number of accesses and the second load index value of the second cycle for the allocated storage area, a ratio of weights of the second weighted average being different from that of the first weighted average, the second cycle being longer than the first cycle;
receive a read command;
in response to receiving the read command, determine whether the read command is for data that exists in a cache memory, and:
on a condition that the read command is for data that does not exist in the cache memory, read the data from the storage media and update the monitoring information to increment the number of accesses to the allocated storage area, and
on a condition that the read command is for data that exists in the cache memory, do not update the monitoring information;

determine whether data exists in the cache memory that has not been written to the storage media, and:
on a condition that data exists in the cache memory that has not been written to the storage media, write the data from cache memory into the storage media and update the monitoring information to increment the number of accesses to the allocated storage area;

receive at least one setting for at least two monitor modes, the at least two monitor modes including at least a weighted mode and a non-weighted mode, wherein the at least one setting designates a particular pool of the plurality of pools;
on a condition that the received at least one setting is for the weighted mode, reallocate the virtual storage area to a storage area of a different kind of storage medium from among the plurality of kinds of storage media, based on a frequency distribution of the plurality of pools that is created based on a third load index value that is an average value or maximum value of the updated first load index value of the first cycle for the allocated storage area and the updated second load index value of the second cycle for the allocated storage area; and
on a condition that the received at least one setting is for the non-weighted mode, reallocate the virtual storage area to a storage area of a different type of storage medium, from among the plurality of kinds of storage media, based on the number of accesses instead of the third load index value.

2. The storage system according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of kinds of storage media are SSDs (Solid State Drivers), SAS (Serial Attached SCSI), and externally connected storage media.

3. The storage system according to claim 1 , wherein the third load index value is an average value or a maximum value of values obtained by weighting the first load index value and the second load index value respectively.

4. The storage system according to claim 1 , wherein if the third load index value exceeds or falls below a specified threshold, the processor reallocates the virtual storage area to a storage area of a different type of storage medium from among the plurality of kinds of storage media.

5. The storage system according to claim 1 , wherein the processor sets a value input from a management device connected to the storage system as weight of the first weighted average and weight of the second weighted average.

6. A storage system comprising:
a plurality of kinds of storage media, wherein a plurality of pools are configured from the plurality of kinds of storage media;
a processor configured to allocate a virtual storage area to a storage area of one storage medium from among the plurality of kinds of storage media; and
a memory configured to have monitoring information indicating a number of accesses to an allocated storage area, a first load index value of a first cycle for the allocated storage area, and a second load index value of a second cycle for the allocated storage area,
wherein the processor is configured to:
cyclically record the number of accesses to the allocated storage area in the memory;
update the first load index value of the first cycle for the allocated storage area based on a weighted average obtained by weighting the recorded number of accesses and the first load index value at a ratio of P 1 to P 2 , where P 1 is more than 0 and P 2 is equal to or more than 0;
update the second load index value of the second cycle for the allocated storage area based on a weighted average obtained by weighting the recorded number of accesses and the second load index value of the second cycle for the allocated storage area, at a ratio of Q 1 to Q 2 , where Q 1 is more than 0 and Q 2 is equal to or more than 0 and a relationship represented by the following is satisfied: (P 2 /P 1 )>(Q 2 /Q 1 ), the second cycle being longer than the first cycle;
receive a read command;
in response to receiving the read command, determine whether the read command is for data that exists in a cache memory, and:
on a condition that the read command is for data that does not exist in the cache memory, read the data from the storage media and update the monitoring information to increment the number of accesses to the allocated storage area, and
on a condition that the read command is for data that exists in the cache memory, do not update the monitoring information;

determine whether data exists in the cache memory that has not been written to the storage media, and:
on a condition that data exists in the cache memory that has not been written to the storage media, write the data from cache memory into the storage media and update the monitoring information to increment the number of accesses to the allocated storage area;

receive at least one setting for at least two monitor modes, the at least two monitor modes including at least a weighted mode and a non-weighted mode, wherein the at least one setting designates a particular pool of the plurality of pools;
on a condition that the received at least one setting is for the weighted mode, reallocate the virtual storage area to a storage area of a different kind of storage medium from among the plurality of kinds of storage media, based on a frequency distribution of the plurality of pools that is created based on a third load index value that is an average value or maximum value of the updated first load index value of the first cycle for the allocated storage area and the updated second load index value of the second cycle for the allocated storage area; and
on a condition that the received at least one setting is for the non-weighted mode, reallocate the virtual storage area to a storage area of a different type of storage medium, from among the plurality of kinds of storage media, based on the number of accesses instead of the third load index value.

7. A storage area allocation method for a storage system comprisi

Assignees

• Akutsu Hiroaki
• Ohira Yoshinori
• Eguchi Yoshiaki
• Yamamoto Masayuki
• Hitachi Ltd

Inventors

• Akutsu Hiroaki
• Ohira Yoshinori
• Eguchi Yoshiaki
• Yamamoto Masayuki

Classifications

• G06F3/061

  Improving I/O performance · CPC title

• G06F3/0649 Primary

  Lifecycle management · CPC title

• G06F3/0685

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