Allocation and balancing of storage resources

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9524120-B2
Application number	US-201414310145-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 20, 2014
Priority date	Feb 3, 2012
Publication date	Dec 20, 2016
Grant date	Dec 20, 2016

Abstract

A method and technique for allocation and balancing of storage resources includes: determining, for each of a plurality of storage controllers, an input/output (I/O) latency value based on an I/O latency associated with each storage volume controlled by a respective storage controller; determining network bandwidth utilization and network latency values corresponding to each storage controller; responsive to receiving a request to allocate a new storage volume, selecting a storage controller having a desired I/O latency value; determining whether the network bandwidth utilization and network latency values for the selected storage controller are below respective network bandwidth utilization and network latency value thresholds; and responsive to determining that the network bandwidth utilization and network latency values for the selected storage controller are below the respective thresholds, allocating the new storage volume to the selected storage controller.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
determining, for each of a plurality of storage controllers, an input/output (I/O) latency value based on an I/O latency associated with each storage volume controlled by a respective storage controller;
determining a network bandwidth utilization value and a network latency value corresponding to each storage controller;
responsive to receiving a request to allocate a new storage volume, selecting a storage controller having a desired I/O latency value;
determining whether the network bandwidth utilization value and the network latency value for the selected storage controller are below a respective network bandwidth utilization threshold and a network latency value threshold; and
responsive to determining that the network bandwidth utilization value and the network latency value for the selected storage controller are below the respective network bandwidth utilization threshold and network latency value threshold, allocating the new storage volume to the selected storage controller.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein calculating an I/O latency value for each storage controller comprises calculating an average I/O latency value.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein calculating the average I/O latency for each storage controller comprises:
calculating a weighted average I/O latency value for each storage volume controlled by a respective storage controller;
summing the weighted I/O latency values of the storage volumes controlled by the respective storage controller; and
dividing the summed I/O latency values by a quantity of the storage volumes controlled by the respective storage controller.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein calculating a weighted average I/O latency value for each storage volume comprises calculating a weighted average I/O latency value based on weighting write I/O operations greater than read I/O operations.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising verifying that the I/O latency value for the selected storage controller is below a threshold I/O latency value.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
monitoring at least one of the I/O latency value, the network bandwidth utilization value and the network latency value for the storage controllers; and
responsive to at least one of the I/O latency value, the network bandwidth utilization value and the network latency value for at least one storage controller exceeding a respective threshold, rebalancing storage volume distribution among the storage controllers.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
analyzing the I/O latency value, the network bandwidth utilization value and the network latency value for the storage controllers;
determining whether moving one or more storage volumes will lower at least one of the I/O latency value, the network bandwidth utilization value and the network latency value for at least one storage controller; and
responsive to determining that moving one or more storage volumes will lower at least one of the I/O latency value, the network bandwidth utilization value and the network latency value for at least one storage controller, migrating at least one storage volume from one storage controller to another storage controller.

8. A system, comprising:
a plurality of storage controllers each controlling one or more storage volumes; and
a processor unit operable to execute a management application, the management application configured to:
determine, for each of the plurality of storage controllers, an input/output (I/O) latency value based on an I/O latency associated with each storage volume controlled by a respective storage controller;
determine a network bandwidth utilization value and a network latency value corresponding to each storage controller;
responsive to receiving a request to allocate a new storage volume, select a storage controller having a desired I/O latency value;
determine whether the network bandwidth utilization value and the network latency value for the selected storage controller are below a respective network bandwidth utilization threshold and a network latency value threshold; and
responsive to determining that the network bandwidth utilization value and the network latency value for the selected storage controller are below the respective network bandwidth utilization threshold and network latency value threshold, allocate the new storage volume to the selected storage controller.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein, responsive to determining that at least one of the network bandwidth utilization value and the network latency value for the selected storage controller are not below the respective network bandwidth utilization threshold and network latency value threshold, the management application is configured to rebalance one or more storage volumes among the plurality of storage controllers to enable the allocation of the new storage volume.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the management application is configured to:
determine a type of application to be utilizing the new storage volume;
determine an anticipated storage workload corresponding to the application; and
select a storage controller for allocation of the new storage controller based on the anticipated storage workload.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the I/O latency value for each storage controller comprises a weighted average I/O latency value, wherein the weighting is based on a rate of I/O operations.

12. The system of claim 8 , wherein the management application is configured to verify that the I/O latency value for the selected storage controller is below a threshold I/O latency value.

13. The system of claim 8 , wherein the management application is configured to:
monitor at least one of the I/O latency value, the network bandwidth utilization value and the network latency value for the storage controllers; and
responsive to at least one of the I/O latency value, the network bandwidth utilization value and the network latency value for at least one storage controller exceeding a respective threshold, rebalance storage volume distribution among the storage controllers.

14. The system of claim 8 , wherein the management application is configured to:
analyze the I/O latency value, the network bandwidth utilization value and the network latency value for the storage controllers;
determine whether moving one or more storage volumes will lower at least one of the I/O latency value, the network bandwidth utilization value and the network latency value for at least one storage controller; and
responsive to determining that moving one or more storage volumes will lower at least one of the I/O latency value, the network bandwidth utilization value and the network latency value for at least one storage controller, migrate at least one storage volume from one storage controller to another storage controller.

15. A computer program product for storage management, the computer program product comprising:
a non-transitory computer readable medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising computer readable program code configured to:
determine, for each of a plurality of storage controllers, an input/output (I/O) latency value based on an I/O latency associated with each storage volume controlled by a respective storage controller;
determine a network bandwidth utilization value and a network latency value corresponding to each storage controller;
responsive to receiving a request to allocate a new storage volume, select a storage controller having a desired I/O latency

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Ashok Rohith K
• Brabson Roy F
• Chan Wei L

Classifications

• G06F3/0689

  Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD · CPC title

• G06F3/0611 Primary

  in relation to response time · CPC title

• G06F3/0658

  Controller construction arrangements · CPC title

• H04L67/10

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title

• G06F3/0665

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