Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080263289 | Storage controller and storage control method - Provided are a storage controller and a storage control method capable of improving the transaction performance. This storage controller includes a disk controller for receiving a read command and a write command from a host computer, and an external disk controller and an internal disk device for sending and receiving data to and from the disk controller. A storage device of the external disk controller or the internal disk controller processes the access from the disk controller in physical sub-block units. When the disk controller is to access the storage device of the external disk controller or the internal disk device in logical sub-block units in which an additional code containing a guarantee code is added to user data, it makes such access in minimum common multiple units of logical sub-blocks and physical sub-blocks, and changes the guarantee code length. | 10-23-2008 |
20080270699 | System for controlling spinning of disk - A system for controlling spinning of a disk is provided to prevent deterioration of the access response speed and to suppress the power consumption. The system includes a controller controlling a file system, and a disk array system storing data of the file system. The disk array system includes a plurality of logical volumes, each of which is configured by at least one disk device, and a disk controller controlling data input/output to/from the plurality of logical volumes. The plurality of logical volumes includes at least one first type logical volume which is controlled so that spinning of a disk device that configures the logical volume can be stopped, and at least one second type logical volume which is controlled so that spinning of a disk device that configures the logical volume cannot be stopped. Data satisfying a predetermined condition is stored in the second type logical volume. | 10-30-2008 |
20080276016 | STORAGE CONTROLLER AND STORAGE CONTROLLER CONTROL METHOD - A storage controller of the present invention makes use of changes in power rates according to time periods, and controls the data storage destination between storage devices having different power consumption, such as a hard disk drive and a flash memory device. The storage controller comprises a hard disk drive and a flash memory device for which power consumption differs. A schedule manager manages a schedule for controlling the storage destination of data used by a host. Data is copied from the hard disk drive to the flash memory device at night, when the power rate is low. An access from a host is processed using data inside the flash memory device during the daytime when the power rate is high. The next night, the difference is copied so that the data of the flash memory device coincides with the data of the hard disk drive. | 11-06-2008 |
20080285590 | STORAGE SYSTEM, COMPUTER SYSTEM AND INTERFACE MODULE - An interface module comprises a serial signal transceiver to be connected to an external transmission path and an interface processing unit connected to the transceiver. The interface processing unit comprises a serializer/deserializer circuit, an encoder/decoder, a protocol processing unit having at least two kinds of selectable protocol processing functions, and a communicate mode switch circuit for changing reference clock to be supplied to the serializer/deserializer circuit in conjunction with switching of the protocol processing function from one to another. | 11-20-2008 |
20080294920 | METHOD FOR CONTROLLING ELECTRIC POWER OF COMPUTER SYSTEM - To reduce the electric power consumption of the computer system, the computer system includes at least one server and at least one data processing apparatus, the data processing apparatus includes an electric power consumption state control module by which electric power consumption of the data processing apparatus can be changed, obtains a use relationship between each server and each processing apparatus included in the computer system, monitors a change in a state of the server, searches for a related data processing apparatus in the use relationship with the server, obtains a state of at least one related server in the use relationship with the related data processing apparatus, and determines whether an electric power consumption state of the related data processing apparatus is to be changed or not based on the state of the related server, and changes the electric power consumption state of the related data processing apparatus. | 11-27-2008 |
20090135698 | Disk Controller and Storage System - Proposed is a disk controller capable of notifying that a hard disk drive needs to be replaced even when the power of such hard disk drive is turned off. When a controller is to control the supply of electrical power to a disk in the respective disk units, the controller turns off a green LED and turns on a red LED when a disk in a disk group becomes a replacement target disk, turns off the power of the replacement target disk by opening a power switch corresponding to the respective replacement target disks, turns on the disk power source by closing the power switch when the replacement target disk is replaced with a new disk, and recognizes information concerning the new disk. | 05-28-2009 |
20090135700 | STORAGE CONTROLLER AND STORAGE CONTROLLER CONTROL METHOD - A storage controller of the present invention makes use of the differences in power rates by time zone and geographic region to control the data storage destination between storage devices of different power consumption. The storage controllers of respective sites each comprise a hard disk and flash memory device, which consume different amounts of power. A schedule manager manages a schedule for controlling the data storage destination utilized by the host. At night, when the power rate is low, data is copied from a hard disk to a flash memory device. In the daytime, when the power rate is high, an access from the host is processed using the data inside the flash memory device. Copying data between remote sites makes it possible to reduce the power costs of the storage system as a whole. | 05-28-2009 |
20090168784 | STORAGE SUBSYSTEM - Deadlock is avoided in a grid storage system having superior scalability. Provided is a storage subsystem connected to a host computer for receiving a write or read access from the host computer. This storage subsystem includes a plurality of modules respectively having a storage resource, a switch for connecting the plurality of modules, a controller for controlling the transfer of a packet based on the write or read access from the host computer to a target module among the plurality of modules via the switch, and a memory storing a transfer rule of the packet. The controller controls the transfer of the packet based on the transfer rule. | 07-02-2009 |
20090216978 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INCREASING AN AMOUNT OF MEMORY ON DEMAND WHEN MONITORING REMOTE MIRRORING PERFORMANCE - A method and storage system for increasing an amount of memory in a queuing area on. The storage system includes first and second storage subsystems connected to each other via a path. A primary volume in the first storage subsystem and a remote secondary volume in the second storage subsystem are mirrored and operated in the asynchronous mode. A queuing area having memory is provided in the second storage subsystem for temporarily storing data transferred to the second storage subsystem from the first storage subsystem in response to a write input/output (I/O) issued by a host to write data in the primary volume. Data temporarily stored in the memory is retrieved and stored in the remote secondary volume. An unused area of the queuing area is monitored and the memory increased if the unused area becomes less than a predetermined amount. | 08-27-2009 |
20090248980 | Storage System and Capacity Allocation Method Therefor - A storage system connected to a terminal, the computer system includes: a plurality of drive devices that respectively drive a plurality of physical disks each having a physical storage area; a RAID configuration unit that configures a plurality of RAID groups by grouping two or more of the plurality of physical disks; a logical disk creation unit that creates, for the terminal through the RAID group, a logical disk having a logical storage area associated with the physical storage area; a memory for storing a RAID group control table showing, for each the RAID group, (i) a free capacity that is the amount of physical storage area remaining in the RAID group to be able to be associated with the logical disk and (ii) a power status of the RAID group; a receiver that receives a request for creating a new logical disk; and an area allocation unit that allocates to the new logical disk the physical storage area remaining in the RAID group selected by giving priority to a RAID group in a powered state over a RAID group in a non-powered state with reference to the RAID group control table. | 10-01-2009 |
20090271539 | STORAGE CONTROLLING UNIT - Provided is a storage controller capable of changing a system configuration with scalability. A storage controller blade of the storage controller includes: interface units that each connect to one of a host computer and a disk device; a processor unit that controls a configuration of the storage controller and data access; a memory unit that stores a data cache and configuration information on the interface unit and the processor unit; and a mutual connection unit that connects the interface units, the processor unit, and the memory unit to one another. The processor unit recognizes a form of connection to another storage controller blade over the mutual network, and the connection path to another storage controller blade is set in the mutual connection unit based on the recognized form of connection. | 10-29-2009 |
20090276565 | STORAGE CONTROL APPARATUS, DATA MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND DATA MANAGEMENT METHOD - A storage control apparatus according to the present invention includes a plurality of connecting units connected to one or more host computers and one or more hard disk drives as storage media for storing data, one or more non-volatile storage media which are of a different type from the hard disk drives and which store data WRITE requested from the host computer, a plurality of processing units for processing WRITE and READ requests from the host computer by using the hard disk drives or the non-volatile storage media and, a plurality of memory units for storing control information to be by the processing units. | 11-05-2009 |
20090287878 | STORAGE APPARATUS USING FLASH MEMORY - For a storage apparatus in which flash memory disks and hard disks coexist, high-density mounting of flash memory modules is achieved. A storage apparatus in accordance with the present invention includes flash memories and a storage controller. A second storage apparatus including magnetic disks is connected to the storage apparatus. For creation of a logical volume, the storage controller can form a storage area using a flash memory or a magnetic disk. When an input/output request is issued from a host computer, if a storage area is formed with a flash memory, the storage controller directly accesses the flash memory to handle the input/output request. When the storage apparatus defines a storage area formed with a flash memory, the storage apparatus defines the storage area by adding up the capacity of a storage area to be provided for the host computer and a substitute area capacity determined in consideration of restrictions imposed on the number of times of deletion of the flash memory. | 11-19-2009 |
20090292874 | VIRTUAL PATH STORAGE SYSTEM AND CONTROL METHOD FOR THE SAME - Provided is a storage system having improved access performance. The storage system includes: a hard disk drive, and a storage controller for reading/writing data from/to the hard disk drive, the storage controller including: at least one interface connected to a host computer through a network; and a plurality of processors connected to the interface through an internal network. The storage system is characterized in that: the processor provides at least one logical access port to the host computer; and the interface stores routing information including a processor which processes an access request addressed to the logical access port, extracts an address from the received access request upon reception of the access request from the host computer, specifies the processor which processes the received access request based on the routing information and the extracted address, and transfers the received access request to the specified processor. | 11-26-2009 |
20100011238 | INFORMATION PROCESSING SYSTEM AND DATA RECOVERY METHOD - When data of HDD of computer is backed up to a a data center and a failure occurs in the HDD, the computer notifies failure information to the data center, and the data center stores the backed up data in a storage medium substituting HDD for subsequent delivery. Further, the computer executes processing, using a VNC server, from failure occurrence until recovery. | 01-14-2010 |
20100042832 | STORAGE SYSTEM FOR DATA ENCRYPTION - A storage system including a host interface connected via a network to a host computer; a disk interface connected to a disk drive; a memory module that stores control information of a cache memory for an access to the disk drive and the storage system; a processor that controls the storage system; a network that interconnects the host interface, the disk interface, the memory module, and the processor; and an encryption module that encrypts data read/written by the host computer, in which the processor reads data from an area of the disk drive from the memory module, decrypts the read data with a corresponding encryption key, encrypts the decrypted data with a different encryption key, and writes the encrypted data in a different area. | 02-18-2010 |
20100058009 | STORAGE SYSTEM WITH AUTOMATED RESOURCE ALLOCATION - When a plurality of disk control apparatuses function as one disk control apparatus with a mutual connecting network, a processor is used as an independent resource. Moreover, states of use of resources are monitored, and processing from distribution of the resources to allocation of control tasks is optimized promptly so as to be compatible with a user request. By promptly making system performance compatible with the user request according to the present invention, a state in which the user request and the system performance are alienated from each other for a long time is eliminated. | 03-04-2010 |
20100106903 | STORAGE APPARATUS AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF - This storage apparatus that provides to a host computer a logical device for storing data sent from the host computer includes a nonvolatile memory for storing the data, a disk-shaped memory device for storing the data, and a controller for controlling the nonvolatile memory and the disk-shaped memory device. The controller redundantly configures the logical device with the nonvolatile memory and the disk-shaped memory device. | 04-29-2010 |
20100122028 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CONTROLLING INFORMATION OF LOGICAL DIVISION IN A STORAGE CONTROLLER - A storage controller is realized in which validity/invalidity of functions is settable in a unit of logical division in conformity with logical division of logical groups control is performed such that operation has the influence upon only the inside of a range defined by resource groups of logical division and an Inband I/F for accessing functions is made to match with the logical division. Further, access control cooperative with information on the user side (information of server, user and application) is realized by causing a management server to manage information in the storage controller and user information. | 05-13-2010 |
20100161560 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SEAMLESS MANAGEMENT FOR DISASTER RECOVERY - A method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and system are presented for establishing redundant computer resources. According to one embodiment, in a system including a plurality of processor devices and a plurality of storage devices, the processor devices, the storage devices and the management server being connected via a network, the method comprises storing device information relating to the processor devices and the storage devices and topology information relating to topology of the network, identifying at least one primary computer resource, selecting at least one secondary computer resource suitable to serve as a redundant resource corresponding to the at least one primary computer resource based on the device information and the topology information, and assigning the at least one secondary computer resource as a redundant resource corresponding to the at least one primary computer resource. | 06-24-2010 |
20100185824 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INCREASING AN AMOUNT OF MEMORY ON DEMAND WHEN MONITORING REMOTE MIRRORING PERFORMANCE - A method and storage system for increasing an amount of memory in a queuing area on. The storage system includes first and second storage subsystems connected to each other via a path. A primary volume in the first storage subsystem and a remote secondary volume in the second storage subsystem are mirrored and operated in the asynchronous mode. A queuing area having memory is provided in the second storage subsystem for temporarily storing data transferred to the second storage subsystem from the first storage subsystem in response to a write input/output (I/O) issued by a host to write data in the primary volume. Data temporarily stored in the memory is retrieved and stored in the remote secondary volume. An unused area of the queuing area is monitored and the memory increased if the unused area becomes less than a predetermined amount. | 07-22-2010 |
20100223496 | Highly Reliable Storage System and Internal Network Thereof - The disk controller has a plurality of channel control units, a plurality of cache memories, a plurality of disk control units, and a plurality of internal switch units. Each channel control unit or disk control unit sends to one of the cache memory units a request packet requesting execution of processing. The cache memory unit sends a response packet in response to the received request packet. Each internal switch unit monitors the request packet sent from the channel control unit or disk control unit, and judges whether or not the response packet to the request packet has passed through the internal switch unit within a first given time period since the passage of the request packet. In the case where the response packet has not passed through the internal switch unit within the first given time period, the internal switch unit sends a failure notification. | 09-02-2010 |
20110013625 | STORAGE SUBSYSTEM - Deadlock is avoided in a grid storage system having superior scalability. Provided is a storage subsystem connected to a host computer for receiving a write or read access from the host computer. This storage subsystem includes a plurality of modules respectively having a storage resource, a switch for connecting the plurality of modules, a controller for controlling the transfer of a packet based on the write or read access from the host computer to a target module among the plurality of modules via the switch, and a memory storing a transfer rule of the packet. The controller controls the transfer of the packet based on the transfer rule. | 01-20-2011 |
20110125964 | VIRTUAL PATH STORAGE SYSTEM AND CONTROL METHOD FOR THE SAME - Provided is a storage system having improved access performance. The storage system includes: a hard disk drive, and a storage controller for reading/writing data from/to the hard disk drive, the storage controller including: at least one interface connected to a host computer through a network; and a plurality of processors connected to the interface through an internal network. The storage system is characterized in that: the processor provides at least one logical access port to the host computer; and the interface stores routing information including a processor which processes an access request addressed to the logical access port, extracts an address from the received access request upon reception of the access request from the host computer, specifies the processor which processes the received access request based on the routing information and the extracted address, and transfers the received access request to the specified processor. | 05-26-2011 |
20110138139 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INCREASING AN AMOUNT OF MEMORY ON DEMAND WHEN MONITORING REMOTE MIRRORING PERFORMANCE - A method and storage system for increasing an amount of memory in a queuing area on. The storage system includes first and second storage subsystems connected to each other via a path. A primary volume in the first storage subsystem and a remote secondary volume in the second storage subsystem are mirrored and operated in the asynchronous mode. A queuing area having memory is provided in the second storage subsystem for temporarily storing data transferred to the second storage subsystem from the first storage subsystem in response to a write input/output (I/O) issued by a host to write data in the primary volume. Data temporarily stored in the memory is retrieved and stored in the remote secondary volume. An unused area of the queuing area is monitored and the memory increased if the unused area becomes less than a predetermined amount. | 06-09-2011 |
20110173487 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SEAMLESS MANAGEMENT FOR DISASTER RECOVERY - A method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and system are presented for establishing redundant computer resources. According to one embodiment, in a system including a plurality of processor devices and a plurality of storage devices, the processor devices, the storage devices and the management server being connected via a network, the method comprises storing device information relating to the processor devices and the storage devices and topology information relating to topology of the network, identifying at least one primary computer resource, selecting at least one secondary computer resource suitable to serve as a redundant resource corresponding to the at least one primary computer resource based on the device information and the topology information, and assigning the at least one secondary computer resource as a redundant resource corresponding to the at least one primary computer resource. | 07-14-2011 |
20110179238 | STORAGE CONTROLLER AND STORAGE CONTROL METHOD FOR ACCESSING STORAGE DEVICES IN SUB-BLOCK UNITS - Provided are a storage controller and storage control method capable of improving the transaction performance. This storage controller includes a disk controller for receiving a read command and a write command from a host computer, and an external disk controller and an internal disk device for sending and receiving data to and from the disk controller. A storage device of the external disk controller or the internal disk controller processes the access from the disk controller in physical sub-block units. When the disk controller is to access the storage device of the external disk controller or the internal disk device in logical sub-block units in which an additional code containing a guarantee code is added to user data, it makes such access in minimum common multiple units of logical sub-blocks and physical sub-blocks, and changes the guarantee code length. | 07-21-2011 |
20110197096 | Highly Reliable Storage System and Internal Network Thereof - The disk controller has a plurality of channel control units, a plurality of cache memories, a plurality of disk control units, and a plurality of internal switch units. Each channel control unit or disk control unit sends to one of the cache memory units a request packet requesting execution of processing. The cache memory unit sends a response packet in response to the received request packet. Each internal switch unit monitors the request packet sent from the channel control unit or disk control unit, and judges whether or not the response packet to the request packet has passed through the internal switch unit within a first given time period since the passage of the request packet. In the case where the response packet has not passed through the internal switch unit within the first given time period, the internal switch unit sends a failure notification. | 08-11-2011 |
20110213916 | STORAGE CONTROL APPARATUS, DATA MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND DATA MANAGEMENT METHOD - A storage control apparatus according to the present invention includes a plurality of connecting units connected to one or more host computers and one or more hard disk drives as storage media for storing data, one or more non-volatile storage media which are of a different type from the hard disk drives and which store data WRITE requested from the host computer, a plurality of processing units for processing WRITE and READ requests from the host computer by using the hard disk drives or the non-volatile storage media and, a plurality of memory units for storing control information to be by the processing units. | 09-01-2011 |
20110307728 | METHOD FOR CONTROLLING ELECTRIC POWER OF COMPUTER SYSTEM - To reduce the electric power consumption of the computer system, the computer system includes at least one server and at least one data processing apparatus, the data processing apparatus includes an electric power consumption state control module by which electric power consumption of the data processing apparatus can be changed, obtains a use relationship between each server and each processing apparatus included in the computer system, monitors a change in a state of the server, searches for a related data processing apparatus in the use relationship with the server, obtains a state of at least one related server in the use relationship with the related data processing apparatus, and determines whether an electric power consumption state of the related data processing apparatus is to be changed or not based on the state of the related server, and changes the electric power consumption state of the related data processing apparatus. | 12-15-2011 |
20120066440 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MIRRORING DATA BETWEEN NONVOLATILE MEMORY AND A HARD DISK DRIVE - This storage apparatus that provides to a host computer a logical device for storing data sent from the host computer includes a nonvolatile memory for storing the data, a disk-shaped memory device for storing the data, and a controller for controlling the nonvolatile memory and the disk-shaped memory device. The controller redundantly configures the logical device with the nonvolatile memory and the disk-shaped memory device. | 03-15-2012 |
20120066468 | COMPUTER SYSTEM CONTROL METHOD AND COMPUTER SYSTEM - A host computer is coupled to a first fabric, a source storage apparatus is coupled to a second fabric, and a destination storage apparatus is coupled to a third fabric. A destination port of the destination storage apparatus comprises a same WWPN as a WWPN of a source port, and is logged in to the fabric beforehand. Duplicate WWPNs are allowed to exist because an inter fabric router separately manages the second fabric and the third fabric. When a switchover is instructed, the inter fabric router switches a coupling destination of the host computer to the destination storage apparatus. | 03-15-2012 |
20120110290 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INCREASING AN AMOUNT OF MEMORY ON DEMAND WHEN MONITORING REMOTE MIRRORING PERFORMANCE - A method and storage system for increasing an amount of memory in a queuing area on. The storage system includes first and second storage subsystems connected to each other via a path. A primary volume in the first storage subsystem and a remote secondary volume in the second storage subsystem are mirrored and operated in the asynchronous mode. A queuing area having memory is provided in the second storage subsystem for temporarily storing data transferred to the second storage subsystem from the first storage subsystem in response to a write input/output (I/O) issued by a host to write data in the primary volume. Data temporarily stored in the memory is retrieved and stored in the remote secondary volume. An unused area of the queuing area is monitored and the memory increased if the unused area becomes less than a predetermined amount. | 05-03-2012 |
20120131297 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SEAMLESS MANAGEMENT FOR DISASTER RECOVERY - A method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and system are presented for establishing redundant computer resources. According to one embodiment, in a system including a plurality of processor devices and a plurality of storage devices, the processor devices, the storage devices and the management server being connected via a network, the method comprises storing device information relating to the processor devices and the storage devices and topology information relating to topology of the network, identifying at least one primary computer resource, selecting at least one secondary computer resource suitable to serve as a redundant resource corresponding to the at least one primary computer resource based on the device information and the topology information, and assigning the at least one secondary computer resource as a redundant resource corresponding to the at least one primary computer resource. | 05-24-2012 |
20120221783 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ALLOCATING CAPACITY - For a storage apparatus where flash memory disks and hard disks coexist, high-density mounting of flash memory modules is achieved. The storage apparatus includes flash memories and a storage controller. A second storage apparatus including magnetic disks is connected to the storage apparatus. The storage controller can form a storage area using a flash memory or a magnetic disk to create a logical volume. When an input/output request is issued from a host computer, if a storage area is formed with a flash memory, the storage controller directly accesses the flash memory to handle the request. When the storage apparatus defines a storage area formed with a flash memory, the storage apparatus defines the storage area by adding up the capacity of a storage area to be provided for the host computer and a substitute area capacity determined in consideration of restrictions on the number deletions of the flash memory. | 08-30-2012 |
20130159619 | STORAGE SYSTEM HAVING A CHANNEL CONTROL FUNCTION USING A PLURALITY OF PROCESSORS - Host-connected storage system, including: channel adaptor with local router having processor and transfer list index/processor number information, and a protocol processor for host and router data exchange; and plural storage nodes each including a processor and disk drive and providing the disk drive to the host as a logical unit, wherein processor number information including logical unit and processor number of the node, wherein transfer list index/processor number information including processor number identifying the processor and index information identifying a transfer list including instruction sent to the protocol processor, wherein the router determines a first processor transfer destination of a write request via the processor number information on receiving the write request from the host through the protocol processor, wherein the first processor generates a first transfer list including processing instructed to the protocol processor, and first index information indexing the first transfer list on receiving the write request. | 06-20-2013 |
20130179404 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SEAMLESS MANAGEMENT FOR DISASTER RECOVERY - A method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and system are presented for establishing redundant computer resources. According to one embodiment, in a system including a plurality of processor devices and a plurality of storage devices, the processor devices, the storage devices and the management server being connected via a network, the method comprises storing device information relating to the processor devices and the storage devices and topology information relating to topology of the network, identifying at least one primary computer resource, selecting at least one secondary computer resource suitable to serve as a redundant resource corresponding to the at least one primary computer resource based on the device information and the topology information, and assigning the at least one secondary computer resource as a redundant resource corresponding to the at least one primary computer resource. | 07-11-2013 |
20130238845 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ALLOCATING CAPACITY - For a storage apparatus where flash memory disks and hard disks coexist, high-density mounting of flash memory modules is achieved. The storage apparatus includes flash memories and a storage controller. A second storage apparatus including magnetic disks is connected to the storage apparatus. The storage controller can form a storage area using a flash memory or a magnetic disk to create a logical volume. When an input/output request is issued from a host computer, if a storage area is formed with a flash memory, the storage controller directly accesses the flash memory to handle the request. When the storage apparatus defines a storage area formed with a flash memory, the storage apparatus defines the storage area by adding up the capacity of a storage area to be provided for the host computer and a substitute area capacity determined in consideration of restrictions on the number deletions of the flash memory. | 09-12-2013 |