| Patent application number | Description | Published |
|---|
| 20080209146 | Backup control method for acquiring plurality of backups in one or more secondary storage systems - A controller sets a specified time which is a time that specifies a time in the future relative to the current time for all of one or more secondary storage systems. The respective secondary storage systems have a logical volume for backup (BVOL), and set a backup preparation end state when a journal up to a specified time has been established, and report information showing a preparation end state to the controller. The controller issues a backup command to all of the one or more secondary storage systems when information showing a preparation end state is reported from all of the one or more secondary storage systems. | 08-28-2008 |
| 20080229039 | Dual Writing Device and Its Control Method - A first storage system misrepresents an identifier of the storage system and an identifier of a volume and provides the host computer with a first volume. A second storage system misrepresents an identifier of the storage system and an identifier of a second volume as being identical to those misrepresented by the first storage system and provides the host computer with a second volume. A management computer acquires, upon detection of a failure in an access, a status of copying, a status of the first storage system, and a status of the second storage system and controls an access from the host computer with reference to the plurality of acquired statuses. Accordingly, even when a fault occurs in one of the two storage systems, a network that connects the two storage systems, or the like, the host computer can access to latest data. | 09-18-2008 |
| 20080307271 | COMPUTER SYSTEM OR PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT METHOD OF COMPUTER SYSTEM - This invention provides a system including a computer and a storage-subsystem comprising at least either a first storage area for storing data sent from the computer or a second storage area to be associated with the first storage area, for storing replicated data of data stored in the first storage area. This system includes a replication processing status referral unit for referring to a replication processing status of data of the first storage area and the second storage area to be associated, and an output unit for outputting first performance information concerning data I/O stored in the first storage area, and outputting second performance information concerning data I/O stored in the second storage area together with the first performance information when the replicated data is being subject to replication processing from the first storage area to the second storage area as a result of referring to the replication processing status. | 12-11-2008 |
| 20090055613 | STORAGE SYSTEM PERFORMING VIRTUAL VOLUME BACKUP AND METHOD THEREOF - The respective data fragments stored in each page assigned to the respective virtual areas of the virtual volume are copied to the logical volume, and information representing the respective copy source pages corresponding with information representing the respective virtual areas in the mapping information that indicates which storage area corresponds with which virtual area is updated to information representing the respective copy destination storage areas of the data fragments stored in the respective copy source pages and copies the updated mapping information to the logical volume which constitutes the data fragment copy destination. | 02-26-2009 |
| 20090064161 | DEVICE ALLOCATION UTILIZING JOB INFORMATION, STORAGE SYSTEM WITH A SPIN CONTROL FUNCTION, AND COMPUTER THEREOF - This invention provides a storage system coupled to a computer that executes data processing jobs by running a program, comprising: an interface; a storage controller; and disk drives. The storage controller is configured to: control spinning of disk in the disk drives; receive job information which contains an execution order of the job and a load attribute of the job from the computer before the job is executed; select a logical volume to which none of the storage areas are allocated when requested by the computer to provide a logical volume for storing a file that is used temporarily by the job to be executed; select which storage area to allocate to the selected logical volume based on at least one of the job execution order and the job load attribute; allocate the selected storage area to the selected logical volume; and notify the computer of the selected logical volume. | 03-05-2009 |
| 20090089412 | COMPUTER SYSTEM, MANAGEMENT APPARATUS AND MANAGEMENT METHOD - The computer system includes: a first storage system having devices that are various components for storing data transmitted from a host computer; a second storage system having devices that are various components for storing data transmitted from the first storage system; and a management apparatus that manages the first and second storage systems. The management apparatus includes a storage unit that stores configuration information, performance information and threshold values used for performance management regarding the devices in the first and second storage systems connected to the management apparatus; and a setting section that adopts and sets, when internal management information and data are copied from the first storage system to the second storage system, threshold values assigned to the devices in the first storage system to the devices in the second storage systems. | 04-02-2009 |
| 20090094426 | STORAGE SYSTEM - An object of the present invention is to reduce the required volume capacity and journal control resources by sharing the journal volumes of an asynchronous copy function and a CDP function. | 04-09-2009 |
| 20090119467 | STORAGE SYSTEM AND STORAGE SUBSYSTEM - In the storage system, a storage apparatus includes a disk device for storing write data from a host computer as a primary volume and copied data of write data as a secondary volume, and a disk controller for collecting and managing status information of a plurality of copy pairs from the disk device with a primary volume and a secondary volume as a single copy pair. The disk controller monitors the status information of the plurality of copy pairs according to the status of failure, and, upon receiving a status notification command, transfers the detailed information concerning a copy pair as the status information of the copy pair subject to a failure, and flag information showing the overall status of all other copy pairs as status information of such other copy pairs. | 05-07-2009 |
| 20090119529 | CONFIGURATION OPTIMIZATION METHOD FOR A STORAGE SYSTEM - This invention provides, when optimizing a configuration of a storage system using a pool, an optimal configuration while ensuring a policy set by an administrator, the policy concerning a power saving performance, a response performance, or the like. The management computer sets, according to the set policy, priorities to volumes held by a storage subsystem, and reserves volumes satisfying the capacity of the pool, in descending order of the priority. Only some of the reserved volumes are registered for the pool in descending order of the priority. At this time, it can be guaranteed that a host computer makes no access to the volumes which have not been registered for the pool, and therefore the sleep state is set to physical drives forming the volumes or to a controller controlling the physical drives. | 05-07-2009 |
| 20090150630 | COMPUTER SYSTEM AND CONTROL METHOD FOR THE COMPUTER SYSTEM - A computer system including a first storage system connected to a first host computer, a second storage system connected to a second host computer and a third storage system connected to the first and second storage systems. The second storage system sets transfer setting before an occurrence of a failure, the transfer setting being provided with a dedicated storage area to be used for transferring data to the third storage system by asynchronous copy in response to a failure at the first host computer. Before the start of data transfer between the second storage system and third storage system to be executed after an occurrence of the failure, the second storage system checks the dedicated storage area, data transfer line and transfer setting information, and if an abnormal state is detected, this abnormal state is reported to the host computer as information attached to the transfer setting. | 06-11-2009 |
| 20090198896 | DUAL WRITING DEVICE AND ITS CONTROL METHOD - A first storage system sets a storage area of a first disk drive as a first volume, and misrepresents an identifier of the storage system and an identifier of the first volume. A second storage system sets a storage area of a second disk drive as a second volume, and misrepresents an identifier of the storage system and an identifier of the second volume. The first storage system copies data of the first volume in the second volume. The second storage system copies data of the second volume in the first volume. A management computer determines whether there is a match between the data of the first volume and the data of the second volume. When it is determined that there is not match, the host computer accesses only one of the first volume and the second volume that stores the latest data. | 08-06-2009 |
| 20090216971 | Storage System and Copy Method - In a storage system, one or more storage apparatuses provide a management computer with a first volume for storing data from the management computer, provide a host computer with a second volume for storing data from the host computer, and manage a volume address for the one or more storage apparatuses to manage the first volume and the second volume in the one or more storage apparatuses. The management computer issues a command specifying an arbitrary volume address to the one or more storage apparatuses, and designates, when receiving a normal response from the arbitrary volume address, a volume with the arbitrary volume address as the second volume. | 08-27-2009 |
| 20090216976 | COMPUTER SYSTEM ALLOWING ANY COMPUTER TO COPY ANY STORAGE AREA WITHIN A STORAGE SYSTEM - A computer system having a plurality of host computers and a storage system is provided which allows any one host computer to perform a global copy operation on any arbitrary or all storage areas in the storage system. To this end, storage areas provided by the disk devices are grouped into groups by allocating group numbers to a plurality of specified storage areas. The copy operation can be performed by specifying desired groups. Each of the groups is made up of sub-groups and the sub-groups are defined for each computer to assure a consistency of copy order of the sub-groups. | 08-27-2009 |
| 20090249104 | Storage system - A journal volume is created in a different power control unit of a normal mode, and the power saving mode is maintained by storing differential data in the journal until the corresponding power control unit is returned to a normal mode. A replication pair in a pair status in the power control unit is confirmed, set as a target to be switched to the power saving mode if it is of a constant value or less, and a management server is notified if there is an operation for creating a volume. | 10-01-2009 |
| 20090271445 | Storage system and method of changing monitoring condition thereof - The management burden of a replication administrator is alleviated and the monitoring burden is reduced in a storage system. In a large-scale storage system configured across a plurality of sites, a management computer managing the storage system collects configuration information of a volume group such as the copy pair status information from a host computer of the respective sites including a primary site and a remote site, and analyzes the collected information. When a failure or a disaster occurs and the primary site and the remote site are switched and the management computer detects a change in the configuration of the volume group, and appropriate switches the monitoring configuration upon determining the configuration of the detected change. | 10-29-2009 |
| 20090282201 | STORAGE DEVICE CONTROL METHOD AND COMPUTER SYSTEM - A storage device control method for operating a logical volume to which a control command cannot be issued directly from a host computer is provided. The host computer manages a storage device. The storage device includes a disk device which provides logical volumes and a disk control device which controls the disk device. The host computer issues a control command to a recognized volume in the disk control device. The disk control device operates a recognized volume which is an issue destination of the control command or an unrecognized volume contained in the control command. A logical volume to which the control command is to be issued from the host computer is determined by using definition information (a disk information table, a copy pair information table, or a copy group information table) concerning copy operation retained by storage control software which operates on the host computer. | 11-12-2009 |
| 20100077162 | METHOD OF CONSTRUCTING REPLICATION ENVIRONMENT AND STORAGE SYSTEM - A management computer collects a usage condition of a volume from a host computer and a storage apparatus at each site, consolidates management thereof, and prevents a volume from duplicating among applications as a copy source. This makes it possible to select a used volume in an application as a copy source without excess or deficiency and to create a copy pair configuration definition without duplication or incompatibility. If a replication environment is constructed in a large-scale storage system, the consolidated management of a usage condition of a volume collected from the host computer and the storage apparatus at each site makes it possible to create a copy pair configuration definition by a task constituted by a plurality of applications. | 03-25-2010 |
| 20100082925 | MANAGEMENT COMPUTER USED TO CONSTRUCT BACKUP CONFIGURATION OF APPLICATION DATA - According to the present invention, it is possible to construct a backup configuration of a particular application data, without influencing data of another application. A management computer is coupled to a host computer on which an application operates, and to a storage apparatus that includes a plurality of volume groups each having one or more logical volumes. At least one of the logical volumes is allocated to the application. The management computer includes a volume group overlapping use determination part and a backup policy determination part. When the backup of the volume group to which one logical volume belongs is configured, the volume group overlapping use determination part determines whether there is another application that uses the volume group. The backup policy determination part determines whether there is set, for another volume group, backup policy information same as that set for the application. | 04-01-2010 |
| 20100106822 | Monitoring-target-apparatus management system, management server, and monitoring-target-apparatus management method - If both of LUN security information on storage apparatuses and configuration information on an iSNS server are acquirable, a management server makes reference to configuration situation of the LUN security acquired from a monitoring-target storage apparatus, thereby acquiring iSCSI initiator names which are permitted to access the storage apparatus. Moreover, the management server acquires, from the iSNS server, IP address of an iSCSI initiator name which does not exist on a monitoring-target host out of the iSCSI initiator names, then adding the IP address into monitoring-target nodes. Meanwhile, when an access from the management server to a monitoring-target node becomes impossible for a certain constant time-period due to a reason such that the monitoring-target node has been excluded from the network, the management server is capable of excluding the monitoring-target node from the monitoring targets on a GUI. | 04-29-2010 |
| 20100122051 | REMOTE COPYING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM, METHOD AND APPARATUS - A management system for managing storage systems, having first correspondence information concerned with correspondence of copy pairs with copy groups as setting of remote copying of data in logical volumes of the storage systems, and second correspondence information concerned with correspondence of physical paths and logical paths between the storage systems with the copy groups, wherein when failure information designating a certain physical path is received, a copy group affected by failure in the certain physical path is specified and displayed by referring to the first correspondence information and the second correspondence information. Consequently, physical paths can be monitored from the viewpoint of remote copying. | 05-13-2010 |
| 20100138689 | COMPUTER SYSTEM, MANAGEMENT METHOD AND STORAGE NETWORK SYSTEM - A computer system wherein, when a state of the primary host computer is in an active state, a data sent from the primary host computer to the first storage system is copied through a first copy route which includes a route from the first storage system to the second storage system and a route from the second storage system to the third storage system, wherein, if a failure occurs in the primary host computer and a state of the second host computer is to be in an active state, a data sent from the secondary host computer to the second storage system is copied through a second copy route which includes a route from the second storage system to the first storage system and a route from the first storage system to the third storage system. | 06-03-2010 |
| 20100146232 | STORAGE SYSTEM, REMOTE COPY AND MANAGEMENT METHOD THEREFOR - A copy source storage controller received write data added with a time and issued from a host computer transfers the write data with the time to a copy destination storage controller. If there are a plurality of copy destination storage controllers, a representative copy destination storage controller compares times of write data copied to the plurality of copy destination storage controllers, and writes the write data in copy destination logical volumes in the sequential order of time. The representative copy destination storage controller judges that integrity of the write data is established, if a communication procedure is established with the copy destination storage controller and if the statuses of the copy source/destination logical volumes are coincident. In remote copy which guarantees integrity of write data and traverses a plurality of storage controllers, it is possible to judge at an optional time point whether integrity of write data can be guaranteed. | 06-10-2010 |
| 20100153666 | Storage system, method for calculating estimated value of data recovery available time and management computer - The invention provides a technology applicable to technologies other than a main frame technology and monitors data recovery available time while suppressing a monitoring error within a certain range in a storage system that performs Asynchronous Remote Copy among storage devices. A management computer in the storage system stores latest or quasi-latest management data corresponding to data staying in a buffer of the first storage device with temporal information at certain monitoring intervals, calculates an estimated value of the data recovery available time which is time of data stored in the second storage device corresponding to data stored in the first storage device, based on the temporal information stored, and based on a certain management data among earliest or quasi-earliest management data or a number of the data staying in the buffer at the certain time and displays the estimated value on a display section. | 06-17-2010 |
| 20100191926 | Remote copy system and path setting support method - A remote copy system includes: a host computer; a first storage system connected to the host computer; and a second storage apparatus connected to the first storage system. At least one of the first storage system and the second storage system holds, in a storage part thereof, path information used for performing a remote copy of data therebetween. The host computer references the path information in the storage part; determines whether or not a path required for conducting an operation instructed by a user exists, based on at least one of a type of the remote copy and a direction of the path; and, if the required path does not exist, displays, on a display part, that the necessary path does not exist and why the necessary path does not exist. | 07-29-2010 |
| 20100235573 | Computer and method for managing storage apparatus - A management computer manages the pool application information that indicates a pool application for a pool and the application condition information that indicates the condition for the pool application. The management computer calculates an excess storage capacity based on a pool usage status for the pool. The management computer specifies a pool application for the pool and the condition for the pool application based on the pool application information and the application condition information. The management computer judges whether the specified condition is satisfied even in the case in which a storage area having a storage capacity equivalent to or less than the calculated excess storage capacity is deleted from the pool. In the case in which the result of the judgment is positive, the management computer defines a capacity equivalent to or less than the excess storage capacity as an unused capacity. | 09-16-2010 |
| 20100268903 | COMPUTER SYSTEM COMPRISING STORAGE OPERATION PERMISSION MANAGEMENT - The system of the present invention enhances the security of settings and operations in a storage device, and copes with numerous changes of the operational status of work executed within a computer system. When it becomes necessary to issue an operating command to the storage, storage operation propriety is determined on the basis of the operational status of the work and definition of operation permission for each work operation state. | 10-21-2010 |
| 20100274767 | BACKUP METHOD FOR STORAGE SYSTEM - The present invention provides a backup method that makes it possible to specify the recovery-enabled time of an application even in a case where a backup has been performed without staticizing the application. In response to a first instruction from a management computer, a storage system backs up a first volume to a second volume at a first time while a first host computer continues to process an application. In response to a second instruction from the management computer, a second host computer reads out the data of the second volume and acquires a second time that is the time at which the application is recovery-enabled. The management computer stores the relationship between the backup and the second time in backup catalog information. | 10-28-2010 |
| 20100299309 | BACKUP MANAGEMENT METHOD - Restoration of all virtual machines are managed in respect of each restoration time thereof in a case where virtual machines at certain time in the past are restored under a server virtualization environment in which a plurality of virtual machines are constituted. A host computer creates a first snapshot of a first virtual machine at a first time specified by a management computer, and stores the first snapshot in a first logical volume of a storage device. Next, the storage system replicates in a second logical volume the first logical volume. In a case where the host computer creates a second snapshot of a second virtual machine at a second time that is before the first time and stores the second snapshot in the first logical volume, the management computer manages or displays the second snapshot creation time and snapshot information in association with the first snapshot creation time and snapshot information, respectively. | 11-25-2010 |
| 20110004736 | COMPUTER SYSTEM AND CONTROL METHOD FOR THE COMPUTER SYSTEM - A computer system including a first storage system connected to a first host computer, a second storage system connected to a second host computer and a third storage system connected to the first and second storage systems. The second storage system sets transfer setting before an occurrence of a failure, the transfer setting being provided with a dedicated storage area to be used for transferring data to the third storage system by asynchronous copy in response to a failure at the first host computer. Before the start of data transfer between the second storage system and third storage system to be executed after an occurrence of the failure, the second storage system checks the dedicated storage area, data transfer line and transfer setting information, and if an abnormal state is detected, this abnormal state is reported to the host computer as information attached to the transfer setting. | 01-06-2011 |
| 20110041004 | BACKUP MANAGEMENT METHOD BASED ON MODE OF FAILURE - A storage management program is provided with a function of determining a suspension/continuation of a remote backup based on an operation-at-failure management table, and accomplishes the suspension/continuation of the backup based on the application in which a failure has occurred and the mode of this failure. The storage management program is also provided with a function of computing a change in the quantity of data from the last backup before the occurrence of the failure until the first backup after the occurrence of the failure, and determining the suspension/continuation of the backup, enabling to suspend/continue the backup in line with the operating status of the application. | 02-17-2011 |
| 20110078395 | COMPUTER SYSTEM MANAGING VOLUME ALLOCATION AND VOLUME ALLOCATION MANAGEMENT METHOD - In a management computer which manages a storage system including a main logical volume and subsidiary logical volumes, when the access volume to the main logical volume exceeds a threshold value, a subsidiary logical volume associated with a physical volume having higher input/output performance than the physical volume associated with the main logical volume is selected. When the migration time of the data stored in the physical volume corresponding to the selected subsidiary logical volume is within a prescribed time period, then data stored in the physical volume corresponding to the main logical volume is migrated to the physical volume corresponding to the selected subsidiary logical volume, and the physical volume corresponding to the selected subsidiary logical volume is associated with the main logical volume. | 03-31-2011 |
| 20110078494 | MANAGEMENT METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MANAGING REPLICATION BY TAKING INTO ACCOUNT CLUSTER - A management system, which manages a host computer and a storage system, holds cluster information, specifies an active-state host computer and an inactive-state host computer based on a backup instruction specifying a virtual host identifier, determines the need for executing a replication for disaster recovery use, and when necessary, executes this replication for disaster recovery use in combination with a replication for backup use. | 03-31-2011 |
| 20110083033 | COMPUTER SYSTEM DUPLICATING WRITES BY SYNCHRONOUS REMOTE COPY WITH MULTIPLE HOST COMPUTERS USING HETEROGENEOUS OPERATING SYSTEMS - A computer system having a plurality of host computers and a storage system is provided which allows any one host computer to perform a global copy operation on any arbitrary or all storage areas in the storage system. To this end, storage areas provided by the disk devices are grouped into groups by allocating group numbers to a plurality of specified storage areas. The copy operation can be performed by specifying desired groups. Each of the groups is made up of sub-groups and the sub-groups are defined for each computer to assure a consistency of copy order of the sub-groups. | 04-07-2011 |
| 20110099260 | Monitoring-target-apparatus management system, management server, and monitoring-target-apparatus management method - If both of LUN security information on storage apparatuses and configuration information on an iSNS server are acquirable, a management server makes reference to configuration situation of the LUN security acquired from a monitoring-target storage apparatus, thereby acquiring iSCSI initiator names which are permitted to access the storage apparatus. Moreover, the management server acquires, from the iSNS server, IP address of an iSCSI initiator name which does not exist on a monitoring-target host out of the iSCSI initiator names, then adding the IP address into monitoring-target nodes. Meanwhile, when an access from the management server to a monitoring-target node becomes impossible for a certain constant time-period due to a reason such that the monitoring-target node has been excluded from the network, the management server is capable of excluding the monitoring-target node from the monitoring targets on a GUI. | 04-28-2011 |
