WO2013146537A1 - Storage system and control method therefor - Google Patents

Description

Storage system and control method thereof

The present invention relates to a storage system for storing data accessed from a virtual machine and a control method therefor.

With the advancement of virtualization technology, not only virtual machines (also called VM: Virtual Machine) but also all components in storage systems such as storage and network are becoming virtualized. Accordingly, these devices can be integrated and controlled.

In storage systems, a technique called hierarchical storage is also known. Hierarchical storage is a method of controlling, for example, a high-speed primary storage with a small capacity and a low-speed but large-capacity secondary storage in a hierarchical combination. The reason for configuring the storage system hierarchically as described above is as follows. That is, high-speed storage is often more expensive than low-speed storage, and it is necessary to pay a high cost to configure all data in the primary storage. Therefore, a hierarchical configuration is realized in which only frequently accessed data is stored in the primary storage, and less frequently accessed data is stored in the secondary storage. With such a configuration, the performance of the storage system can be maintained without cost.

In the above tiered storage, the decision to perform the process of moving data between the tiered storages (hereinafter referred to as “staging”) is basically made based on the data access pattern. For example, as the simplest control example, staging is performed using the last access time. More specifically, the data is arranged in order from the oldest last access time, and the data is moved from the primary storage to the secondary storage in order from the oldest data. Another example of control is to use access frequency. In this case, the control is more complicated than in the above-mentioned example, but the priority of storing data with low usage frequency in the primary storage even if the last access time is new can be lowered.

Also, a technique for changing the memory configuration in a virtual machine system is known (for example, see Patent Document 1). According to this technique, it is possible to increase the speed of processing for changing the memory configuration.

JP 2009-026117 A

In the above virtualization technology, for example, when a virtual machine instance is stopped, the data of the virtual machine instance is stored in the primary storage, and therefore other data cannot be stored in the primary storage. For this reason, it becomes impossible to store truly necessary data in the primary storage capable of high-speed data processing, and the primary storage could not be used efficiently.

Also, in the technology for managing the tiered storage when the virtual machine instance is activated, there is a possibility that data that has not been accessed recently is placed in the secondary storage. This is because even data necessary for the virtual machine instance is recognized as old data. If the necessary data cannot be stored in the primary storage capable of high-speed data processing, the performance of the storage system is deteriorated.

As described above, in a storage system including a virtual machine and a tiered storage, there is a situation where the tiered storage is not efficiently controlled.

Here, the technique described in Patent Document 1 is a technique related to speeding up the memory configuration change process.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a storage system capable of efficiently controlling hierarchical storage and a control method therefor in a storage system having virtual machines and hierarchical storage. It is to provide.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is a storage system including a virtual machine and a tiered storage, and is managed by the management unit that manages the association between the virtual machine instance and the tiered storage. And a controller that controls the operation control of the virtual machine and the staging control between the tiered storages in conjunction with each other based on the association.

Another aspect of the present invention is a method for controlling a storage system including a virtual machine and a tiered storage, the step of managing the association between the instance of the virtual machine and the tiered storage, and the managed association. And controlling the operation control of the virtual machine and the staging control between the tiered storages in conjunction with each other.

According to the present invention, it is possible to efficiently control hierarchical storage in a storage system having virtual machines and hierarchical storage.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the storage system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the VM state management table which concerns on the embodiment. It is a figure which shows the VM logical storage related management table which concerns on the embodiment. It is a figure which shows the logical storage state management table which concerns on the embodiment. It is a figure which shows the VM schedule management table which concerns on the embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the process which allocates storage to the virtual machine instance which concerns on the embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the starting or restarting process of the virtual machine which concerns on the embodiment. FIG. 8 is a sub-flowchart showing staging in FIG. 7. FIG. It is a flowchart which shows a process in case the schedule is set to the restart of the virtual machine which concerns on the embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the process in the case of stopping or temporarily stopping the virtual machine which concerns on the embodiment. FIG. 11 is a sub-flowchart showing staging in FIG. 10. It is a flowchart which shows a process in case the schedule is set to the stop of the virtual machine which concerns on the embodiment. It is a subflowchart which shows the pre-processing in FIG. It is a subflowchart which shows the post-process in FIG.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a storage system 100 according to the present embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the storage system 100 includes a resource control unit 1, a virtual machine group 2, a hierarchical storage 3, and a system management unit 4.

Resource control unit 1 integrates and controls both virtual machine group 2 and tiered storage 3. More specifically, the resource control unit 1 performs start control and stop control of the virtual machine 21 in accordance with an instruction from the system management unit 4. The resource control unit 1 is roughly divided into a part that controls the virtual machine group 2 and a part that controls the hierarchical storage 3.

Control of the virtual machine group 2 is performed by the virtual machine state management unit 11, the virtual machine schedule management unit 12, and the virtual machine control unit 14. Hereinafter, the virtual machine state management unit 11, the virtual machine schedule management unit 12, and the virtual machine control unit 14 are referred to as a VM state management unit 11, a VM schedule management unit 12, and a VM control unit 14, respectively.

The VM control unit 14 controls the virtual machine group 2. Specifically, the VM control unit 14 controls the start / restart (restart) / stop (temporary stop) of the virtual machine 21 and the placement of the virtual machine 21.

The VM state management unit 11 manages a VM (virtual machine) state management table 40 shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, the VM state management table 40 associates VM (virtual machine) instances with states (starting, stopping, and starting).

The hierarchical storage 3 is controlled by a virtual machine logical storage related management unit (hereinafter referred to as “VM logical storage related management unit”) 13, a hierarchical storage control unit 15, and a logical storage state management unit 16.

The hierarchical storage control unit 15 controls the hierarchical storage 3 via the hierarchical storage management unit 31. The tier storage 3 has a primary storage 32 and a secondary storage 33. The hierarchical storage management unit 31 manages data staging between the primary storage 32 and the secondary storage.

Hereinafter, specific processes will be described and processing executed by the storage system 100 will be described.

(1) Association of Virtual Machine and Logical Storage FIG. 6 shows a process for assigning a logical storage to a virtual machine instance.
First, a command is input from the system management unit 4 (S101). The content of the command is, for example, the content of assigning a certain logical storage to a certain virtual machine. Here, it is assumed that the reservation and placement of the virtual machine and the reservation and placement of the logical storage have already been performed by another route (processing).

In response to the input of the command in step S101, the resource control unit 1 notifies the allocation contents to the VM logical storage related management unit 13. The VM logical storage association management unit 13 stores the allocation contents (association) in the VM logical storage association management table 50 shown in FIG. 3 (S102). As shown in FIG. 3, in the VM logical storage related management table 50, a VM (virtual machine) instance and an allocated logical storage are associated with each other. For example, the instance A is associated with the logical storage P.

(2) Startup / Resume of Virtual Machine FIGS. 7 and 8 show the process of starting or restarting the virtual machine.
First, a command for starting a virtual machine is input from the system management unit 4 to the resource control unit 1 (S201). In response to this, the VM control unit 14 starts the virtual machine 21 designated to start (S202). The VM control unit 14 notifies the VM state management unit 11 of the state of the virtual machine 21, and the virtual machine 21 is in the “starting” state (see FIG. 2).

Next, the hierarchical storage 3 is controlled. First, the hierarchical storage control unit 15 makes an inquiry to the VM logical storage related management unit 13 to search for a logical storage associated with the virtual machine 21 to be started (S203: see FIG. 3). Next, the logical storage state management unit 16 is inquired about the state of the retrieved logical storage. Here, the logical storage state management unit 16 manages the logical storage state management table 60 shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 4, the logical storage and its state (primary storage, secondary storage, moving from secondary to primary storage) are associated with each other in the logical storage state management table 60.

If the result of the inquiry is that the logical storage is in the primary storage state (S301: YES), the process ends. On the other hand, if the logical storage is not in the primary storage state (S301: NO), in other words, if it is in the secondary storage state, the hierarchical storage management unit 31 is used to stage the logical storage to the primary storage. Is notified of the staging processing request, and the logical storage is staged to the primary storage (S302). This staging is performed for all the logical storages when there are a plurality of target logical storages.

The hierarchical storage management unit 31 manages the free capacity and status of the actual primary storage and secondary storage, executes the staging of the notified logical storage to the primary storage, and controls the execution results to the hierarchical storage control Return to part 15. Here, an example of processing of the hierarchical storage management unit 31 will be described.

For example, the hierarchical storage management unit 31 first checks the free capacity of the primary storage 32. If it is determined that there is enough free space to store the logical storage, data copying to the primary storage is started immediately. On the other hand, if there is not enough free space, first copy data as much as possible, and take measures such as increasing the free space by staging from the oldest access time to the secondary storage as in conventional hierarchical storage management. Do. Alternatively, it may be determined that staging to the primary storage 32 cannot be performed. Further, there may be a case where some priority is applied. If staging is not performed for these reasons, the tiered storage control unit 15 may receive a notification from the tiered storage management unit 31 that staging has failed. The logical storage state management unit 16 receives the notification from the tier storage control unit 15 and updates the logical storage state management table 60. If the staging fails, the state of the secondary storage 33 is continued in the logical storage. If the staging is successful, the state is changed from the secondary storage 33 to the state of the primary storage 32.

(3) Virtual machine schedule start / restart (restart)
FIG. 9 shows processing when a schedule is set for starting and restarting a virtual machine.
In the case of schedule activation, since the activation time is set in advance, staging can be terminated in advance before activation. Therefore, in preparation for staging schedule settings based on VM (virtual machine) startup schedule registration (S401) and logical storage staging schedule registration (S402) of the VM schedule management unit 12, a certain staging time is estimated from the capacity of the logical storage. It is desirable that the staging to the primary storage 32 is completed when the schedule is activated. The schedule management of the VM schedule management unit 12 is performed by, for example, the VM schedule management table 70 shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 5, in the VM schedule management table 70, a VM (virtual machine) instance is associated with the next start time and the next stop time.

As shown in FIG. 9, the logical storage state corresponding to the virtual machine 21 is searched at a time before the virtual machine instance activation time (S405) (S403), and the logical storage is staged (S404). . In staging, when the logical storage is in the state of the secondary storage 33 (S501: NO), staging to the primary storage 32 is performed (S502). Note that the staging in step S405 is the same as the processing in step S204 described above, and thus illustration and detailed description thereof are omitted.

(4) Stop virtual machine (pause)
FIG. 10 shows a process for stopping the virtual machine (including a case of temporarily stopping the virtual machine).
First, a command for stopping the virtual machine 21 is input from the system management unit 4 to the resource control unit 1 (S501). The VM control unit 14 stops the VM (virtual) machine instance designated by the command (S502).

Next, the hierarchical storage 3 is controlled. First, the hierarchical storage control unit 15 inquires the VM logical storage related management unit 13 to search for the logical storage associated with the virtual machine 21 to be stopped, and manages the logical storage state indicated by the inquiry result as the logical storage state management. The unit 16 is inquired to search (S503).

In response to the search result, the hierarchical storage management unit 31 performs staging of the logical storage (S504).

As shown in FIG. 11, when the logical storage is not in the state of the primary storage 32 as a result of the above inquiry (S601: NO), the staging is not necessary, and the process ends. On the other hand, when the logical storage is in the state of the primary storage 32 (S601: YES), the hierarchical storage management unit 31 is notified to perform staging to the secondary storage 33, and the hierarchical storage management unit 31 notifies the primary storage 32. The above specified logical storage is moved to the secondary storage 33, or when it has already been moved to the secondary storage, a process of synchronizing the data difference is performed (S602).

Thereafter, the area on the primary storage 32 moved to the secondary storage 33 is released, and another logical storage can be used as the area of the primary storage 32. This staging is performed for all the logical storages when there are a plurality of target logical storages.

(5) Virtual machine schedule stop (temporary stop)
Processing when the stop of the virtual machine 21 is scheduled is shown in FIGS.
Unlike the case where the virtual machine activation is scheduled in the case of the virtual machine schedule activation / resumption in (3) above, prior staging is not performed when the schedule of the virtual machine is stopped. This is because the virtual machine 21 is in operation until the time when it is stopped, and if it is staged in advance, the performance of the storage system 100 may be deteriorated. However, it is possible to perform preprocessing in preparation for staging. Hereinafter, this pre-processing will be mainly described.

In preparation for staging schedule setting based on VM (virtual machine) stop schedule registration (S701) and logical storage staging schedule registration (S702) of the VM schedule management unit 12, the hierarchical storage control unit 15 searches for a corresponding logical storage in advance. (S703).

Upon receiving the notification, the tier storage control unit 15 performs pre-stage processing (S704). As shown in FIG. 13, when the logical storage is not in the state of the primary storage 32 (S801: NO), the tier storage control unit 15 ends the process because staging is unnecessary. On the other hand, when the logical storage is in the state of the primary storage 32 (S801: YES), the tier storage control unit 15 issues an instruction to the tier storage management unit 31 to perform pre-stage processing for the secondary storage 33. Then, pre-processing for setting the logical storage to the state of the secondary storage 33 is performed (S802).

Here, examples of pre-processing for staging include data copying from the primary storage 32 to the secondary storage 33 and differential synchronization. Here, the differential synchronization is to synchronize data that has been updated on the primary storage 32 and is not synchronized with the secondary storage 33 with the secondary storage. By performing this operation in the background, the area of the primary storage 32 can be released earlier when the virtual machine 21 is stopped, and the logical storage of the other virtual machine 21 stores data in the primary storage 32. It becomes possible to put.

Next, when the scheduled time comes, the virtual machine instance is stopped (S705).

Subsequently, logical storage staging is performed (S706). If the logical storage is not in the state of the primary storage 32 (S901: NO), the tier storage control unit 15 ends the process because staging is unnecessary. On the other hand, if the logical storage is in the state of the primary storage 32 (S901: YES), the tier storage control unit 15 instructs the tier storage management unit 31 to perform post-stage processing for the secondary storage 33. Then, post-stage processing for staging the logical storage to the secondary storage is executed (S902).

Here, as post-processing of staging, for example, when the above-described differential synchronization is performed as pre-processing, the remaining data that is not synchronized is synchronized, and the primary data in which the synchronized data is stored after the synchronization is completed There is a process of releasing the 32 areas and finishing the staging.

According to the storage system 100 configured as described above, the VM state management unit 11, the VM logical storage related management unit 13, and the logical storage state management unit 16 manage the association between the instance of the virtual machine 21 and the tiered storage 3, By performing linked control of the virtual machine instance and staging of the tiered storage 3 by the VM control unit 14, the tiered storage control unit 15, and the tiered storage management unit 31, efficient control of the tiered storage 3 can be realized. In addition, the probability that the data accessed by the virtual machine 21 is in the primary storage 32 is increased, and higher performance can be obtained at the same cost as compared with a storage system having the same physical configuration as the storage system 100. The cost for achieving the target performance required for 100 can be reduced.

Further, according to the storage system 100, the staging can be executed in advance when the virtual machine 21 is started / restarted (restarted) based on the schedule managed by the VM schedule management unit 12. Therefore, the primary storage 32 is effective. Can be used.

Furthermore, according to the storage system 100, staging preprocessing can be executed in advance when the virtual machine 21 is stopped based on the schedule managed by the VM schedule management unit 12, so that staging can be completed quickly after the stop, The primary storage 32 can be used effectively.

In the above-described embodiment, the VM schedule management unit 12 has been described in the case of managing the schedule for starting and restarting the virtual machine 21 and the schedule for stopping and suspending. However, the present invention is not limited to this. You may comprise so that it may manage by a management part.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications can be made in the implementation.

Some or all of the above embodiments may be described as in the following supplementary notes, but are not limited thereto.

(Appendix 1)
A storage system including virtual machines and tiered storage,
A management unit for managing the association between the virtual machine instance and the tiered storage;
A control unit that controls the operation control of the virtual machine and the staging control between the tiered storage based on the association managed by the management unit;
A storage system comprising:

(Appendix 2)
A management unit for managing a schedule for starting and restarting the virtual machine;
The storage system according to appendix 1, wherein the control unit ends the staging control before starting and restarting.

(Appendix 3)
A management unit for managing a schedule for stopping the virtual machine;
The storage system according to appendix 1 or 2, wherein the control unit performs pre-processing of the staging control before stopping, and performs post-processing of the staging control after stopping.

(Appendix 4)
A storage system control method including virtual machines and tiered storage,
Managing the association between the virtual machine instance and the tiered storage;
Controlling the operation control of the virtual machine and the staging control between the tiered storage based on the managed association,
A storage system control method comprising:

The present invention is widely applicable to storage systems that store data accessed from virtual machines.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Resource control part 2 ... Virtual machine group 3 ... Hierarchical storage 4 ... System management part 11 ... VM state management part 12 ... VM schedule management part 13 ... VM logical storage Related management unit 14 ... VM control unit 15 ... hierarchical storage control unit 16 ... logical storage state management unit 21 ... virtual machine 31 ... hierarchical storage management unit 32 ... primary storage 33 .. Secondary storage 40 ... VM state management table 50 ... VM logical storage related management table 60 ... logical storage state management table 70 ... VM schedule management table 100 ... storage system

Claims (4)

A storage system including virtual machines and tiered storage,
A management unit for managing the association between the virtual machine instance and the tiered storage;
A control unit that controls the operation control of the virtual machine and the staging control between the tiered storage based on the association managed by the management unit;
A storage system comprising: A management unit for managing a schedule for starting and restarting the virtual machine;
The storage system according to claim 1, wherein the control unit ends the staging control before starting and restarting. A management unit for managing a schedule for stopping the virtual machine;
3. The storage system according to claim 1, wherein the control unit performs pre-processing of the staging control before stopping, and performs post-processing of the staging control after stopping. 4. A storage system control method including virtual machines and tiered storage,
Managing the association between the virtual machine instance and the tiered storage;
Controlling the operation control of the virtual machine and the staging control between the tiered storage based on the managed association,
A storage system control method comprising:

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