Patent Application
20060271579
1. Technical Field
This invention relates to management of a file system for a computer. More specifically, the invention relates to automation associated with determining storage availability in the file system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are two primary storage management systems for network based storage. One system is known as network attached storage in which storage units are connected to the network through a network connection. Another system is known as a storage area network (SAN) attached storage in which the SAN houses and manages multiple storage units. The SAN is connected to the network through a fiber optic cable. The SAN file system is an example of a software based storage management system that directs client machines to specific storage devices for reading and/or writing data, and is proprietary to International Business Machines Corporation. In both the network attached storage and the SAN, storage units may be accessible by one or more client machines. There are two categories of storage units in the SAN, a physical storage device and a logical storage device. A physical storage device is the entire storage device, such as a RAID controller and its associated disks, a disk drive, a tape drive, etc. A physical storage device is often measured in terabytes and is built from engineering specifications that specify reliability, serviceability, performance, or a specific price per megabyte. A logical storage device is typically built from one or more pieces of a physical storage device. A logical storage device is often measured in megabytes and is created to meet the requirements of a system administrator, such as planning availability, backup policies, disaster recovery, or other high level storage requirements. Storage products, such as the SAN file system organize physical storage units into logical storage units for management of data.
In the distributed file system shown in
One of the drawbacks associated with the prior art solution is the time consumption associated with manual compilation. The results from execution of the command line interface are not stored in memory. Rather, they are sent to an output device with a hardcopy generated therefrom. It is therefore desirable to formulate an automated system for compiling the identifying information in a manner that will efficiently utilize system resources without affecting the integrity and operation of the SAN and the client machines.
This invention comprises a process and system for automating identification of storage units in communication with client machines.
In one aspect of the invention, a method is provided for managing a storage area network file system. Each storage unit in the file system in communication with each identified client machine is identified, for each client machine in communication with a server. Compilation of data for each identified client machine with each identified storage unit is automated.
In another aspect of the invention, a computer system is provided with a storage area network in communication with a server and a client machine. A storage manager is provided to identify each storage unit in the storage area network in communication with each client machine in communication with the server. In addition, a compiler is provided to automate compilation of data for each identified client machine with each identified storage unit.
In yet another aspect of the invention, an article is provided in a computer-readable signal-bearing medium. Means in the medium are provided for identifying each storage unit in a file system in communication with each client machine in communication with a server and a storage area network file system. Means in the medium are also provided for automating compilation data of each identified client machine with each identified storage unit.
Other features and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the presently preferred embodiment of the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
a and 3b are flow charts illustrating a method for compiling logical storage unit availability to client machines in the network according to the preferred embodiment of this invention, and is suggested for printing on the first page of the issued patent.
In a client-server network in communication with a SAN, groupings of storage units are gathered into logical storage units. For security or other reasons, it may be that each client machine in the network is not in communication with each logical storage unit. As such, an automated mechanism is provided to identify which client machines are in communication with available logical storage units. The availability of this information ensures that client machines are not attempting to communicate with logical storage units to which they do not have access privileges. Data pertaining to the identification is captured in memory of a server machine. This enables the data to be subsequently parsed or otherwise organized to provide pertinent communication information between the client machines and the logical storage units available to the server machines in the network.
Accordingly, the initial part of the compilation process includes creating a list of each client machine in communication with the server cluster.
Following identification of the client machines, each identified client machine is queried to determine accessibility of the client machine to logical storage units in the SAN to determine if the identified client machine is connected to a logical storage unit in the SAN (160). A positive response to the test at step (160) results in production of a list of identifiers of each logical storage unit connected to the identified client machine (162), and saving the list in memory of the master server (164). Following completion of the list at step (164) or a negative response to the test at step (160), a test is conducted to determine if there are other identified client machines that have not been queried (166).
A positive response to the test at step (166) will cause a return to step (160) to produce a list of logical storage units connected to the next identified client machine. However, once a list of logical storage units have been identified for each client machine, the identifiers of the logical storage units saved into memory at step (164) are parsed and raw data capture in conjunction with the identifiers are discarded from the generated list with non-useful information being discarded (168). Following step 168, the parsed out logical storage unit identifiers and the number of logical storage units per client remain in server memory. Accordingly, the compilation process includes identifying each logical storage unit in communication with each identified client machine.
Following the identification process at steps (160)-(164) and parsing in step (168), a test is conducted to determine if an argument was passed at step 154 for parsing the compiled data (170). A positive response to the test at step (170) will result in a subsequent test to determine if the passed argument was restricted (172) by comparing an argument value passed at step 154 with a value associated with a restricted argument. If the response to the test at step (172) is positive, the list of logical storage units is parsed to produce a list of logical storage units in communication with a specified client machine (174). However, if the response to the test at step (172) is negative, a test is conducted to determine if the passed argument was debug (176) by comparing an argument value passed at step 154 with a value associated with a debug argument. If the response to the test at step (176) is positive, the list of logical storage units is parsed to produce a list of all logical storage units in communication with an individual client machine for each identified client machine (178). However, if the response to the test at step (172) or step (176) is negative, this is an indication that the intended argument is common. A list of all logical storage units in communication with all of the identified client machines is produced (180). Regardless of the argument used to parse the data associated with identification of the logical storage units in the server memory, the data parsed with the argument at step (174), (178), or (180) is saved in an output file of the server memory (184). Accordingly, the compiled and parsed data may be saved in an output file for use at a later time.
The process and system for compiling access of each client machine to a logical storage unit does not affect resources of the server(s). As such, the tool may be invoked at any time on the master sever. The tool may include a storage manager to identify storage units, a client manager to identify and manage the client machines, and a compiler to automate compilation data of each identified client machine. In one embodiment, the storage manager may be stored on a computer-readable medium as it contains data in a machine readable format. Similarly, the compiler used to compile date for each identified client machine may also be embedded in a machine readable format to automate the compilation process, and the client manager may also be embedded in machine readable format. Accordingly, the client manager, the storage manager, and the compiler may all be in the form of hardware elements in the computer system or software elements in a computer-readable format or a combination of software and hardware.
The tool automates parsing of data relevant to the user and saving the parsed data in memory. Different argument values may be passed to the data to compile parsed and formatted data relevant to the user. Compilation of data may be conducted in the memory and does not require manual review of hardcopy data. By saving the output in memory, use of the output can be processed efficiently. In addition, the tool may be invoked at any time without affecting use of the system resources.
It will be appreciated that, although specific embodiments of the invention have been described herein for purposes of illustration, various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. In particular, the tool may be invoked in a distributed file system or any client-server file system utilizing a SAN or network attached storage. Furthermore, the tool may be invoked on a command line interface, a graphical user interface, or an alternative interface which supports output of the generated data being saved in memory. Accordingly, the scope of protection of this invention is limited only by the following claims and their equivalents.
