Method and system for reporting disk utilizations for disk...

Details Method and system for reporting disk utilizations for disk... Method and system for reporting disk utilizations for disk...

1999-08-31

2002-07-09

Kim, Matthew (Department: 2186)

Electrical computers and digital processing systems: memory

Storage accessing and control

Specific memory composition

C714S006130, C709S241000, C709S241000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06418512

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to computer systems, and more specifically to disk subsystems in computer systems.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Mainframe disk subsystems are well known in the art.
FIG. 1
illustrates a mainframe computer system with a conventional disk subsystem. The computer system
100
includes a disk subsystem
102
and a host
104
. The disk subsystem
102
includes a disk array
106
, a cache
108
, and a processor
110
which controls the functioning of the disk subsystem
102
. The host
104
comprises software specifically for communication with the disk subsystem
102
, and does so by interfacing with the processor
110
. One of the functions of the processor
110
is to provide statistics and other characteristics of the disk array
106
to the host
104
. Examples of disk characteristics of interest to the host
104
include a table of ownership, the amount of space used on the disks
106
, and performance characteristics. An important performance characteristic is disk utilization, which tells the host
104
how busy are each disk in the array
106
. In a mainframe environment, as illustrated in
FIG. 1
, obtaining the disk utilization characteristic is well known in the art. However, a problem arises when the disk subsystem attempts to communicate with open system hosts, such as hosts which run UNIX, Windows NT, or some other type of open operating system. The parameters relevant to disk characteristics sent from the processor
110
to the host
104
is not in a format which is understandable by the open system host. Thus, in an open systems environment, the open system host is unable to obtain disk characteristics, including the disk utilization characteristic.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a method and system for providing parameters for a disk subsystem to an open system host. The method and system should be able to provide disk utilization which is understandable to the open system host. The present invention addresses such a need.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a method and system for reporting disk utilization in a computer system. The method includes collecting at least one parameter pertaining to a disk array in a disk subsystem by a processor in the disk subsystem; transferring the at least one parameter from the processor to an open system host; and calculating disk utilization based upon the at least one parameter. The method and system is able to provide disk utilization which is understandable to the open system host. In a preferred embodiment, the disk utilization is provided by collecting the relevant parameters from the microcode in the processor of the disk subsystem, and then calculating the average disk utilization per disk based upon the parameters. Thus, an open system host is able to obtain a useful characteristic for determining the performance of the disk subsystem.


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