Electrical computers and digital processing systems: memory – Storage accessing and control – Specific memory composition
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-29
2001-05-29
Kim, Matthew (Department: 2186)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: memory
Storage accessing and control
Specific memory composition
C711S162000, C711S165000, C711S114000, C711S111000, C711S163000, C714S006130, C712S020000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06240486
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to data storage systems and more particularly, to a system and method for on-line replacement of an existing data storage subsystem.
2. Description of Related Art
Data processing centers of businesses and organizations such as banks, airlines and insurance companies, for example, rely almost exclusively on their ability to access and process large amounts of data stored on a data storage device. Data and other information which is typically stored on one or more data storage devices which form part of a larger data storage system is commonly referred to as a database.
Databases are nearly always “open” and constantly “in use” and being accessed by a coupled data processing system, central processing unit (CPU) or host mainframe computer. The inability to access data is disastrous if not a crisis for such business and organizations and will typically result in the business or organization being forced to temporarily cease operation.
During the course of normal operations, these businesses and organizations must upgrade their data storage devices and data storage systems. Although such upgrading sometimes includes only the addition of data storage capacity to their existing physical systems, more often than not upgrading requires the addition of a completely separate and new data storage system. In such cases, the existing data on the existing data storage system or device must be backed up on a separate device such as a tape drive, the new system installed and connected to the data processing unit, and the data copied from the back-up device to the new data storage system. Such activity typically takes at least two days to accomplish. If the conversion takes more than two days or if the business or organization cannot withstand two days of inoperability, the need and desire to upgrade their data storage system may oppose an insurmountable problem.
Some prior art data copying methods and systems have proposed allowing two data storage systems of the same type, a first system and a second system, to be coupled to one another, and allowing the data storage systems themselves to control data copying from the first to the second system without intervention from or interference with the host data processing system. See for example, the data storage system described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/052,039 entitled REMOTE DATA MIRRORING, fully incorporated herein by reference, which describes one such remote data copying facility feature which can be implemented on a Symmetrix 5500 data storage system available from EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, Mass.
Although such a system and method for data copying is possible, in most instances, the first and second data storage systems are not of the same type, or of a type which allow such a “background” data migration to take place between the two data storage systems, unassisted by the host and while the database is open. Additionally, even on such prior art data storage systems, migrating data as a “background” task while the database is “open” does not take into account the fact that the data is constantly changing as it is accessed by the host or central processing unit and accordingly, if the old system is left connected to the host, there will always be a disparity between the data which is stored on the old data storage system and the data which has been migrated onto the new data storage system. In such cases, the new data storage system may never fully “catch up” and be able to be completely synchronized to the old data storage system.
Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for allowing data migration between a first data storage system and a second data storage system while the database is open and in real-time, completely transparent to the host or data processing unit.
SUMMARY
This invention features a system and method for providing on-line, real-time, transparent data migration between two data storage devices. The system includes a first data storage device which was previously coupled to an external source of data including a data processing device such as a host computer, or a network which may be connected to a number of data processing devices such as a number of host computers. The data processing device such as a host computer reads data from and writes data to the data storage device. The first data storage device initially includes a plurality of data elements currently being accessed by the data processing device.
At least one second data storage device is provided which is coupled to the first data storage device and to the data processing device, for storing data elements to be accessed by the data processing device. The second data storage device preferably includes a data element map including at least an indication of whether or not a particular data element is stored on the second data storage system.
In one embodiment, the second data storage system independently migrates data from the first to the second data storage system independent of the source. In another embodiment, the second data storage system is responsive to the external source, for migrating data from the first to the second data storage system.
In yet another embodiment, the data processing device issues a data read request (in the case of a read data operation), or a data write command (in the case of a write operation). The request is received by the second data storage device. In the case of a read operation, second data storage device examines the data map or table to determine whether or not the data has been migrated to and is stored on the second data storage device. If it is determined that the data is stored on the second data storage device, the data is made available to the requesting device.
If the data is not stored on the second data storage device, the second data storage device issues a data request, in the form of a read data command, to the first data storage device, obtains the data and makes the data available to the requesting device. The data received from the first data storage device is also written to the second data storage device and the data map updated.
In the case of a write operation, one embodiment contemplates that if the data received from the data processing device is destined for a location on the data storage system that has not yet been copied or ‘migrated’ from the older or first data storage device (a data storage location marked in the data map as ‘need to migrate’), and the data is not a full or complete data element (for example, not a ‘full track’ of data) the write operation is suspended, the “complete” data element from the corresponding location (a ‘full track’ for example) on the first data storage device is read into the cache memory on the second data storage device, the in-cache flag or bit set, the data storage location marked or identified as ‘write pending’, and the write operation resumed meaning that the data will be ‘written’ to and over the ‘full track’ of data now stored in the cache memory of the second data storage system. In other embodiments, the older data may not be retrieved from the first or older data processing device if the new data to be written is known to be a complete data element (a ‘full track’ for example).
When the second data storage device is not busy handling data read or write requests from a coupled data processing device, such as a host computer, the second data storage system examines its data map/table to determine which data elements are resident on the first data storage device and are not stored on the second data storage device. The second data storage device then issues read requests to the first data storage device requesting one or more of those data elements, receives the data, writes the data to the second data storage device and updates the data map/table to indicate that the data is now stored on the second data storage device.
In this manner, there is no need to perform time consuming off-line data migration between first and second data storage devices but rat
Ofek Yuval
Yanai Moshe
Bataille Pierre Michel
EMC Corporation
Herbster George A.
Kim Matthew
Pearson & Pearson
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