Transaction Service for Storage Management Automation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current storage management systems require manual, time-consuming discrete operations for array management tasks, lack ease of use, and fail to provide transactional integrity, leading to potential storage corruption and incomplete configurations.
Innovation Solution
A generic transaction service that bundles discrete CIM-based management operations into a single transaction, allowing automatic execution, rollback, error resolution, seamless failover, and saving operations in an XML file for integration with SMI-S compliant clients, using a hierarchical task framework and execution engine.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If manual discrete operations are used for storage management, then flexibility in individual operation control is maintained, but time consumption and operational complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple discrete storage management operations into a single transactional unit. The transaction service bundles array creation, volume provisioning, and other storage operations together, allowing them to be executed atomically. This merging eliminates the need for manual sequencing of discrete operations, significantly improving storage management efficiency while reducing the time required to complete multi-step storage configurations.
2Reliability
If manual storage management operations are performed, then step-by-step control is possible, but transactional integrity and risk of storage corruption decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The transaction service automatically manages the execution, monitoring, and completion of storage operations without requiring manual intervention at each step. The system self-services by tracking operation status, detecting failures, and executing rollbacks automatically. This self-service mechanism ensures transactional integrity while maintaining ease of operation, as users can initiate transactions without worrying about the complex coordination and error handling required for manual discrete operations.
3Device complexity
If discrete storage operations are executed manually, then individual error handling is possible, but system complexity and potential for incomplete configurations increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments storage management into distinct transactional units with clear boundaries and defined states. Each transaction is divided into discrete steps that can be individually tracked, monitored, and controlled. This segmentation allows the system to manage complexity by breaking down complex storage configurations into manageable transactional components, while ensuring configuration accuracy through atomic execution and automatic rollback capabilities for each segment.
Data Source
AI summary
A method is used in controlling multi-step storage management operations. From a specification of a desired configuration of a data storage system, a description of a multi-step transaction for producing the desired configuration is derived. The description includes directions for reacting to results of an intermediate step within the multi-step transaction. Management operations are invoked based on the description.