Virtual Multipath Control for Disaster Recovery
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current disaster recovery management for storage systems is complex, requiring coordination among multiple servers and storage systems, and can lead to consistency issues during asynchronous copy operations or journal copy failures, necessitating custom scripts for managing volume states.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a virtual storage system with virtual multipath control that manages remote copy volume states, allowing server administrators to set up disaster recovery environments without coordinating among various servers and storage administrators, by configuring virtual volumes with primary and secondary status relationships for data replication and failover.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If server administrators manually coordinate to configure volume states among multiple servers and storage systems, then disaster recovery can be managed, but the complexity of operation increases and requires custom scripts
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a bitmap management unit as an intermediary component that automatically manages volume states and coordinates failover/failback operations between primary and secondary storage systems. This intermediary eliminates the need for administrators to manually configure volume states or write custom coordination scripts, while ensuring reliable disaster recovery through automated state management and failure detection mechanisms.
2Productivity
If asynchronous copy operations are performed during disaster recovery, then data replication can occur, but consistency problems may arise in copy volumes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary actions by establishing a bitmap that tracks the state of each data block before asynchronous copy operations begin. The bitmap management unit pre-configures the replication state information, allowing the system to quickly determine which blocks need replication and maintain consistency tracking throughout the asynchronous copy process, preventing consistency problems while maintaining high productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs feedback mechanisms where the bitmap management unit continuously monitors the replication status and updates the bitmap accordingly. This feedback loop ensures that the system maintains an accurate record of which data blocks have been successfully replicated, allowing it to handle failures gracefully and maintain data consistency across distributed storage systems during asynchronous operations.
3Reliability
If journal copy operations are performed, then data can be replicated with checkpoints, but applications may need to roll back to checkpoints upon failure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-tracking replication status in the bitmap before journal copy operations complete. When failures occur, the bitmap management unit can immediately determine the latest consistent checkpoint state without requiring applications to perform time-consuming rollback operations, as the system has already prepared and recorded the replication state information in advance.
4Reliability
If custom DR scripts are implemented to manage volume states, then failover and failback can be coordinated, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service by enabling the bitmap management unit to automatically manage volume states, detect failures, and coordinate failover/failback operations without requiring external custom scripts. The system serves itself by using the bitmap to track and manage replication states, eliminating the need for additional complexity from custom DR scripts while maintaining reliable failover coordination through automated state management.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods described herein involve a virtual storage utilized to virtualize the storage of storage systems across multiple sites. The virtual storage is associated with a virtual multipath control. The virtual multipath control manages the virtual path state of the inter-physical storage, the remote copy volume state which has primary volume or secondary volume state, and the volume copy operation mode such as synchronous copy mode journal copy mode, or bitmap resync mode. The virtual multipath control of the virtual storage facilitates choices from the host for a preferred site, path, state, and volume by utilizing a virtual multipath state from a get virtual multipath information command.