Effortless Data Migration with Intelligent Storage

Introduction

This innovative storage migration method offers a streamlined, reliable approach to data migration, crucial for organizations undergoing digital transformation or system upgrades. It provides a solution that minimizes downtime and ensures data integrity, giving businesses the confidence to scale and adapt without sacrificing operational continuity. With intelligent controls designed to manage storage migration seamlessly, this technology optimizes both data accessibility and storage efficiency during transitions.

Common Challenge: Complexity and Downtime in Data Migration

Data migration often poses significant challenges due to the risk of data loss, extended downtime, and the complexity of transferring storage volumes across infrastructures. Traditional migration methods are typically resource-intensive, require heavy manual oversight, and can disrupt day-to-day operations, impacting productivity and increasing costs. As businesses continue to scale, the need for a smoother, more resilient migration process becomes essential to maintain efficiency and business continuity.

Smart Technology for Smooth Migration

This patented migration method incorporates advanced control features to manage data transitions automatically and securely. By enabling real-time monitoring and adjustment during the migration process, the system ensures that storage resources are allocated appropriately to maintain performance levels, even in high-demand environments. The adaptive technology adjusts dynamically to handle varying data loads, providing consistent speed and stability throughout the migration process. This approach reduces the risk of disruptions, allowing for fast, flexible, and efficient data migration without compromising system reliability.

Key Benefits Across Core Industries

For data centers and cloud providers, this technology simplifies complex migrations, enabling businesses to manage resources more efficiently and minimize disruptions. IT infrastructure teams benefit from an automated solution that requires minimal manual intervention, freeing personnel to focus on strategic goals. Enterprises across industries such as finance, healthcare, and telecommunications—where data availability is critical—will appreciate a migration method that ensures data accessibility throughout the process. The technology’s compatibility with diverse storage systems also makes it a versatile solution that can be integrated seamlessly across various platforms.

Elevate Your Data Management Capabilities

Licensing this intelligent storage migration technology empowers your organization to achieve faster, smoother data transitions with minimal downtime. With its adaptive, real-time control features, this technology offers a forward-thinking solution for companies looking to streamline their data management processes and optimize their resources. It provides an essential tool for businesses in dynamic data environments, supporting growth and operational resilience with a migration system that keeps pace with today’s data-driven demands.

Please see terms and conditions
A source remote copy configuration in a source storage system is migrated to a destination storage system as a destination remote copy configuration. The destination primary storage apparatus of the destination storage system defines a virtual volume mapped to the primary volume provided by the source primary storage apparatus which is a storage area of the virtual volume; takes over a first identifier of the primary volume to the virtual volume; transfers, when the virtual volume receives an access request, the access request to the source primary storage apparatus to write data in the primary volume; and takes over the first identifier from the virtual volume to another primary volume provided by the destination primary storage apparatus, after completion of copy of data from primary volume of the source primary storage apparatus into primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus and secondary volume of the destination secondary storage apparatus.

What is claimed is:

1. A storage system for migrating a source remote copy configuration in a source storage system to a destination storage system as a destination remote copy configuration, the storage system comprising:

the source storage system including the source remote copy configuration comprised of a primary volume provided by a source primary storage apparatus and a secondary volume provided by a source secondary storage apparatus; and
the destination storage system, coupled to the source storage system, including a primary volume provided by a destination primary storage apparatus and a secondary volume provided by a destination secondary storage apparatus so that the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus and the secondary volume of the destination secondary storage apparatus are able to configure the destination remote copy configuration,

wherein the destination primary storage apparatus of the destination storage system is configured to:

define a virtual volume mapped to the primary volume provided by the source primary storage apparatus which is a storage area of the virtual volume;
take over a first identifier of the primary volume of the source primary storage apparatus, to the virtual volume, the first identifier provided for a host computer as an identifier of the virtual volume;
transfer, when the virtual volume receives an access request from the host computer, the access request to the source primary storage apparatus to write data in the primary volume provided by the source primary storage apparatus; and
take over the first identifier from the virtual volume to the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus, after completion of a copy of data stored in the primary volume of the source primary storage apparatus into both the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus and the secondary volume of the destination secondary storage apparatus, and

wherein, when the destination primary storage apparatus of the destination storage system receives a write request from the host computer after taking over the first identifier from the virtual volume to the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus, the destination primary storage apparatus of the destination storage system is configured to:

write data related to the write request to the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus; and
copy the data between the primary volume provided by the destination primary storage apparatus and the secondary volume provided by the destination secondary storage apparatus which comprise the destination remote copy configuration.

2. A storage system coupled to a host computer for migrating a source remote copy configuration in a source storage system to a destination storage system as a destination remote copy configuration, the storage system comprising:

the source storage system including the source remote copy configuration comprised of a primary volume provided by a source primary storage apparatus and a secondary volume provided by a source secondary storage apparatus; and
the destination storage system, coupled to the source storage system, including a primary volume provided by a destination primary storage apparatus and a secondary volume provided by a destination secondary storage apparatus so that the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus and the secondary volume of the destination secondary storage apparatus are able to configure the destination remote copy configuration,

wherein the destination primary storage apparatus is configured to:

define a virtual volume which is mapped to the primary volume provided by the source primary storage apparatus for storing data in the primary volume provided by the source primary storage apparatus;
take over a first identifier of the primary volume of the source primary storage apparatus to the virtual volume, the first identifier provided for the host computer as an identifier of the virtual volume; and
transfer, when the destination primary storage apparatus receives an access request to the virtual volume from the host computer, the access request to the source primary storage apparatus for accessing data in the primary volume provided by the source primary storage apparatus,
wherein the destination secondary storage apparatus is configured to take over a second identifier of the secondary volume of the source secondary storage apparatus, to the secondary volume of the destination secondary storage apparatus as an identifier of the secondary volume of the destination secondary storage apparatus,

wherein the destination primary storage apparatus of the destination storage system and the destination secondary storage apparatus of the destination storage system are configured to:

form a remote copy pair between the virtual volume associated with the first identifier and the secondary volume associated with the second identifier; and
copy data in the primary volume of the source primary storage apparatus to the secondary volume of the destination secondary storage apparatus, the primary volume of the destination primary apparatus being a storage area of the virtual volume;

wherein the destination primary storage apparatus is configured to:

form a volume migration pair between the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus and the virtual volume associated with the first identifier; and
migrate data stored in the primary volume of the source primary storage apparatus into the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus, the primary volume of the destination secondary storage apparatus being a storage area of the virtual volume,

wherein, after completion of the copy of data stored in the primary volume of the source primary storage apparatus to the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus and completion of the migration of data stored in the primary volume of the source primary storage apparatus to the secondary volume of the destination secondary storage apparatus, the destination primary storage apparatus is configured to:

take over the first identifier from the virtual volume to the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus; and
provide the destination remote copy configuration between the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus and the secondary volume of the destination secondary storage apparatus, and

wherein, when the destination primary storage apparatus of the destination storage system receives a write request from the host computer, the destination primary storage apparatus is configured to:

write data related to the write request to the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus; and
copy the data between the primary volume provided by the destination primary storage apparatus and the secondary volume provided by the destination secondary storage apparatus which comprise the destination remote copy configuration.

3. The storage system according to claim 2,

wherein, when a write request is transferred from the destination primary storage apparatus before completion of a copy of data stored in the primary volume of the source primary storage apparatus into the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus, the source primary storage apparatus is configured to:

store the data related to the write request in the primary volume of the source primary storage apparatus; and
copy the data related to the write request to the secondary volume of the source secondary storage apparatus for keeping the remote copy configuration at the source storage system.

4. The storage system according to claim 2,

wherein the destination primary storage apparatus is configured to execute a remote copy function for copying data from the virtual volume to the secondary volume of the destination secondary storage apparatus and a data migration function,

wherein the data migration function is configured to:

migrate data between the virtual volume and the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus; and
take over the first identifier from the virtual volume to the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus after completion of the data migration, and
wherein the data migration function is configured to wait until completion of an initial copy executed by the remote copy function before taking over the first identifier even if the data migration is completed.

5. The storage system according to claim 2,

wherein the source remote copy configuration is and the destination remote copy configuration is either a synchronous remote copy configuration or an asynchronous remote copy configuration.

6. The storage system according to claim 2,

wherein the destination primary storage apparatus further comprises a plurality of storage devices which configure a storage area of the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus, and
wherein, when the destination primary storage apparatus receives a write request to the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus, the destination primary storage apparatus is configured to store data related to the write request in the plurality of storage devices.

7. The storage system according to claim 2,

wherein the virtual volume has a third identifier as a real identifier of the virtual volume,
wherein the destination primary storage apparatus is configured to take over the first identifier from the primary volume of the source primary storage apparatus to the virtual volume by associating the first identifier with the third identifier,
wherein the secondary volume of the destination secondary storage apparatus has a fifth identifier as a real identifier of the secondary volume of the destination secondary storage apparatus,
wherein the destination secondary storage apparatus is configured to take over the second identifier from the secondary volume of the source primary storage apparatus to the secondary volume of the destination secondary storage apparatus by associating the second identifier with the fifth identifier.

8. The storage system according to claim 7,

wherein the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus has a fourth identifier as a real identifier of the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus,

wherein, after the completion of the copy of data stored in the primary volume of the source primary storage apparatus into the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus and the completion of the migration of data stored in the primary volume of the source primary storage apparatus into the secondary volume of the destination secondary storage apparatus, the destination primary storage apparatus is configured to:

swap the third identifier for the fourth identifier so that the identifier of the virtual volume changes to the fourth identifier and the identifier of the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus changes to the third identifier which is associated with the first identifier; and
provide the host computer with the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus as a volume having the first identifier.

9. The storage system according to claim 2,

wherein, when the destination storage system receives an INQUIRY command from the host, the destination storage system is configured to respond to the INQUIRY command with not a real identifier of a volume which takes over the first identifier but the first identifier as an identifier of the volume.

10. The storage system according to claim 9, the storage system further comprising a management terminal,

wherein, when the destination primary storage apparatus receives a command for instructing pair creation specifying the first identifier and the second identifier from the management terminal, the primary storage apparatus is configured to:

configure remote a copy pair in the destination storage system between a volume having the third identifier associated with the first identifier and a volume having the fifth identifier associated with the second identifier.

11. A remote copy configuration migration method for migrating a source remote copy configuration in a source storage system to a destination storage system as a destination remote copy configuration, the remote copy configuration migration method comprising:

defining a virtual volume which is mapped to a primary volume provided by the source storage system for storing data in the primary volume of the source storage system;
taking over a first identifier of the primary volume of the source storage system to the virtual volume, the first identifier provided for a host computer as an identifier of the virtual volume;
transferring, when the source storage system receives an access request to the virtual volume from the host computer, the access request to the source storage system for accessing data in the primary volume of the source storage system;
taking over a second identifier of the secondary volume of the source storage system, to the secondary volume of the destination storage system as an identifier of the secondary volume of the destination storage system;
forming a remote copy pair between the virtual volume associated with the first identifier and the secondary volume associated with the second identifier;
copying data in the primary volume of the source storage system to the secondary volume of the destination storage system, the primary volume of the destination primary apparatus being a storage area of the virtual volume;
configuring a volume migration pair between the primary volume of the destination storage system and the virtual volume associated with the first identifier; and
migrating data stored in the primary volume of the source storage system into the primary volume of the destination storage system, the primary volume of the destination storage system being a storage area of the virtual volume,

wherein, after both completion of the copy of data stored in the primary volume of the source storage system to the primary volume of the destination storage system and completion of the migration of data stored in the primary volume of the source storage system to the secondary volume of the destination storage system, the remote copy configuration migration method further comprises:

taking over the first identifier from the virtual volume to the primary volume of the destination storage system; and
forming the destination remote copy configuration between the primary volume of the destination storage system and the secondary volume of the destination storage system, and

wherein, when the destination storage system receives a write request from the host computer, the remote copy configuration migration method further comprises:

writing data related to the write request to the primary volume of the destination storage system; and
copying the data between the primary volume of the destination storage system and the secondary volume of the secondary storage system which comprise the destination remote copy configuration.

12. The remote copy configuration migration method according to claim 11,

wherein, when a write request is transferred from the destination primary storage apparatus before completion of a copy of data stored in the primary volume of the source primary storage apparatus into the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus, the remote copy configuration migration method further comprises:

storing the data related to the write request in the primary volume of the source storage system; and
copying the data related to the write request to the secondary volume of the source storage system for keeping the remote copy configuration at the source storage system.

13. The remote copy configuration migration method according to claim 11, further comprising:

executing a remote copy function for copying data from the virtual volume to the secondary volume of the destination secondary storage apparatus; and
executing a data migration function for migrating data between the virtual volume and the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus and taking over the first identifier from the virtual volume to the primary volume of the destination storage system after completion of the data migration,
wherein the data migration function further comprises waiting until completion of an initial copy executed by the remote copy function before taking over the first identifier even if the data migration is completed.

14. The remote copy configuration migration method according to claim 11,

wherein the source remote copy configuration is and the destination remote copy configuration is either a synchronous remote copy configuration or an asynchronous remote copy configuration.

15. The remote copy configuration migration method according to claim 11,

wherein the destination storage system further comprises a plurality of storage devices which configure a storage area of the primary volume of the destination storage system, and

wherein the remote copy configuration migration method further comprises:

storing, when the destination storage system receives a write request to the primary volume of the destination storage system, data related to the write request in the plurality of storage devices.

16. The remote copy configuration migration method according to claim 11,

wherein the virtual volume has a third identifier as a real identifier of the virtual volume and the secondary volume of the destination storage system has a fifth identifier as a real identifier of the secondary volume of the destination storage system,

wherein the remote copy configuration migration method further comprises:

taking over the first identifier from the primary volume of the source storage system to the virtual volume by associating the first identifier with the third identifier; and
taking over the second identifier from the secondary volume of the source storage system to the secondary volume of the destination storage system by associating the second identifier with the fifth identifier.

17. The remote copy configuration migration method according to claim 16,

wherein the primary volume of the destination storage system has a fourth identifier as a real identifier of the primary volume of the destination storage system,

wherein the remote copy configuration migration method further comprises:

swapping, after the completion of the copy of data stored in the primary volume of the source storage system into the primary volume of the destination storage system and the completion of the migration of data stored in the primary volume of the source storage system into the secondary volume of the destination storage system, the third identifier for the fourth identifier so that the identifier of the virtual volume changes to the fourth identifier and the identifier of the primary volume of the destination storage system changes to the third identifier which is associated with the first identifier; and
providing the host computer with the primary volume of the destination storage system as a volume having the first identifier.

18. The remote copy configuration migration method according to claim 11, further comprising:

responding, when the destination storage system receives an INQUIRY command from the host, to the INQUIRY command with not a real identifier of a volume which takes over first identifier but the first identifier as an identifier of the volume.

19. The remote copy configuration migration method according to claim 18, the storage system further comprising a management terminal,

wherein the remote copy configuration migration method further comprises:

when the destination storage system receives a command for instructing pair creation specifying the first identifier and the second identifier from the management terminal, configuring a remote copy pair in the destination storage system between a volume having the third identifier associated with the first identifier and a volume having the fifth identifier associated with the second identifier.

20. A destination storage system coupled to a host computer for migrating a source remote copy configuration in a source storage system to a destination storage system as a destination remote copy configuration, the storage system comprising:

the source storage system including the source remote copy configuration comprised of a primary volume provided by a source primary storage apparatus and a secondary volume provided by a source secondary storage apparatus; and
the destination storage system, coupled to the source storage system, including a primary volume provided by a destination primary storage apparatus and a secondary volume provided by a destination secondary storage apparatus so that the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus and the secondary volume of the destination secondary storage apparatus are able to configure the destination remote copy configuration,

wherein the destination primary storage apparatus is configured to:

define a virtual volume which is mapped to the primary volume provided by the source primary storage apparatus for storing data in the primary volume provided by the source primary storage apparatus;
take over a first identifier of the primary volume of the source primary storage apparatus to the virtual volume, the first identifier provided for the host computer as an identifier of the virtual volume; and
transfer, when the destination primary storage apparatus receives an access request to the virtual volume from the host computer, the access request to the source primary storage apparatus for accessing data in the primary volume provided by the source primary storage apparatus,
wherein the destination secondary storage apparatus is configured to take over a second identifier of the secondary volume of the source secondary storage apparatus, to the secondary volume of the destination secondary storage apparatus as an identifier of the secondary volume of the destination secondary storage apparatus,

wherein the destination primary storage apparatus of the destination storage system and the destination secondary storage apparatus of the destination storage system are configured to:

form a remote copy pair between the virtual volume associated with the first identifier and the secondary volume associated with the second identifier; and
copy data in the primary volume of the source primary storage apparatus to the secondary volume of the destination secondary storage apparatus, the primary volume of the destination primary apparatus being a storage area of the virtual volume;

wherein the destination primary storage apparatus is configured to:

configure a volume migration pair between the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus and the virtual volume associated with the first identifier; and
migrate data stored in the primary volume of the source primary storage apparatus into the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus, the primary volume of the destination secondary storage apparatus being a storage area of the virtual volume,

wherein, after completion of the copy of data stored in the primary volume of the source primary storage apparatus to the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus and completion of the migration of data stored in the primary volume of the source primary storage apparatus to the secondary volume of the destination secondary storage apparatus, the destination primary storage apparatus is configured to:

take over the first identifier from the virtual volume to the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus; and
form the destination remote copy configuration between the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus and the secondary volume of the destination secondary storage apparatus, and

wherein, when the destination primary storage apparatus of the destination storage system receives a write request from the host computer, the destination primary storage apparatus is configured to:

write data related to the write request to the primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus; and
copy the data between the primary volume provided by the destination primary storage apparatus and the secondary volume provided by the destination secondary storage apparatus which comprise the destination remote copy configuration.
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Title

Storage apparatus and storage apparatus migration method

Inventor(s)

Taiki Kono, Hidenori Suzuki, Kunihiko Nashimoto, Shigeo Homma, Toru Suzuki, Tomohiro Kawaguchi, Hideo Saito, Azusa Jin, Hiroshi Nasu, Keishi Tamura, Shoji Sugino

Assignee(s)

Hitachi Ltd

Patent #

8904133

Patent Date

December 2, 2014

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