Patents by Inventor Yoshiaki Eguchi

Yoshiaki Eguchi has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20120191932
    Abstract: A computer system includes a first volume that is read and written from a first computer and in which write data is written, a second volume storing journal data in the first volume, the journal data delimited at each predetermined point, a third volume as a virtual volume, a unit that creates, when a backup instruction for the first volume at a predetermined point is received, the third volume from which a second computer reads the journal data and in which the second computer writes the journal data, a unit that maps the journal data to the third volume, and a unit that transfers the write data to a storage device via the second computer or transfers, through the third volume to which the journal data is mapped, the journal data to the storage device via the second computer and backs up the write data and the journal data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 5, 2012
    Publication date: July 26, 2012
    Inventors: Ai SATOYAMA, Yoshiaki Eguchi
  • Publication number: 20120173802
    Abstract: A flash memory storage system has a plurality of flash memory devices comprising a plurality of flash memories, and a controller having an I/O processing control unit for accessing a flash memory device specified by a designated access destination in an I/O request received from an external device from among the plurality of flash memory devices. A parity group can be configured of flash memory devices having identical internal configuration.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 8, 2012
    Publication date: July 5, 2012
    Inventors: Takashige IWAMURA, Kazuhisa Fujimoto, Yoshiaki Eguchi, Shunji Kawamura
  • Publication number: 20120166736
    Abstract: A first virtual storage and a second virtual storage share an external LU (Logical Unit) inside an external storage. The first virtual storage comprises a first LU, which comprises multiple first virtual areas and conforms to thin provisioning, and an external capacity pool, which is a storage area based on the external LU, and which is partitioned into multiple external pages, which are sub-storage areas. The second virtual storage comprises a second LU, which comprises multiple second virtual areas and conforms to thin provisioning.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 22, 2010
    Publication date: June 28, 2012
    Applicant: HITACHI, LTD.
    Inventors: Akira Yamamoto, Noboru Morishita, Hideo Saito, Yoshiaki Eguchi, Masayuki Yamamoto
  • Publication number: 20120166748
    Abstract: Provided is a technique for realizing allocation of pool areas to virtual volumes in accordance with the use environment of the user with proper cost, while improving the capacity efficiency of media. For this purpose, in the present invention, a pool is constituted by selecting or limiting combinations of tiers of media in the pool to be used (range of tiers that can be used in each pool) for each virtual volume set in a storage system (see FIG. 5).
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 28, 2010
    Publication date: June 28, 2012
    Inventors: Ai Satoyama, Yoshiaki Eguchi
  • Publication number: 20120151160
    Abstract: A virtual storage system is equipped with a plurality of storage systems and a virtualization device for virtualizing the plurality of storage systems logically into a single storage resource provided to a host computer. When one of the storage systems receives a command from the host computer, in the event that the storage system itself is not in possession of a function corresponding to the command, the storage system retrieves a storage system in possession of a function corresponding to the command and transfers this command to the storage system in possession of the function corresponding to the command.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 17, 2012
    Publication date: June 14, 2012
    Inventors: Ai Satoyama, Yoshiaki Eguchi
  • Patent number: 8195865
    Abstract: A migration destination storage creates an expansion device for virtualizing a migration source logical unit. A host computer accesses an external volume by way of an access path of a migration destination logical unit, a migration destination storage, a migration source storage, and an external volume. After destaging all dirty data accumulated in the disk cache of the migration source storage to the external volume, an expansion device for virtualizing the external volume is mapped to the migration destination logical unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2012
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Shunji Kawamura, Yasutomo Yamamoto, Yoshiaki Eguchi
  • Patent number: 8190846
    Abstract: A storage system connected to a computer and a management computer, includes storage devices accessed by the computer, and a control unit for controlling the storage devices. A first-type logical device corresponding to a storage area set in at least one of the storage devices and a second-type logical device that is a virtual storage area are provided. The control unit sets at least two of the first-type logical devices different in a characteristic as storage areas included in a storage pool through mapping. The first-type logical device stores data by allocating a storage area of the second-type logical device to a storage area of the first-type logical device mapped to the storage pool. The characteristic of the second-type logical device can be changed by changing the allocated storage area of the second-type logical device to a storage area of another first-type logical device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2012
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventor: Yoshiaki Eguchi
  • Publication number: 20120131302
    Abstract: Multiple types of storage devices which have different performance are appropriately allocated to multiple virtual volumes in accordance with the performance requirements of the respective virtual volumes. In cases where, among virtual volumes 82 for which response times have been specified, there is a [virtual volume] that has a shortage of pages to which SSDs 70 should be allocated and that does not satisfy the performance requirement when its Tier boundary value ? is adjusted to Tier boundary value ?? and, if unallocated pages as the pages to which SSDs 70 should be allocated do not exist, Tier boundary value ? or Tier boundary value ? of another virtual volume is adjusted to Tier boundary value ?? or the Tier boundary value ??, and pages to which SSDs 70 are allocated are secured in the virtual volume 82 for which the Tier boundary value has been adjusted.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 18, 2010
    Publication date: May 24, 2012
    Applicant: HITACHI, LTD.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Nasu, Hirokazu Ikeda, Yoshiaki Eguchi, Toshimichi Kishimoto
  • Publication number: 20120131287
    Abstract: The present invention efficiently changes a volume size while maintaining a copy pair as-is. A PVOL and a SVOL #1 are in a pair state and are synchronized. The PVOL and a SVOL #2 are in a restore state. Upon instruction of expansion of the size of the PVOL, the size of a copy-destination SVOL #1 is first expanded, the size of the PVOL is then expanded, and the size of the SVOL #2 is lastly expanded. In the case of a PSUS state, only the size of the PVOL is expanded, and the size of the SVOL is left as-is.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 19, 2010
    Publication date: May 24, 2012
    Inventors: Tadato Nishina, Kohei Tatara, Masayuki Yamamoto, Yoshiaki Eguchi, Shunji Kawamura, Akira Deguchi
  • Patent number: 8170996
    Abstract: The data up to a point of time whereat failure has occurred will be restored at high speed at a remote site without imposing any burden on a host. The first storage system on the master side processes an I/O request from the host, and as a result of I/O processing to the second storage system on the remote side, transmits the update data. The second storage system retains data received from the first storage system as update log data. The host transmits a command for settling a state of an application to the first storage system as data, and the first storage system transmits the data to the second storage system. The host and the second storage system both retain an identifier corresponding to the command, and relate the identifier to the log data. Thereby, the host designates the identifier at any given time, whereby the second storage system restores the data at any given time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2012
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Yoshiaki Eguchi, Yasutomo Yamamoto, Hiroshi Arakawa, Yusuke Hirakawa
  • Patent number: 8166241
    Abstract: Provided is a computer system including: a host computer; a first storage system connected to the host computer; and a second storage system connected to the first storage system; in which the first storage system sets a first logical volume recognized by the host computer as a logical storage area; the first logical volume includes a plurality of first storage areas; a first real storage area on the first disk drive is allocated to at least one of the first storage areas. In the computer system, the second storage system sets a second logical volume corresponding to the first logical volume, and the first storage system transmits data stored in the first storage area allocated to the first storage area to the second storage system when the first real storage area is allocated to the first storage area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2012
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Sadahiro Sugimoto, Kazuyoshi Serizawa, Yoshiaki Eguchi, Shunji Kawamura
  • Patent number: 8166235
    Abstract: A flash memory storage system has a plurality of flash memory devices comprising a plurality of flash memories, and a controller having an I/O processing control unit for accessing a flash memory device specified by a designated access destination in an I/O request received from an external device from among the plurality of flash memory devices. A parity group can be configured of flash memory devices having identical internal configuration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2012
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Takashige Iwamura, Kazuhisa Fujimoto, Yoshiaki Eguchi, Shunji Kawamura
  • Publication number: 20120096231
    Abstract: A second storage maps a migration source volume to a virtual volume of a migration destination volume according to storage virtualization technology. A host system including a host switches an access path from an access path to the migration source volume to an access path to the migration destination volume. The second storage executes copy processing of migrating, from the migration source volume to the migration destination volume, data in an assigned area of a virtual volume according to thin provisioning of the migration source volume based on the information contained in the first thin provisioning information in the first storage, and copying that data from the migration destination volume to a virtual volume according to thin provisioning of a copy destination volume in the second storage. The second storage associates the virtual volume of the copy destination volume with the migration destination volume in substitute for the original virtual volume.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 14, 2010
    Publication date: April 19, 2012
    Inventors: Noboru Morishita, Hideo Saito, Yoshiaki Eguchi, Masayuki Yamamoto, Akira Yamamoto
  • Patent number: 8161239
    Abstract: A virtual storage system is equipped with a plurality of storage systems and a virtualization device for virtualizing the plurality of storage systems logically into a single storage resource provided to a host computer. When one of the storage systems receives a command from the host computer, in the event that the storage system itself is not in possession of a function corresponding to the command, the storage system retrieves a storage system in possession of a function corresponding to the command and transfers this command to the storage system in possession of the function corresponding to the command.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2012
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Ai Satoyama, Yoshiaki Eguchi
  • Publication number: 20120072688
    Abstract: This storage system includes a first storage sub system having a first logical volume where a first data area is dynamically allocated to each prescribed area, and which stores data transmitted from a host computer in the first data area, and a second storage sub system having a second data area for backing up the first logical volume; wherein the first storage sub system includes: a first management unit for managing the status of the first data area allocated to each of the areas of the first logical volume; a transfer unit for transferring the data stored in the first data area allocated to each of the areas of the first logical volume to the second storage sub system; and a restoration unit for restoring the first logical volume based on the status of the first data area managed by the first management unit and/or the data transferred from the second storage sub system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 21, 2011
    Publication date: March 22, 2012
    Inventors: Tomohiro KAWAGUCHI, Yoshiaki Eguchi
  • Patent number: 8131962
    Abstract: A storage system for writing data sent from a computer to storage regions is described. The storage system includes storage regions configured to store data, and a controller coupled with the storage regions. The controller is configured to control writing of the data from the computer. The controller is further configured to set a first storage region for writing data sent from the computer to a second storage region. The controller then acquires a snapshot of the first storage region at a predetermined time, writes a snapshot journal for the snapshot to the second storage region, and manages a snapshot management table. The controller also acquires a recovery point journal when a recovery volume designated by the computer is made, and writes the recovery point journal to the second storage region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 9, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2012
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Yoshiaki Eguchi, Hiroshi Arakawa
  • Publication number: 20120054462
    Abstract: This storage system has an allocation unit for allocating a storage extent in prescribed units to the dynamic logical volume upon storing the data sent from the host computer in the dynamic logical volume; a management unit for managing the storage extent recognized as being currently used by the file system among the storage extents allocated to the dynamic logical volume by the allocation unit; and a release unit for releasing the storage extent that is not being managed by the management unit from the dynamic logical volume.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 10, 2011
    Publication date: March 1, 2012
    Applicant: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Norio Shimozono, Kazuyoshi Serizawa, Yoshiaki Eguchi
  • Publication number: 20120042138
    Abstract: The storage system includes a first storage system and a second storage system. The first storage system, which is coupled to a computer and the second storage system, includes a first storage control device and a plurality of first storage units. The second storage system includes a plurality of second storage units. The first storage control device provides the computer with a logical unit assigned to at least one of the second storage units, receives a first access request from the computer and sends a second access request to one of plurality of the second storage units, obtains performance information relating to the second access request, and moves data stored in at least one of the plurality of second storage units to at least one of the first storage units according to the performance information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 20, 2011
    Publication date: February 16, 2012
    Applicant: HITACHI, LTD.
    Inventors: Yoshiaki Eguchi, Yasutomo Yamamoto, Ai Satoyama, Akinobu Shimada
  • Publication number: 20120042141
    Abstract: Improvement of read/write access performance with respect to a disk is proposed. A controller manages a first volume format LDEV, in which each distributed user data area and each distributed information area among a plurality of the distributed user data areas for storing a data part and a plurality of the distributed control information area for storing a control information part, are targets that capacity is changed. The controller also manages a second format LDEV, which include a plurality of groups each of which is formed from one distributed user data area and one distributed control information area, and in which each group is a unit that capacity is expanded in a real storage area.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 11, 2010
    Publication date: February 16, 2012
    Applicant: HITACHI, LTD.
    Inventors: Kohei Tatara, Yoshiaki Eguchi, Hisaharu Takeuchi
  • Publication number: 20120036330
    Abstract: With a computer system having a host computer and first and second storage apparatuses, the second storage apparatus virtualizes first logical units in the first storage apparatus and provides them as second logical units to the host computer, collects configuration information about each first logical unit, and sets each piece of the collected configuration information to each corresponding second logical unit. The host computer adds a path to the second logical units and deletes a path to the first logical units. The second storage apparatus copies data stored in the first logical units to a storage area provided by the second storage device and associates the storage area with the second logical units.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 6, 2010
    Publication date: February 9, 2012
    Applicant: HITACHI, LTD.
    Inventors: Hideo Saito, Yoshiaki Eguchi, Masayuki Yamamoto, Akira Yamamoto