Virtual integrated cartridge loader for virtual tape storage system
Filing Information
- Patent Number: US5805864
- Application Number: US8707891
- Filing date: 09/10/1996
- Issue date: 09/08/1998
- Predicted expiration date: 09/10/2016
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analyzing 100 million+ documents to uncover your network...- U.S. Classifications: 395/500 · 360/92 ·
- International Classifications: G06F 1206 ·
- International Classifications: 395500;82;182.04;821;839;860;888 ·
- View document at: (opens new window):
USPTO · PAIR · esp@cenet · Patent Family* Related patent documents may or may not exist on these sites
Abstract
Virtual data storage cartridges are created on a data storage subsystem to/from which volume writes and reads are directed. When a number of data volumes have been written, the controller may migrate them to the tape drive, a much faster process than writing directly to tape and enabling multiple logical volumes to be written to a single physical tape. With the present invention, virtual scratch cartridges are virtually premounted in a virtual drive loader while the virtual drive is accessing another virtual cartridge. When the host calls for a new scratch cartridge, it can be mounted in the virtual drive almost immediately, having already been virtually pre-loaded.References Cited
U.S. Patent Documents
| Document Number | Assignees | Inventors | Issue/Pub Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| US4310883 | International Business Machines Corporation | Clifton et al. | Jan 1982 |
| US4945429 | Storage Technology Corporation | Munro et al. | Jul 1990 |
| US5128815 | Storage Technology Corporation | Leonhardt et al. | Jul 1992 |
| US5193184 | Storage Technology Corporation | Belsan et al. | Mar 1993 |
| US5202809 | Storage Technology Corporation | Dodt et al. | Apr 1993 |
| US5247638 | Storage Technology Corporation | O'Brien et al. | Sep 1993 |
| US5287459 | International Business Machines Corporation | Gniewek | Feb 1994 |
| US5386516 | International Business Machines Corporation | Monahan et al. | Jan 1995 |
| US5542082 | Tandberg Data A/S | Solhjell | Jul 1996 |
| US5694600 | Iomega Corporation | Khenson et al. | Dec 1997 |
Referenced By
Patent Family
The current document is not in a family.View Drawings
Independent Claims | See all claims (56)
- 1. In a data storage system that provides an interface between a host and a data storage device ("DSD"), said interface emulating a virtual cartridge data storage library in communicating with the host, said virtual cartridge data storage library including a plurality of virtual cartridges, a method for virtually pre-loading virtual cartridges comprising the steps of:maintaining an available cartridge database containing a list of virtual cartridges, each virtual cartridge identified in the available cartridge database by a virtual cartridge identifier;maintaining an active cartridge map cross-referencing each item of data stored on the DSD with one of the virtual cartridges;selecting a virtual cartridge identifier from the available database;entering the selected virtual cartridge identifier in a pre-load map;receiving from a host a scratch mount request; andsatisfying the scratch mount request by performing steps comprising:choosing one of the cartridge identifiers from the pre-load map; andremoving the chosen virtual cartridge identifier from the pre-load map.
- 7. In a data storage system that provides an interface between a host and a cache, said interface emulating a virtual cartridge data storage library in communicating with the host, said virtual cartridge data storage library including a plurality of virtual cartridges, a method for virtually pre-loading virtual cartridges comprising the steps of:maintaining an available cartridge database containing a list of virtual cartridges, each virtual cartridge identified in the available cartridge database by a virtual cartridge identifier;maintaining an active cartridge map cross-referencing each item of data stored on the cache with one of the virtual cartridges;selecting a virtual cartridge identifier from the available database;entering the selected virtual cartridge identifier in a pre-load map;receiving from a host a scratch mount request; andsatisfying the scratch mount request by performing steps comprising:choosing one of the cartridge identifiers from the pre-load map; andremoving the chosen virtual cartridge identifier from the pre-load map.
- 11. In a data storage system that provides an interface between a host and a data storage device ("DSD"), said interface emulating a virtual cartridge data storage library in communicating with the host, said virtual cartridge data storage library including a plurality of virtual cartridges, said virtual cartridges having multiple different data formats, a method for virtually pre-loading virtual cartridges comprising the steps of:maintaining an available cartridge database containing a list of virtual cartridges, each virtual cartridge identified in the available cartridge database by a virtual cartridge identifier;maintaining an active cartridge map cross-referencing each item of data stored on the DSD with one of the virtual cartridges;for each data format, selecting a virtual cartridge identifier of the corresponding data format from the available database and entering the selected virtual cartridge identifier in a pre-load map;receiving from a host a scratch mount request for a virtual cartridge of a specified data format; andsatisfying the scratch mount request by performing steps comprising:choosing from the pre-load map one of the cartridge identifiers having the specified data format; andremoving the chosen virtual cartridge identifier from the pre-load map.
- 17. In a data storage system that provides an interface between a host and a data storage device ("DSD"), said interface emulating a virtual cartridge data storage library in communicating with the host, said virtual cartridge data storage library including a plurality of virtual cartridges, said library also including multiple virtual drives, a method for virtually pre-loading virtual cartridges comprising the steps of:maintaining an available cartridge database containing a list of virtual cartridges, each virtual cartridge identified in the available cartridge database by a virtual cartridge identifier;maintaining an active cartridge map cross-referencing each item of data stored on the DSD with one of the virtual cartridges;for each virtual drive, performing steps comprising:selecting a virtual cartridge identifier from the available database;entering the selected virtual cartridge identifier in a pre-load map associated with that drive;receiving from a host a scratch mount request and selection of one of the virtual drives to satisfy the mount request; andsatisfying the scratch mount request by performing steps comprising:choosing one of the cartridge identifiers from the pre-load map associated with the selected virtual drive; andremoving the chosen virtual cartridge identifier from the pre-load map associated with the selected virtual drive.
- 20. An article of manufacture comprising a data storage medium tangibly embodying a program of machine-readable instructions executable by a digital processing apparatus to perform method steps for virtually pre-loading virtual cartridges in a data storage system that provides an interface between a host and a data storage device ("DSD"), said interface emulating a virtual cartridge data storage library in communicating with the host, said virtual cartridge data storage library including a plurality of virtual cartridges, said method steps comprising:maintaining an available cartridge database containing a list of virtual cartridges, each virtual cartridge identified in the available cartridge database by a virtual cartridge identifier;maintaining an active cartridge map cross-referencing each item of data stored on the DSD with one of the virtual cartridges;selecting a virtual cartridge identifier from the available database;entering the selected virtual cartridge identifier in a pre-load map;receiving from a host a scratch mount request; andsatisfying the scratch mount request by performing steps comprising:choosing one of the cartridge identifiers from the pre-load map; andremoving the chosen virtual cartridge identifier from the pre-load map.
- 25. An article of manufacture comprising a data storage medium tangibly embodying a program of machine-readable instructions executable by a digital processing apparatus to perform method steps for virtually pre-loading virtual cartridges in a data storage system that provides an interface between a host and a cache, said interface emulating a virtual cartridge data storage library in communicating with the host, said virtual cartridge data storage library including a plurality of virtual cartridges, said method steps comprising:maintaining an available cartridge database containing a list of virtual cartridges, each virtual cartridge identified in the available cartridge database by a virtual cartridge identifier;maintaining an active cartridge map cross-referencing each item of data stored on the cache with one of the virtual cartridges;selecting a virtual cartridge identifier from the available database;entering the selected virtual cartridge identifier in a pre-load map;receiving from a host a scratch mount request; andsatisfying the scratch mount request by performing steps comprising:choosing one of the cartridge identifiers from the pre-load map; andremoving the chosen virtual cartridge identifier from the pre-load map.
- 29. An article of manufacture comprising a data storage medium tangibly embodying a program of machine-readable instructions executable by a digital processing apparatus to perform method steps for virtually pre-loading virtual cartridges in a data storage system that provides an interface between a host and a data storage device ("DSD"), said interface emulating a virtual cartridge data storage library in communicating with the host, said virtual cartridge data storage library including a plurality of virtual cartridges, said virtual cartridges having multiple different data formats, said method steps comprising:maintaining an available cartridge database containing a list of virtual cartridges, each virtual cartridge identified in the available cartridge database by a virtual cartridge identifier;maintaining an active cartridge map cross-referencing each item of data stored on the DSD with one of the virtual cartridges;for each data format, selecting a virtual cartridge identifier of the corresponding data format from the available database and entering the selected virtual cartridge identifier in a pre-load map;receiving from a host a scratch mount request for a virtual cartridge of a specified data format; andsatisfying the scratch mount request by performing steps comprising:choosing from the pre-load map one of the cartridge identifiers having the specified data format; andremoving the chosen virtual cartridge identifier from the pre-load map.
- 34. An article of manufacture comprising a data storage medium tangibly embodying a program of machine-readable instructions executable by a digital processing apparatus to perform method steps for virtually pre-loading virtual cartridges in a data storage system that provides an interface between a host and a data storage device ("DSD"), said interface emulating a virtual cartridge data storage library in communicating with the host, said virtual cartridge data storage library including a plurality of virtual cartridges, said library also including multiple virtual drives, said method steps comprising:maintaining an available cartridge database containing a list of virtual cartridges, each virtual cartridge identified in the available cartridge database by a virtual cartridge identifier;maintaining an active cartridge map cross-referencing each item of data stored on the DSD with one of the virtual cartridges;for each virtual drive, performing steps comprising:selecting a virtual cartridge identifier from the available database;entering the selected virtual cartridge identifier in a pre-load map associated with that drive;receiving from a host a scratch mount request and selection of one of the virtual drives to satisfy the mount request; andsatisfying the scratch mount request by performing steps comprising:choosing one of the cartridge identifiers from the pre-load map associated with the selected virtual drive; andremoving the chosen virtual cartridge identifier from the pre-load map associated with the selected virtual drive.
- 36. A virtual cartridge data storage system, comprising:a data storage device ("DSD");an interface interposed between the DSD and a host, said interface emulating a virtual cartridge data storage library in communicating with the host, said virtual cartridge data storage library including a plurality of virtual cartridges, said interface being programmed to virtually pre-load virtual cartridges by performing steps comprising:maintaining an available cartridge database containing a list of virtual cartridges, each virtual cartridge identified in the available cartridge database by a virtual cartridge identifier;maintaining an active cartridge map cross-referencing each item of data stored on the DSD with one of the virtual cartridges;selecting a virtual cartridge identifier from the available database;entering the selected virtual cartridge identifier in a pre-load map;receiving from a host a scratch mount request; andsatisfying the scratch mount request by performing steps comprising:choosing one of the cartridge identifiers from the pre-load map; andremoving the chosen virtual cartridge identifier from the pre-load map.
- 44. A virtual cartridge data storage system, comprising:a cache memory;an interface interconnected between the cache and a host, said interface emulating a virtual cartridge data storage library in communicating with the host, said virtual cartridge data storage library including a plurality of virtual cartridges, said interface being programmed to virtually pre-load virtual cartridges by performing steps comprising:maintaining an available cartridge database containing a list of virtual cartridges, each virtual cartridge identified in the available cartridge database by a virtual cartridge identifier;maintaining an active cartridge map cross-referencing each item of data stored on the cache with one of the virtual cartridges;selecting a virtual cartridge identifier from the available database;entering the selected virtual cartridge identifier in a pre-load map;receiving from a host a scratch mount request; andsatisfying the scratch mount request by performing steps comprising:choosing one of the cartridge identifiers from the pre-load map; andremoving the chosen virtual cartridge identifier from the pre-load map.
- 48. A virtual cartridge data storage system, comprising:a data storage device ("DSD");an interface providing an interface between the DSD and a host, said interface emulating a virtual cartridge data storage library in communicating with the host, said virtual cartridge data storage library including a plurality of virtual cartridges, said virtual cartridges having multiple different data formats, said interface being programmed to virtually pre-load virtual cartridges by performing steps comprising:maintaining an available cartridge database containing a list of virtual cartridges, each virtual cartridge identified in the available cartridge database by a virtual cartridge identifier;maintaining an active cartridge map cross-referencing each item of data stored on the DSD with one of the virtual cartridges;for each data format, selecting a virtual cartridge identifier of the corresponding data format from the available database and entering the selected virtual cartridge identifier in a pre-load map;receiving from a host a scratch mount request for a virtual cartridge of a specified data format; andsatisfying the scratch mount request by performing steps comprising:choosing from the pre-load map one of the cartridge identifiers having the specified data format; andremoving the chosen virtual cartridge identifier from the pre-load map.
- 55. A virtual cartridge data storage system, comprising:a data storage device ("DSD");an interface coupled between a host and the DSD, said interface emulating a virtual cartridge data storage library in communicating with the host, said virtual cartridge data storage library including a plurality of virtual cartridges, said library also including multiple virtual drives, a method for virtually pre-loading virtual cartridges comprising the steps of:maintaining an available cartridge database containing a list of virtual cartridges, each virtual cartridge identified in the available cartridge database by a virtual cartridge identifier;maintaining an active cartridge map cross-referencing each item of data stored on the DSD with one of the virtual cartridges;for each virtual drive, performing steps comprising:selecting a virtual cartridge identifier from the available database;entering the selected virtual cartridge identifier in a pre-load map associated with that drive;receiving from a host a scratch mount request and selection of one of the virtual drives to satisfy the mount request; andsatisfying the scratch mount request by performing steps comprising:choosing one of the cartridge identifiers from the pre-load map associated with the selected virtual drive; andremoving the chosen virtual cartridge identifier from the pre-load map associated with the selected virtual drive.
