JP3499938B2 - A system for sharing I/O devices among systems with different protocols - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

[Industrial Application Field] This invention relates to a system for sharing input/output devices between multiple systems with different protocols, and in particular to a system that enables direct input/output operations to the input/output devices of other systems with different protocols. It also relates to a system that enables high-speed data transfer of large amounts of data between systems sharing an input/output device by using this input/output device sharing system to transfer data via the input/output devices, aiming to reduce transfer time compared to data transfer via communication lines between systems.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Fig. 7 is an explanatory diagram of the prior art. As shown in Fig. 7, a host system 10 has an input/output device 11 connected to it by a channel interface of a mainframe.
a, 11b, ... are connected, and the subsystem 20 has S
In the case of a system in which an input/output device 21 is connected via a CSI interface, in the prior art, it was not possible to perform input/output operations directly from the subsystem 20 to the input/output device 11b under the control of the host system 10, for example.

[0003] Therefore, when an input/output operation was required, the subsystem 20 would request access to the input/output device 10b from the host system 10 via the inter-system communication line 4, and the host system 10 would transfer the requested access results to the subsystem 20 via the inter-system communication line 4.

In addition, the transfer of the results of input/output operations is not limited to the above.
In the past, data transfer between systems was typically performed using an inter-system communication line 4 .

[0005]

As described above, in conventional technology, it is not possible to perform direct I/O operations on an I/O device from a system that uses a different protocol from the I/O device, so an inter-system communication line is used to request an I/O operation from a system that uses the same protocol as the I/O device, and the results of the I/O operation performed by the requested system are received via the inter-system communication line.

However, this method has the disadvantage that the processing time increases compared to when input/output operations are performed directly on the input/output device, because the data required for input/output operations is transferred between systems using inter-system communication lines.

[0007] There was also the drawback that the load on the system that was requested to perform the I/O operation increased. Furthermore, when transferring data between systems, the data was transferred using an inter-system communication line, but this method had the drawback that it took a long time to transfer a large amount of data.

The present invention aims to solve the above problems and provide an I/O device sharing system that enables sharing of I/O devices between multiple systems with different protocols, shortens I/O processing time, reduces system load, and enables high-speed transfer of large amounts of data between multiple systems.

[0009]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention comprises the following means, for example as shown in FIG.

The present invention relates to a method for connecting one or more input/output devices 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 1e, 1f, 1g, 1h, 1i, 1j, 1m, 1m, 1n ...
b, ... (hereinafter referred to as input/output device 1) and a system (hereinafter referred to as subsystem 200) with a different protocol
An input/output operation request receiving mechanism 201 that receives an input/output operation request inside the subsystem 200 and an input/output device 1
The input/output device control unit 202 controls the subsystem 20 and the input/output operation request received by the input/output operation request receiving unit 201 is a subsystem 20
2. An I/O device discrimination mechanism 20 that discriminates whether an I/O device supports the same protocol as the I/O device in the
3, an exclusive environment creation request mechanism 204 that, in an input/output device control unit 202, requests a system (hereinafter referred to as the host system 100) that has the same protocol as the target input/output device to create an exclusive environment when the protocol of the target input/output device is different from the protocol supported in the subsystem 200; and
An extent information notification request mechanism 205 that requests the host system 100 to notify the host system 100 of extent information, and an input/output device control unit 202 that
an exclusive environment release request mechanism 206 that requests the release of the exclusive environment from the subsystem 200; an input/output request acceptance mechanism 207 that accepts input/output requests within the subsystem 200;
I/O request control unit 2 that controls I/O requests within
08, an I/O request control unit 208, an I/O device discrimination mechanism 209 that discriminates whether the target of the I/O request accepted by the I/O request acceptance mechanism 207 is an I/O device having the same protocol as that supported in the subsystem 200 or a different I/O device,
The system comprises a command creation mechanism 210 that creates an input/output request command based on an input/output request and extent information, an exclusive environment creation mechanism 101 that creates an exclusive environment within the host system 100 at a request from the subsystem 200, an extent information notification mechanism 102 that notifies extent information within the host system 100 at a request from the subsystem 200, an exclusive environment release mechanism 103 that releases the exclusive environment within the host system 100 at a request from the subsystem 200, and a protocol conversion device 3 that converts the protocol when an input/output operation is performed directly from the subsystem 200 to the input/output device 1.

In order to transfer a large amount of data at high speed from the host system 100 to the subsystem 200, in addition to the configuration of the input/output device sharing system between a plurality of systems using different protocols as shown in FIG. 1, the host system 1
The host system 100 includes a high-speed data transfer acceptance mechanism that accepts high-speed data transfer requests within the host system 100, an input/output operation mechanism that performs input/output operations on an input/output device within the host system 100, a transfer data reception request mechanism that requests the subsystem 200 to receive transfer data within the host system 100, a high-speed data transfer acceptance mechanism that accepts high-speed data transfer requests within the subsystem 200, and a data transfer completion notification mechanism that notifies the host system 100 of the completion of data transfer within the subsystem 200.

In order to transfer a large amount of data at high speed from the subsystem 200 to the host system 100, in addition to the configuration of the input/output device sharing system between a plurality of systems using different protocols as shown in FIG.
The host system 100 includes a high-speed data transfer acceptance mechanism that accepts high-speed data transfer requests within the host system 100, an input/output operation mechanism that performs input/output operations on an input/output device within the host system 100, a data transfer completion notification mechanism that notifies the subsystem 200 of the completion of data transfer within the host system 100, a high-speed data transfer acceptance mechanism that accepts high-speed data transfer requests within the subsystem 200, and a transfer data reception request mechanism that requests the host system 100 to receive transfer data within the subsystem 200.

[0013]

According to the above configuration, in the subsystem 200, when the I/O operation request receiving mechanism 201 receives an I/O operation request for an I/O device (an open request for an I/O operation target), the I/O device discrimination mechanism 203 of the I/O device control unit 202 determines that the target of the I/O operation is subsystem 2.
If the input/output operation is performed on an input/output device 1 with a different protocol, the exclusive environment creation request mechanism 202 of the input/output device control unit 202 determines whether the input/output device 1 has the same protocol as the input/output device 100 or a different protocol.
04, the host system 100 is requested to create an exclusive environment using the inter-system communication line 4. The host system 100 that has received the request from the subsystem 200
In this case, the exclusive environment creating mechanism 101 creates the exclusive environment.

Next, in the subsystem 200, the extent information notification request mechanism 205 of the input/output device control unit 202
The host system 100 is requested to notify the host system 100 of the extent information required for input/output operations, using the inter-system communication line 4. Upon receiving the request from the subsystem 200, the host system 100 notifies the subsystem 200 of the extent information by the extent information notifying mechanism 102, using the inter-system communication line 4.

Next, in the subsystem 200, when the I/O request receiving mechanism 207 receives an I/O request for an I/O device, the I/O device discrimination mechanism 209 of the I/O request control unit 208 discriminates whether the I/O request is for an I/O device 1 with the same protocol as that supported in the subsystem 200 or a different I/O device.
Based on the I/O request and extent information, the command creation mechanism 210 creates an I/O request command in a format that can be converted by the protocol conversion device 3. The subsystem 200 executes a direct I/O operation request to the I/O device 1 via the protocol conversion device 3, using the I/O operation request command created by the command creation mechanism 210. The I/O operation request command is converted by the protocol conversion device 3 into the same protocol as that of the I/O device 1.

[0016] After repeating these I/O requests, when there is no longer a need for I/O requests, the I/O operation request receiving mechanism 201 in the subsystem 200 receives an I/O operation end request for the I/O device (a request to close the I/O operation target), and the I/O device discrimination mechanism 203 in the I/O device control unit 202 discriminates whether the target of the I/O operation is an I/O device 1 with the same protocol as that supported in the subsystem 200, or a different I/O device. If the target of the I/O operation is an I/O device 1 with a different protocol, the exclusive environment release request mechanism 206 in the I/O device control unit 202 requests the host system 100 to release the exclusive environment using the inter-system communication line 4. Upon receiving the request from the subsystem 200, the host system 100 releases the exclusive environment via the exclusive environment release mechanism 103.

According to a configuration for transferring a large amount of data at high speed from the host system 100 to the subsystem 200, first, in the host system 100,
The high-speed data transfer acceptance mechanism accepts a request for high-speed data transfer, and the exclusive environment creation mechanism 101 secures an area for storing the transfer data and creates an exclusive environment. Next, the input/output operation mechanism performs an input/output operation to store the transfer data in the input/output device 1. After the input/output operation is completed, the exclusive environment release mechanism 103 releases the exclusive environment created by the exclusive environment creation mechanism 101. Next, the transfer data reception request mechanism uses the inter-system communication line 4 to notify the extent information of the transfer data and request the reception of the transfer data.

In the subsystem 200 that has received a request from the host system 100, the high-speed data transfer acceptance mechanism accepts the request for high-speed data transfer, and issues an I/O operation request (open request) for the I/O device to the I/O operation request acceptance mechanism 201. When the I/O operation request acceptance mechanism 201 accepts the I/O operation request, the I/O device control unit 202
The I/O device discrimination mechanism 203 judges whether the target of the I/O operation is an I/O device having the same protocol as that supported in the subsystem 200 or a different I/O device. Since the transfer data is stored in an I/O device 1 having the same protocol as the host system 100, it is an I/O device having a different protocol from that of the subsystem 200.
Therefore, the exclusive environment creation request mechanism 204 of the input/output device control unit 202 requests the host system 100 to create an exclusive environment using the inter-system communication line 4.
In this case, the exclusive environment creating mechanism 101 creates the exclusive environment.
Next, in the subsystem 200, the input/output device control unit 20
The extent information notification request mechanism 205 of the subsystem 2 requests the host system 100 to notify the extent information required for input/output operations using the inter-system communication line 4. The host system 100 that has received the request from the subsystem 200 uses the extent information notification mechanism 102 to notify the subsystem 200 of the extent information required for input/output operations using the inter-system communication line 4.
is used to notify the extent information of the area secured by the exclusive environment creating mechanism 101.

Next, in the subsystem 200, the high-speed data transfer acceptance mechanism issues an I/O request to the I/O request acceptance mechanism to receive transfer data from the I/O device 1. When the I/O request acceptance mechanism 207 accepts an I/O request for the I/O device, the I/O request control unit 208
The I/O device discrimination mechanism 209 discriminates whether the target of the I/O request is an I/O device with the same protocol as that supported in the subsystem 200 or a different I/O device. Since the transfer data is stored in an I/O device with the same protocol as the host system 100, the I/O device has a different protocol from that of the subsystem 200.
The command creation mechanism 210 of the input/output request control unit 208 creates an input/output request command in a format that can be converted by the protocol conversion device 3 based on the input/output request and the extent information.
2. By using the I/O operation request command created in step 0, a direct I/O operation request is executed via the protocol converter 3 to the I/O device 1. The I/O operation request command is converted by the protocol converter 3 into the same protocol as that of the I/O device 1.

After completing reception of the transfer data from the I/O device 1, in the subsystem 200, the high-speed data transfer acceptance mechanism issues an I/O device I/O operation end request (close request) to the I/O operation request acceptance mechanism 201. When the I/O operation request acceptance mechanism 201 accepts the I/O operation end request, the I/O device discrimination mechanism 203 of the I/O device control unit 202 judges whether the target of the I/O operation is an I/O device with the same protocol as that supported in the subsystem 200 or a different I/O device. Since the transfer data is stored in an I/O device with the same protocol as the host system 100, it is an I/O device with a different protocol from the subsystem 200, so the exclusive environment release request mechanism 206 of the I/O device control unit 202 requests the host system 100 to release the exclusive environment using the inter-system communication line 4. The host system 100, which has received the request from the subsystem 200, releases the exclusive environment using the exclusive environment release mechanism 103. Finally, the data transfer completion notification mechanism notifies the host system 100 that the data transfer has been completed using the inter-system communication line 4.

According to a configuration for transferring a large amount of data at high speed from the subsystem 200 to the host system 100, first, in the subsystem 200, the high-speed data transfer acceptance mechanism accepts a request for high-speed data transfer, and issues an I/O operation request (open request) for the I/O device to the I/O operation request acceptance mechanism 201. When the I/O operation request acceptance mechanism 201 accepts the I/O operation request,
The I/O device discrimination mechanism 203 of the I/O device control unit 202 determines whether the target of the I/O operation is an I/O device with the same protocol as that supported within the subsystem 200, or a different I/O device. Since the transfer data is to be stored in an I/O device with the same protocol as the host system 100, and since the I/O device has a different protocol than the subsystem 200, the exclusive environment creation request mechanism 204 of the I/O device control unit 202 uses the inter-system communication line 4 to request the host system 100 to secure an area for storing the transfer data and to create an exclusive environment. Upon receiving the request from the subsystem 200, the host system 100
An exclusive environment creating mechanism 101 secures an area for storing the transfer data and creates an exclusive environment.

Next, in the subsystem 200, the extent information notification request mechanism 205 of the input/output device control unit 202
The host system 100 requests notification of extent information required for input/output operations using the inter-system communication line 4. Upon receiving the request from the subsystem 200, the host system 100 uses the extent information notification mechanism 102 to notify the subsystem 200 of the extent information of the area secured by the exclusive environment creating mechanism 101 using the inter-system communication line 4.

Next, in the subsystem 200, the high-speed data transfer acceptance mechanism issues an I/O request to the I/O request acceptance mechanism 207 to store the transfer data in the I/O device. When the I/O request acceptance mechanism 207 accepts an I/O request for the I/O device, the I/O request control unit 20
The I/O device discrimination mechanism 209 of the host system 100 discriminates whether the target of the I/O request is an I/O device with the same protocol as that supported in the subsystem 200 or a different I/O device. Since the transfer data is stored in the I/O device 1 with the same protocol as the host system 100, which is an I/O device with a different protocol from the subsystem 200,
The command creation mechanism 210 of the input/output request control unit 208 creates an input/output request command in a format that can be converted by the protocol conversion device 3 based on the input/output request and the extent information.
Using the I/O operation request command created in step 0, a direct I/O operation request is executed for the I/O device 1 via the protocol converter 3. The I/O operation request command is converted by the protocol converter 3 into the same protocol as that of the I/O device 1.

Next, in the subsystem 200, a transfer data reception request mechanism uses the inter-system communication line 4 to notify the host system 100 of the extent information of the transfer data and to request the host system 100 to receive the transfer data.
In the system, the high-speed data transfer acceptance mechanism accepts a request for high-speed data transfer, and the input/output operation mechanism performs an input/output operation to receive the transfer data stored in the input/output device. When reception of the transfer data is completed, the data transfer completion notification mechanism uses the inter-system communication line 4 to notify the subsystem 200 that the data transfer has been completed.

In the subsystem 200 that has received the notification from the host system 100, the high-speed data transfer acceptance mechanism issues an I/O operation end request (close request) to the I/O operation request acceptance mechanism 201. When the I/O operation request acceptance mechanism 201 accepts the I/O operation end request,
The I/O device discrimination mechanism 203 of the I/O device control unit 202 judges whether the target of the I/O operation is an I/O device having the same protocol as that supported in the subsystem 200 or a different I/O device. Since the I/O device that stored the transfer data is an I/O device 1 having the same protocol as the host system 100, the exclusive environment release request mechanism 206 of the I/O device control unit 202 requests the exclusive environment release request mechanism 206 of the I/O device control unit 202 to release the transfer data from the host system 100.
0 to release the exclusive environment, using the inter-system communication line 4. In the host system 100 that has received the request from the subsystem 200, the exclusive environment release mechanism 103 releases the exclusive environment.

Next, in the subsystem 200, a transfer data reception request mechanism uses the inter-system communication line 4 to notify the host system 100 of the extent information of the transfer data and to request the host system 100 to receive the transfer data.
In step 0, the high-speed data transfer acceptance mechanism accepts a request for high-speed data transfer, and the input/output operation mechanism performs an input/output operation to receive the transfer data stored in the input/output device 1. When reception of the transfer data is complete, the data transfer completion notification mechanism notifies the subsystem 200, using the inter-system communication line 4, that the data transfer has been completed.

[0027]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a computer system to which the present invention is applied will now be described. Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a computer system to which the present invention is applied.

This computer system comprises a plurality of input/output devices 1a, 1b, ... (input/output device 1), an input/output control device 2 which controls input/output requests to the input/output device 1, a host system 100 which accesses the input/output device 1 using a protocol based on a mainframe channel interface, one or more subsystems 200 which use a protocol different from that of the input/output device 1, and when an input/output operation is directly performed from the subsystem 200 to the input/output device 1,
The system is made up of a protocol conversion device 3 that converts protocols, and an inter-system communication line 4 .

[0029] The subsystem 200 has an input/output operation request receiving mechanism 201 that receives input/output operation requests internally, an input/output device control unit 202 that controls the input/output device, an input/output request receiving mechanism 207 that receives input/output requests, and an input/output request control unit 208 that controls input/output requests.

The I/O device control unit 202 in the subsystem 200 has an I/O device discrimination mechanism 203 which discriminates whether the target of the I/O operation request accepted by the I/O operation request acceptance mechanism 201 is an I/O device with the same protocol as that supported in the subsystem 200 or a different protocol, and if the protocol of the target I/O device is different from the protocol supported by the subsystem 200, the I/O device control mechanism 203 discriminates whether the target I/O device is an I/O device with the same protocol as that supported in the subsystem 200 or a different protocol.
00 to create an exclusive environment, an extent information notification request mechanism 205 that requests the host system 100 to notify the host system 100 of extent information, and an exclusive environment release request mechanism 206 that requests the host system 100 to release the exclusive environment.

[0031] In addition, the input/output request control unit 208 in the subsystem 200 has an input/output device discrimination mechanism 209 that determines whether the target of an input/output request accepted by the input/output request accepting mechanism 207 is an input/output device with the same protocol as that supported in the subsystem 200 or a different input/output device, and a command creation mechanism 210 that creates an input/output request command based on the input/output request and extent information.

The host system 100 includes a subsystem 2
An exclusive environment creation mechanism 101 that creates an exclusive environment in response to a request from the subsystem 200, and an extent information notification mechanism 102 that notifies extent information in response to a request from the subsystem 200.
02 and an exclusive environment release mechanism 103 which releases the exclusive environment upon request from the subsystem 200.

[0033] The processing operations of each component of the present invention shown in Figure 1 will now be described. The numbers in parentheses (1) to (14) in Figure 1 correspond to the numbers indicating the order of the processing operations described below. (1) First, in the subsystem 200, an I/O operation request (open request for an I/O operation target) is received by the I/O operation request receiving mechanism 201, and control is passed to the I/O device control unit 202.

The unit of opening is the data set, and a different function is used to identify that it is a DASD under host system 100 than when the disk of subsystem 200 is the target. The system and volume are identified by the path name of the input argument of the function. For example, in the case of a volume on an internal disk of subsystem 200, the path name is "/directory name/directory name/file name", whereas in the case of a DASD under host system 100, it is "/system identification name/volume serial number/data set name".

(2) The I/O device discrimination mechanism 203 of the I/O device control unit 202 discriminates whether the target of the I/O operation is an I/O device having the same protocol as that supported in the subsystem 200 or a different I/O device.

(3) When the input/output operation target is an input/output device 1 with a different protocol, the exclusive environment creation request mechanism 204 of the input/output device control unit 202 requests the host system 10
0 is requested to create an exclusive environment using the inter-system communication line 4.

Here, a request is made to the management server of the OS of the host system 100 to create an exclusive environment for the data set and to notify extent information, etc. (4) In response to the request from the subsystem 200, the exclusive environment creating mechanism 101 of the host system 100 creates an exclusive environment necessary for input/output operations.

Here, an access environment for the data set is established using the extent information notified by the management server of the OS of the host system 100 and the volume sequence number specified by the user. Also, the contents of the data set can be specified by relative block numbers.

(5) Next, the extent information notification request mechanism 205 of the input/output device control unit 202 of the subsystem 200
In this way, the host system 100 is requested to notify extent information required for input/output operations using the inter-system communication line 4 .

The extent information to be notified is, for example, the extent (start CCHH, end CCHH: CC
is the cylinder number, HH is the head number), block length, record length, record format (VB, etc.), file organization (P
O, PS), etc.

(6) Upon receiving a request from the subsystem 200, the extent information notification mechanism 102 of the host system 100 uses the inter-system communication line 4 to notify the subsystem 200 of the extent information required for the input/output operation.

(7) Next, in the subsystem 200,
An input/output request (access request from a user) is received by the input/output request receiving mechanism 207. This input/output request uses a function different from that used when the target is a disk in the subsystem 200, thereby identifying it as a DASD under the control of the host system 100. Here, the access type (read/write) and the relative block number are specified to request access.

(8) The I/O device discrimination mechanism 209 of the I/O request control unit 208 discriminates whether the target of the I/O request is an I/O device having the same protocol as that supported in the subsystem 200 or a different I/O device.

(9) If the input/output request target is an input/output device with a different protocol, the command creation mechanism 210 of the input/output request control unit 208 creates an input/output request command in a format that can be converted by the protocol conversion device 3 based on the extent information notified in (6).

The internal disk (SC) of the subsystem 200
The control table used when requesting access to the SI interface is used to store CCW information (seek, search, read/write) for the DASD under the host system 100.
rite command) and requests the BMC adapter (protocol converter 3) to access.

(10) Using the I/O request command created by the command creation mechanism 210, a direct I/O operation request is executed on the I/O device via the protocol converter 3. The I/O operation request command is converted by the protocol converter 3 into the same protocol as that of the I/O device 1.

If necessary, the processing operations from (7) to (10) are repeated. (11) Finally, in the subsystem 200, the I/O operation request acceptance mechanism 201 accepts an I/O operation end request (a request from the user to close the I/O operation target).

Similar to the open request, the subsystem 20
By using a function different from that used when the target disk is a DASD of the host system 100, the target disk is identified.

(12) The I/O device discrimination mechanism 209 of the I/O request control unit 208 discriminates whether the target of the I/O request is an I/O device having the same protocol as that supported in the subsystem 200 or a different I/O device.

(13) When the input/output operation target is an input/output device with a different protocol, the exclusive environment release request mechanism 206 of the input/output device control unit 202
The host system 100 uses the inter-system communication line 4 to request the release of the exclusive environment.
A request is made to the management server of S to delete the exclusive environment.

(14) Upon receiving a request from the subsystem 200, the exclusive environment release mechanism 103 of the host system 100
Releases the exclusive environment used for I/O operations. This deletes the access environment for the dataset.

Next, a specific example will be described with reference to the examples shown in Figures 2 to 4. This specific example is similarly applied to the examples shown in Figures 5 and 6 described later.
FIG. 1 shows a DASD. For example, the volume serial number "V
The start CCHH of "OLSER:USER01" is C1H1
Now, assume that the end CCHH performs a READ of two blocks, blocks 3 and 4, in the extent of C1H2.

FIG. 3A shows an example of a processing procedure for access, and FIG. 3B shows the interface of the functions provided by the file management unit (hereinafter, referred to as FILE) and the distributed data management unit (hereinafter, referred to as D
This is a diagram showing the processing in the FIL DM. The functions here are different from those used by the user.
1. The internal division of processing is a design item and can be changed as desired.

As shown in FIG. 3A, in response to an input/output operation request from a user, the open function () of FILE is executed.
A request to open an environment for accessing a data set is notified by this, and in response, the DDM performs environment opening (). The open function () specifies the volume sequence number of the data set to be accessed: USER01, the extent start CCHH: C1H1 and end CCHH: C1H2, and other information. The environment opening () creates the relative block number: 0-19, start CCHH: C1H1, and other environment information as the extent information field (see FIG. 3).
(B)).

Next, the block access is notified by the access function (), and in response to this, the DDM creates a channel command word (hereafter referred to as CCW) (), and issues the created CCW to the protocol conversion device 3 (BMC adapter).
In the access operation option, READ is specified, and as block information, the relative start block number: 3, the number of consecutive blocks: 2, and other information are specified. In the CCW creation(), 1. SEEK (HEA
The following CCW information is set: 1. SET D (movement), 2. SEARCH ID (record position search), and 3. READ DATA (read data).

Furthermore, when the data set access environment closure is notified by the close function (), the DDM:
4 is a diagram showing an example of information set in the I/O program information area during a two-block READ in CCW creation performed by the command creation mechanism 210 shown in FIG.

CCW information is DOPD0, DOPD1,
It is composed of a command information sequence of DO, DO, PD2, ...
In PD0, SEEK data and CCW of SEEK are specified. In the SEEK data, CCHH for moving the disk head is specified. In DOPD1, S
The ID data address indicating the SEARCH ID data and the CCW of the SEARCH ID are specified.
In the ARCH ID data, the CCHH to which the disk head is moved and the record position are specified.
In OPD2, as shown in the figure, address information for specifying a user-specified buffer and CCW of the READ command are
This CCW includes the READ DATA command code, the number of blocks minus 1, the transfer data length (block length), and so on.

[0058] When the input/output request control unit 208 issues an I/O command based on the SCSI interface to the protocol conversion device 3 based on this I/O program information area, the protocol conversion device 3 performs conversion control corresponding to the protocol of the BMC interface from the information in this I/O program information area, and executes input/output to the input/output device 1 via the input/output control device 2. Note that with the information shown in Figure 4, the necessary protocol conversion in the protocol conversion device 3 can be easily realized by microprogram control or the like, so further detailed explanation will be omitted. Next, an embodiment in which a large amount of data is transferred at high speed from the host system 100 to the subsystem 200 will be described.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a computer system to which the present invention is applied. In this example,
In addition to the processing units shown in FIG. 1, the host system 100 includes a high-speed data transfer reception mechanism 113 that receives high-speed data transfer requests, an input/output operation mechanism 111 that performs input/output operations for the input/output device 1, and a subsystem 20.
The subsystem 200 has a transfer data reception request mechanism 112 that requests the host system 100 to receive transfer data, and in the subsystem 200, a high-speed data transfer acceptance mechanism 211 that accepts high-speed data transfer requests from the host system 100, and a data transfer completion notification mechanism 212 that notifies the host system 100 of the completion of data transfer.

Next, the processing operations of each unit shown in Fig. 5 will be explained. In Fig. 5, the numbers in parentheses (1) to (23) correspond to the numbers indicating the order of the processing operations explained below. (1) First, in the host system 100, the high-speed data transfer acceptance mechanism 113 accepts a request for high-speed data transfer.

(2) In response to a request for high-speed data transfer, the exclusive environment creating mechanism 101 secures an area for storing the transfer data and creates an exclusive environment. (3) The input/output operation mechanism 111 performs input/output operations for storing the transfer data in the input/output device 1.

(4) After the I/O operation is completed, the exclusive environment release mechanism 103 releases the exclusive environment created by the exclusive environment creation mechanism 101. (5) Next, the transfer data reception request mechanism 112 uses the inter-system communication line 4 to notify the subsystem 200 of the extent information of the transfer data and to request it to receive the transfer data.

(6) In the subsystem 200 which has received a request from the host system 100, the high-speed data transfer acceptance mechanism 211 accepts the request for high-speed data transfer, and issues an I/O operation request (open request) for the I/O device 1 to the I/O operation request acceptance mechanism 201.

(7) When the I/O operation request receiving mechanism 201 receives an I/O operation request (open request), it passes control to the I/O device control mechanism 202.
3 judges whether the target of the input/output operation is an input/output device having the same protocol as that supported in the subsystem 200 or a different input/output device. Since the transfer data is stored in the input/output device 1 having the same protocol as the host system 100, it is an input/output device having a different protocol from that of the subsystem 200.

(9) When it is detected that the protocols are different, the exclusive environment creation request mechanism 2 of the input/output device control unit 202
In step 04, a request is made to the host system 100 via the inter-system communication line 4 to create an exclusive environment.

(10) In the host system 100 that has received the request from the subsystem 200, the exclusive environment creating mechanism 101 creates an exclusive environment. (11) Next, in the subsystem 200, the extent information notification request mechanism 205 of the input/output device control unit 202
Using the inter-system communication line 4, the host system 100 is requested to notify extent information required for input/output operations.

[0081] (12) In the host system 100 that has received the request from the subsystem 200 , the extent information notifying mechanism 102 uses the inter-system communication line 4 to request the subsystem 200 to notify it of the extent information of the area secured by the exclusive environment creating mechanism 101 .

[0081] (13) Next, in the subsystem 200 , the high-speed data transfer acceptance mechanism 113 makes an I/O request to the I/O request acceptance mechanism 207 to receive the transfer data from the I/O device 1 .

(14) The I/O request acceptance mechanism 207 accepts an I/O request for the I/O device 1 and passes control to the I/O request control unit 208. (15) The I/O device discrimination mechanism 2
09, it is determined whether the target of the I/O request is an I/O device having the same protocol as that supported in the subsystem 200 or a different I/O device. Since the transfer data is stored in the I/O device 1 having the same protocol as the host system 100, it is an I/O device having a different protocol from that of the subsystem 200.

(16) The command creation mechanism 210 of the input/output request control unit 208 creates an input/output request command in a format that can be converted by the protocol converter 3 based on the input/output request and the extent information.

(17) The subsystem 200 executes a direct I/O operation request to the I/O device 1 via the protocol converter 3, using the I/O operation request command created by the command creation mechanism 210. The I/O operation request command is converted by the protocol converter 3 into the same protocol as that of the I/O device 1.

(18) After the transfer data is completely received from the I/O device 1, the high-speed data transfer acceptance mechanism 113 in the subsystem 200 transfers the I/O operation request acceptance mechanism 20
1 to make a request to terminate the I/O operation of I/O device 1 (close request).

(19) When the I/O operation request receiving mechanism 201 receives an I/O operation end request (close request), it passes control to the I/O device control mechanism 202. (20) The I/O determination mechanism 203 of the I/O device control mechanism 202
This determines whether the target of the input/output operation is an input/output device with the same protocol as that supported in the subsystem 200 or a different one. Since the transfer data is stored in the input/output device 1 with the same protocol as the host system 100, it is an input/output device with a different protocol from that of the subsystem 200.

(21) The exclusive environment release request mechanism 206 of the input/output device control unit 202 uses the inter-system communication line 4 to request the host system 100 to release the exclusive environment.

(22) In the host system 100 that has received the request from the subsystem 200, the exclusive environment release mechanism 103 releases the exclusive environment. (23) The data transfer completion notification mechanism 212 uses the inter-system communication line 4 to notify the host system 100.
Notifies that data transfer is complete.

Next, an embodiment in which a large amount of data is transferred at high speed from the subsystem 200 to the host system 100 will be described. FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a computer system to which the present invention is applied. In this example,
In addition to the processing units shown in FIG. 1, the host system 100 includes a high-speed data transfer reception mechanism 113 that receives high-speed data transfer requests, an input/output operation mechanism 111 that performs input/output operations for the input/output device 1, and a subsystem 20.
The subsystem 200 has a data transfer completion notification mechanism 114 that notifies the host system 100 of the completion of data transfer, and in the subsystem 200, a high-speed data transfer acceptance mechanism 211 that accepts high-speed data transfer requests, and a transfer data reception request mechanism 213 within the subsystem 200 that requests the host system 100 to receive the transfer data.

Next, the processing operations of each part shown in Fig. 6 will be explained. In Fig. 6, the numbers in parentheses (1) to (21) correspond to the numbers indicating the order of the processing operations explained below. (1) First, in the subsystem 200, the high-speed data transfer acceptance mechanism 211 accepts a request for high-speed data transfer, and issues an I/O operation request (open request) for the I/O device 1 to the I/O operation request acceptance mechanism 201.

(2) Next, the I/O operation request receiving mechanism 201
accepts an I/O operation request (open request) and passes control to the I/O device control unit 202.
3 judges whether the target of the input/output operation is an input/output device having the same protocol as that supported in the subsystem 200 or a different input/output device. The transfer data is stored in the input/output device 1 having the same protocol as the host system 100, so that the input/output device 1 has a different protocol from that of the subsystem 200.

(4) The exclusive environment creation request mechanism 204 of the input/output device control unit 202 uses the inter-system communication line 4 to request the host system 100 to reserve an area for storing the transfer data and to create an exclusive environment.

(5) Upon receiving the request from the subsystem 200, the host system 100 secures an area for storing the transfer data, and the exclusive environment creating mechanism 101 creates an exclusive environment.

(6) Next, in the subsystem 200, the extent information notification request mechanism 2 of the input/output device control unit 202
From 05, a request is made to the host system 100 via the inter-system communication line 4 to notify extent information required for input/output operations.

(7) In the host system 100 that has received the request from the subsystem 200, the extent information notifying mechanism 102 uses the inter-system communication line 4 to notify the subsystem 200 of the extent information of the area secured by the exclusive environment creating mechanism 101.

(8) Next, in the subsystem 200,
The high-speed data transfer reception mechanism 113 receives an input/output request from the input/output request reception mechanism 2.
07 sends an input/output request to store the transfer data in input/output device 1.

(9) The I/O request acceptance mechanism 207 accepts an I/O request for the I/O device 1 and passes control to the I/O request control unit 208. (10) The I/O device discrimination mechanism 2
09, it is determined whether the target of the I/O request is an I/O device with the same protocol as that supported in the subsystem 200 or a different I/O device. The transfer data is stored in an I/O device 1 with the same protocol as the host system 100, so that the I/O device has a different protocol from that of the subsystem 200.

(11) The command creation mechanism 210 of the input/output request control unit 208 creates an input/output request command in a format that can be converted by the protocol converter 3 based on the input/output request and the extent information.

(12) The subsystem 200 executes a direct I/O operation request to the I/O device 1 via the protocol converter 3, using the I/O operation request command created by the command creation mechanism 210. The I/O operation request command is converted by the protocol converter 3 into the same protocol as that of the I/O device 1.

(13) Next, in the subsystem 200, the transfer data reception request mechanism 213 uses the inter-system communication line 4 to notify the host system 100 of the extent information of the transfer data and to request the host system 100 to receive the transfer data.

(14) In the host system 100 which has received the request from the subsystem 200, the high-speed data transfer acceptance mechanism 113 accepts the request for high-speed data transfer. (15) The input/output operation mechanism 111 of the host system 100 performs an input/output operation to receive the transfer data stored in the input/output device 1.

(16) When reception of the transfer data is completed, the data transfer completion notification mechanism 114 notifies the subsystem 20
0 via the inter-system communication line 4 that the data transfer has been completed.

[0113] (17) Next, in the subsystem 200 , the high-speed data transfer acceptance mechanism 211 makes an I/O operation end request (close request) for the I/O operation request acceptance mechanism 201 .

(18) The I/O operation request receiving mechanism 201 receives the I/O operation end request (close request) and passes control to the I/O device control mechanism 202. (19) The I/O device discrimination mechanism 2
03, it is determined whether the target of the input/output operation is an input/output device having the same protocol as that supported in the subsystem 200 or a different input/output device. The input/output device 1 that stores the transfer data is an input/output device having the same protocol as that of the host system 100.

(20) The exclusive environment release request mechanism 206 of the input/output device control unit 202 uses the inter-system communication line 4 to request the host system 100 to release the exclusive environment.

(21) In the host system 100 that has received the request from the subsystem 200, the exclusive environment release mechanism 103 releases the exclusive environment.

[0094]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention,
It is possible to share an I/O device between a plurality of systems using different protocols, thereby realizing a reduction in I/O processing time and a reduction in the load on a first system using the same protocol as the I/O device.

Furthermore, by transferring data between a plurality of systems using different protocols for input/output devices via an input/output device that allows direct input operations, the transfer processing time for large amounts of data can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a first configuration example of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of an access target of an input/output device according to an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a procedure for access in an embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of setting CCW information in the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a second configuration example of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a third configuration example of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, ... I/O device 2 I/O control device 3 Protocol conversion device 4 Inter-system communication line 100 Host system 101 Exclusive environment creation mechanism 102 Extent information notification mechanism 103 Exclusive environment release mechanism 200 Subsystem 201 I/O operation request acceptance mechanism 202 I/O device control unit 203 I/O device discrimination mechanism 204 Exclusive environment creation request mechanism 205 Extent information notification request mechanism 206 Exclusive environment release request mechanism 207 I/O request acceptance mechanism 208 I/O request control unit 209 I/O device discrimination mechanism 210 Command creation mechanism

Continued from the front page (56) References JP-A-6-52087 (JP, A) JP-A-3-201154 (JP, A) JP-A-4-223518 (JP, A) JP-A-6-44152 (JP, A) JP-A-6-301607 (JP, A) JP-A-6-332872 (JP, A) JP-A-2-93971 (JP, A) JP-A-60-258670 (JP, A) (58) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 13/10 - 13/14 G06F 13/36 - 13/38

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] [Claim 1] A first system that accesses one or more input/output devices using a predetermined protocol, and a protocol for the input/output devices that is the first
and a second system different from the first system,
an I/O device sharing system which enables a first system to perform an I/O operation directly on an I/O device of the first system, comprising: an I/O device control unit which, when an I/O operation request is received within the second system, determines whether the target of the I/O operation request is an I/O device having the same protocol as that supported within the second system or a different I/O device, and if the protocol is a different I/O device, requests the first system having the same protocol as the target I/O device to set an environment required for access and to notify the first system of extent information required for access, and obtains the required information; an I/O request control unit which, when an I/O request is received within the second system, determines whether the target of the I/O request is an I/O device having the same protocol as that supported within the second system or a different I/O device, and if the protocol is a different I/O device, creates an I/O request command based on the I/O request and information obtained from the first system, and executes an I/O operation directly on the I/O device from the second system; and within the first system, in response to a request from the second system, transfers information between the first system and the second system.
a means for setting an environment required for access and notifying extent information required for access using a communication line between the second system and the first system, and a protocol conversion device for converting to a protocol used by the first system when performing an I/O operation directly from the second system to the I/O device. 2. A method for accessing one or more input/output devices, a first system that accesses the input/output devices using a predetermined protocol, the protocol for the input/output devices being the first system.
and a second system different from the first system,
an I/O device sharing system which enables a second system to directly perform I/O operations on an I/O device of a first system, comprising: an I/O operation request receiving means for receiving an I/O operation request within the second system; an I/O device control unit which controls the I/O device within the second system; an I/O device discrimination means in the I/O device control unit for discriminating whether the target of the I/O operation request received by the I/O operation request receiving means is an I/O device having the same protocol as that supported within the second system or a different protocol; an exclusive environment creation request means in the I/O device control unit for requesting the first system having the same protocol as that of the target I/O device to create an exclusive environment for the target I/O device when the protocol of the target I/O device is different from the protocol supported by the second system; an extent information notification request means in the I/O device control unit for requesting the first system to notify the first system of extent information; an exclusive environment release request means in the I/O device control unit for requesting the first system to release the exclusive environment; an I/O request receiving means for receiving an I/O request within the second system; and an I/O request control unit which controls the I/O request within the second system. said I/O request control unit having an I/O device discrimination means for discriminating whether the target of the I/O request accepted by said I/O request acceptance means is an I/O device having the same protocol as that supported in the second system or a different protocol; said I/O request control unit having a command creation means for creating an I/O request command based on the I/O request and extent information; said exclusive environment creation means for creating an exclusive environment within said first system at the request of said second system; and said exclusive environment creation means for communicating between said first system and said second system at the request of said second system within said first system.
an extent information notifying means for notifying extent information using a communication line between the first system and the second system; an exclusive environment release means for releasing an exclusive environment within the first system upon request from the second system; and a protocol conversion device for converting to a protocol used by the first system when an I/O operation is directly performed from the second system to the I/O device. [Claim 3] An I/O device sharing system among a plurality of systems using different protocols according to claim 1 or 2, comprising: high-speed data transfer accepting means for accepting a high-speed data transfer request to said second system within said first system; input/output operation means for performing I/O operations on an I/O device within said first system; transfer data reception requesting means for requesting the second system to receive transfer data within said first system; high-speed data transfer accepting means for accepting a high-speed data transfer request within said second system; and data transfer completion notifying means for notifying the first system of completion of data transfer within said second system, wherein when a high-speed data transfer request from said first system to said second system is accepted by said high-speed data transfer accepting means, said first system is configured to temporarily store the transfer data in said I/O device by said input/output operation means and notify said second system of the high-speed data transfer request by said transfer data reception requesting means, The second system is configured to, when it receives a notification from the first system via the high-speed data transfer receiving means, directly read the data from the I/O device via the I/O device control unit and the I/O request control unit, and notify the first system of the completion of the data transfer via the data transfer completion notification means. [Claim 4] An I/O device sharing system among a plurality of systems using different protocols according to claim 1 or 2, comprising: high-speed data transfer accepting means for accepting a high-speed data transfer request within said first system; I/O operation means for performing I/O operations on an I/O device within said first system; data transfer completion notifying means for notifying said second system of completion of data transfer within said first system; high-speed data transfer accepting means for accepting a high-speed data transfer request to said first system within said second system; and transfer data reception requesting means for requesting the first system to receive transfer data within said second system, wherein said second system is configured, when a high-speed data transfer request from said second system to said first system is accepted by said high-speed data transfer accepting means, to temporarily store the transfer data in said I/O device by said I/O device control unit and said I/O request control unit, and to notify said first system of the high-speed data transfer request by said transfer data reception requesting means; an input/output device sharing system between multiple systems using different protocols, characterized in that, when the first system receives a notification from the second system via the high-speed data transfer receiving means, the first system directly reads the data of the input/output device via the input/output operation means, and notifies the second system of the completion of the data transfer via the data transfer completion notifying means.