Method for the transparent exchange of logical volumes in a disk array storage device

摘要

Load balancing of activities on physical disk storage devices (31A-31E) is accomplished by monitoring reading and writing operations to blocks of contiguous storage locations, such as logical volumes on the physical disk storage devices to obtain disk utilization information . The disk utilization information provides a selection of one block pair. After testing to determine any adverse effect of making that change, an exchange is made to more evenly distribute the loading on individual physical disk storage devices. The exchange involves the use of a pair of specially configured logical volumes that receive copies of the data to be exchanged, allow a reconfiguration of the blocks in the block pair and the transfer of the data back to the other blocks in the block pair to effect the exchange.