Emulating a local storage by accessing an external storage through a shared port of a NIC
US11636053B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jan 9, 2021 |
| Grant date | Apr 25, 2023 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Feb 4, 2041 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F13/107
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Some embodiments provide a method of providing distributed storage services to a host computer from a network interface card (NIC) of the host computer. At the NIC, the method accesses a set of one or more external storages operating outside of the host computer through a shared port of the NIC that is not only used to access the set of external storages but also for forwarding packets not related to an external storage. In some embodiments, the method accesses the external storage set by using a network fabric storage driver that employs a network fabric storage protocol to access the external storage set. The method presents the external storage as a local storage of the host computer to a set of programs executing on the host computer. In some embodiments, the method presents the local storage by using a storage emulation layer on the NIC to create a local storage construct that presents the set of external storages as a local storage of the host computer.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.