Virtual ports for partitioning of data storage
US6988130B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | May 6, 2002 |
| Grant date | Jan 17, 2006 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Nov 30, 2023 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L69/329
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A storage controller has at least one physical data port for a data network including host processors. The storage controller is programmed to provide a plurality of virtual ports for access to storage, and a virtual switch for routing storage access requests from the physical port to the virtual ports. The virtual ports and the virtual switch are defined by software. The virtual ports appear to the hosts as physical ports in the data network. For example, in a Fiber-Channel network, the virtual ports have World Wide Names (WWNs) and are assigned temporary addresses (S_IDs), and the virtual switch provides a name server identifying the WWNs and S_IDs of the virtual ports. For convenient partitioning of storage among host processors, one or more virtual ports are assigned to each host, and a set of storage volumes are made accessible from each virtual port.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.