Patent · US Expired

System and method for redundant communication between redundant controllers

US6996741B1 · kind B1 · utility

250Cited by
20References
10Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJun 28, 2002
Grant dateFeb 7, 2006
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 11, 2023

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F11/2092
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A fibre channel storage area network (SAN) provides virtualized storage space for a number of servers to a number of virtual disks implemented on various virtual redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID) devices striped across a plurality of physical disk drives. The SAN includes plural controllers and communication paths to allow for fail-safe and fail-over operation. The plural controllers can be loosely-coupled to provide n-way redundancy and have more than one independent channel for communicating with one another. In the event of a failure involving a controller or controller interface, the virtual disks that are accessed via the affected interfaces are re-mapped to another interface in order to continue to provide high data availability.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.