System and method for re-allocating storage area network resources
US7069468B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 28, 2002 |
| Grant date | Jun 27, 2006 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 23, 2023 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F11/2092
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A fiber 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 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. In particular a resource re-allocation routine operating on one of the controllers employs predetermined criteria against a family of potential back-up controllers in order to select appropriate back-up controllers for a particular device that fails. The criteria, for example, can include an explicit primary/secondary table to control selecting a secondary controller for any primary controller or be more complex so as to consider such statistics…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.