Method and apparatus for providing highly-transparent, host-based multi-pathing support
US7093265B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Sep 21, 2001 |
| Grant date | Aug 15, 2006 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | May 28, 2023 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F13/385
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A host computer environment includes a driver stack having a disk driver and a host bus adapter (HBA) driver. The driver stack further includes a multipath driver functionally embedded between the disk driver and HBA driver. At this hierarchical layer of the driver stack, the multipath driver functions at the command transport protocol level. The disk driver effectively views the multipath driver as a HBA driver type, while the HBA driver effectively views the multipath driver as a disk driver type. The multipath driver is configured to instantiate proxy virtual paths to the disk array that are visible to the host operating system but otherwise conceal the underlying physical paths. The multipath driver retains knowledge of the mapping between the physical and virtual paths. The disk array is configured to report itself to the OS as a non-disk device type, although its true identity is known by the multipath driver.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.