SAN monitor incorporating a GPS receiver

• US 20020169869A1
• Filed: 05/08/2001
• Published: 11/14/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Shugart Technology Inc (Seagate Technology Holdings Plc)
• Original Assignee: Shugart Technology Inc (Seagate Technology Holdings Plc)
• Inventors: Fainer, James David, Parrett, George Robert
• Application Number:
  US09/852,164
• Publication Number:
  US 20020169869A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/06 Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks

Abstract

A device for monitoring a storage area network (SAN) that incorporates a global positioning system (GPS) receiver. The monitoring device (SAN monitor) generally includes a Fibre Channel interface for connecting to a Fibre Channel, a PCI interface for connecting to a PCI bus, a controller connected to the Fibre Channel interface and the PCI interface for controlling the functions of the SAN monitor, and a GPS receiver for receiving GPS satellite signals and providing a synchronized timing signal to the controller via a timer. When a plurality of SAN monitors deployed on the network at large distances from each other, the timing signals provided by the GPS receiver enables the monitors to sample data from the network in a synchronized manner.

Claims

1. A monitoring device adapted to be connected to a storage area network for monitoring the network, comprising:

a network interface adapted to be connected to the storage area network;

a controller connected to the network interface for controlling the functions of the monitoring device; and

a GPS receiver connected to the controller for supplying a synchronized timing signal to the controller.

2. The monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the controller is a field programmable gate array.

3. The monitoring device of claim 3, further comprising:

a serializer/deserializer connected to the network interface;

a serial router connected to the serializer/deserializer and to the controller;

a peripheral bus interface adapted to be connected to a peripheral bus;

a FIFO connected to the controller and to the peripheral bus interface; and

a timer connected to the controller and receiving the timing signals supplied by the GPS receiver.

4. The monitoring device of claim 3, wherein the network interface is a Fibre Channel interface for connecting to a Fibre Channel, and wherein the peripheral bus interface is a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) interface for connecting to a PCI bus.

5. A storage system comprising:

a storage area network; and

a plurality of monitoring devices connected to the network, each monitoring devices including a GPS receiver for supplying a synchronized timing signal to the receiver, and the plurality of monitoring devices sampling data from the network in a synchronized manner.

6. A method of monitoring a storage area network, comprising:

sampling information from the storage area network using a plurality of monitoring devices;

receiving GPS timing signals by each monitoring device; and

synchronizing the sampling of information by the plurality of monitoring devices using the received GPS timing signals.