Remote data facility over an IP network

• US 20030061310A1
• Filed: 11/28/2001
• Published: 03/27/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Meiri, David, Shetty, Ramprasad, Veprinsky, Alex
• Granted Patent: US 6,968,369 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2058 using more than 2 mirrored copies
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2071 using a plurality of controllers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2074 Asynchronous techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2087 with a common controller
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

A data storage system capable of performing remote data services (e.g., data mirroring) over an IP network using native connections to the IP network is described. The data storage system employs an architecture that manages the remote data services and the native connections to the IP network in a way that isolates the remote data services application software from the TCP/IP and lower level network processing.

Claims

1. In a remote data mirroring arrangement of data storage systems, a method of operating a data storage system comprises:

determining that storage traffic is to be transferred between the data storage system and a remote data storage system to which the data storage system is coupled by an IP network in accordance with a remote data service application; and

enabling transfer of the storage traffic between the data storage system and the remote data storage system over the IP network using a native connection to the IP network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the IP network is the Internet.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the IP network is a private network.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein enabling comprises using a socket interface to interface an operation of the remote data service to TCP/IP protocols.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the native connection comprises TCP/IP over Gigabit Ethernet

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the socket interface is split across two processors, with a first socket relay residing on a first processor and a second socket relay residing on a second processor.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the first socket relay and remote data service application operation conform to a common interface.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein enabling further comprises using the socket interface to create a socket from which the native connection to the IP network is formed.

9. A computer program product residing on a computer-readable medium for operating a data storage system in a remote data mirroring arrangement of data storage systems, the computer program product comprising instructions causing a computer to:

determine that storage traffic is to be transferred between the data storage system and a remote data storage system to which the data storage system is coupled by an IP network; and

enable transfer of the storage traffic between the data storage system and the remote data storage system over the IP network using a native connection to the IP network.

10. A data storage system comprising:

one or more storage devices;

a controller coupled to the one or more storage devices; and

wherein the controller directs local storage traffic from the data storage system to a remote data storage system over an IP network using a native connection to the IP network.