Method, system, and program for configuring a source device to communicate with at least one target device

• US 20030177266A1
• Filed: 03/12/2002
• Published: 09/18/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Britton, Thomas George
• Granted Patent: US 7,072,994 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/245
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/103 across network layers, e.g. resolution of network layer into physical layer addresses or address resolution protocol [ARP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5038 for local use, e.g. in LAN or USB networks, or in a controller area network [CAN]

Abstract

Provided are a method, system, and program for configuring device addresses used by a source device to communicate with at least one target device. A determination is made of a number of device addresses supported by a target device and an identifier of the source device. The determined identifier and the number of device addresses supported by the target device are used to determine device addresses from the device addresses supported by the target device to communicate with the target device.

Claims

1. A method for configuring device addresses used by a source device to communicate with at least one target device, comprising:

determining a number of device addresses supported by a target device;

determining an identifier of the source device; and

using the determined identifier and the number of device addresses supported by the target device to determine device addresses from the device addresses supported by the target device to communicate with the target device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein there are a plurality of source devices each having a unique identifier, and wherein each source device independently determines device addresses supported by the target device, whereby the device addresses determined by the target devices are non-overlapping.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining at least one broadcast device address within the device addresses supported by the target device that is used to communicate with other source devices.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the target device comprises a first target device wherein determining a number of device addresses supported by the target device further comprises:

determining the number of device addresses supported by the first target device and a second target device; and

selecting a minimum of the number of device addresses supported by the first and second target devices, wherein the selected minimum of the number of device addresses is used with the determined identifier to determine the device addresses used to communicate with the first and second target devices.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein using the selected minimum number of device addresses and the determined identifier used to determine the device addresses further comprises:

using the selected minimum number of device addresses and the determined identifier to determine a first set of device addresses to communicate with the first target device and a second set of device addresses to communicate with the second target device.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

using the determined identifier to determine a first set of copy device addresses used to copy data from the first target device to the second target device and to determine a second set of copy device addresses used to copy data from the second target device to the first target device.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the first and second target devices maintain copies of a same set of data volumes, wherein updates to one of the target devices are copied to the other target device using one device address in the first or second sets of copy device addresses.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

determining a first set of broadcast device addresses within the device addresses supported by the first target device that is used to communicate with other source devices and a second set of broadcast device addresses within the device addresses supported by the second target device used to communicate with other source devices.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the target devices comprise virtual tape servers that function as a cache for data volumes in a tape library, wherein the source device comprises virtual tape controllers that enable host systems to communicate tape Input/Output (I/O) requests to the virtual tape servers using the first and second set of device addresses.

10. The method of claim 4, wherein if the selected minimum number of device addresses comprises a predesignated number of device addresses and the determined identifier exceeds a predetermined value associated with the predesignated number of device addresses, then at least one source device having the determined identifier is not configured to use device addresses to communicate with the first and second target devices.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the selected minimum number of device addresses is capable of comprising one of 64, 128 and 256 device addresses.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the target device comprises a first target device and the determined device addresses comprise a first set of device addresses, further comprising:

detecting availability of a second target device;

in response to detecting the availability of the second target device, determining whether the number of device addresses supported by the second target device is less than the number of device addresses used to address the first target device; and

using the determined identifier of the source device to determine a second set of device addresses to address the second target device if the number of device addresses supported by the second target device is not less than the number of device addresses configured to address the second target device.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the number of device addresses configured to address the second target device is equal to the number of device addresses configured to use the first target device.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein no device addresses are configured to use the second target device if the number of device addresses supported by the target device is less than the number of device addresses configured to address the first target device.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

querying the target device to determine the number of device addresses supported by the target device, wherein the target device indicates the number of supported device addresses.

16. A system for configuring device addresses to communicate with at least one target device, comprising:

a source device;

means for determining a number of device addresses supported by a target device;

means for determining an identifier of the source device; and

means for using the determined identifier and the number of device addresses supported by the target device to determine device addresses from the device addresses supported by the target device to communicate with the target device.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising:

a plurality of source devices, wherein each source device has a unique identifier, and wherein each source device independently determines device addresses supported by the target device, whereby the device addresses determined by the target devices are non-overlapping.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising:

means for determining at least one broadcast device address within the device addresses supported by the target device that is used to communicate with other source devices.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the target device comprises a first target device wherein determining a number of device addresses supported by the target device further comprises:

means for determining the number of device addresses supported by the first target device and a second target device; and

mean for selecting a minimum of the number of device addresses supported by the first and second target devices, wherein the selected minimum of the number of device addresses is used with the determined identifier to determine the device addresses used to communicate with the first and second target devices.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the means for using the selected minimum number of device addresses and the determined identifier used to determine the device addresses further performs:

using the selected minimum number of device addresses and the determined identifier to determine a first set of device addresses to communicate with the first target device and a second set of device addresses to communicate with the second target device.

21. The system of claim 20, further comprising:

means for using the determined identifier to determine a first set of copy device addresses used to copy data from the first target device to the second target device and to determine a second set of copy device addresses used to copy data from the second target device to the first target device.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the first and second target devices maintain copies of a same set of data volumes, wherein updates to one of the target devices are copied to the other target device using one device address in the first or second sets of copy device addresses.

23. The system of claim 20, further comprising:

means for determining a first set of broadcast device addresses within the device addresses supported by the first target device that is used to communicate with other source devices and a second set of broadcast device addresses within the device addresses supported by the second target device used to communicate with other source devices.

24. The system of claim 20, wherein the target devices comprise virtual tape servers that function as a cache for data volumes in a tape library, wherein the source device comprises a virtual tape controller that enables host systems to communicate tape Input/Output (I/O) requests to the virtual tape servers using the first and second set of device addresses.

25. The system of claim 20, wherein if the selected minimum number of device addresses comprises a predesignated number of device addresses and the determined identifier exceeds a predetermined value associated with the predesignated number of device addresses, then at least one source device having the determined identifier is not configured to use device addresses to communicate with the first and second target devices.

26. The system of claim 16, wherein the target device comprises a first target device and the determined device addresses comprise a first set of device addresses, further comprising:

means for detecting availability of a second target device;

means for determining whether the number of device addresses supported by the second target device is less than the number of device addresses used to address the first target device in response to detecting the availability of the second target device; and

means for using the determined identifier of the source device to determine a second set of device addresses to address the second target device if the number of device addresses supported by the second target device is not less than the number of device addresses configured to address the second target device.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the number of device addresses configured to address the second target device is equal to the number of device addresses configured to use the first target device.

28. The system of claim 26, wherein no device addresses are configured to use the second target device if the number of device addresses supported by the target device is less than the number of device addresses configured to address the first target device.

29. The system of claim 16, further comprising:

means for querying the target device to determine the number of device addresses supported by the target device, wherein the target device indicates the number of supported device addresses.

30. An article of manufacture including code for configuring device addresses used by a source device to communicate with at least one target device, wherein the code causes operations to be performed, the operations comprising:

determining a number of device addresses supported by a target device;

determining an identifier of the source device; and

using the determined identifier and the number of device addresses supported by the target device to determine device addresses from the device addresses supported by the target device to communicate with the target device.

31. The article of manufacture of claim 30, wherein there are a plurality of source devices each having a unique identifier, and wherein each source device independently determines device addresses supported by the target device, whereby the device addresses determined by the target devices are non-overlapping.

32. The article of manufacture of claim 31, further comprising:

determining at least one broadcast device address within the device addresses supported by the target device that is used to communicate with other source devices.

33. The article of manufacture of claim 30, wherein the target device comprises a first target device wherein determining a number of device addresses supported by the target device further comprises:

determining the number of device addresses supported by the first target device and a second target device; and

selecting a minimum of the number of device addresses supported by the first and second target devices, wherein the selected minimum of the number of device addresses is used with the determined identifier to determine the device addresses used to communicate with the first and second target devices.

34. The article of manufacture of claim 33, wherein using the selected minimum number of device addresses and the determined identifier used to determine the device addresses further comprises:

using the selected minimum number of device addresses and the determined identifier to determine a first set of device addresses to communicate with the first target device and a second set of device addresses to communicate with the second target device.

35. The article of manufacture of claim 34, further comprising:

using the determined identifier to determine a first set of copy device addresses used to copy data from the first target device to the second target device and to determine a second set of copy device addresses used to copy data from the second target device to the first target device.

36. The article of manufacture of claim 35, wherein the first and second target devices maintain copies of a same set of data volumes, wherein updates to one of the target devices are copied to the other target device using one device address in the first or second sets of copy device addresses.

37. The article of manufacture of claim 34, further comprising:

determining a first set of broadcast device addresses within the device addresses supported by the first target device that is used to communicate with other source devices and a second set of broadcast device addresses within the device addresses supported by the second target device used to communicate with other source devices.

38. The article of manufacture of claim 34, wherein the target devices comprise virtual tape servers that function as a cache for data volumes in a tape library, wherein the source device comprises virtual tape controllers that enable host systems to communicate tape Input/Output (I/O) requests to the virtual tape servers using the first and second set of device addresses.

39. The article of manufacture of claim 33, wherein if the selected minimum number of device addresses comprises a predesignated number of device addresses and the determined identifier exceeds a predetermined value associated with the predesignated number of device addresses, then at least one source device having the determined identifier is not configured to use device addresses to communicate with the first and second target devices.

40. The article of manufacture of claim 39, wherein the selected minimum number of device addresses is capable of comprising one of 64, 128 and 256 device addresses.

41. The article of manufacture of claim 30, wherein the target device comprises a first target device and the determined device addresses comprise a first set of device addresses, further comprising:

detecting availability of a second target device;

in response to detecting the availability of the second target device, determining whether the number of device addresses supported by the second target device is less than the number of device addresses used to address the first target device; and

using the determined identifier of the source device to determine a second set of device addresses to address the second target device if the number of device addresses supported by the second target device is not less than the number of device addresses configured to address the second target device.

42. The article of manufacture of claim 41, wherein the number of device addresses configured to address the second target device is equal to the number of device addresses configured to use the first target device.

43. The article of manufacture of claim 41, wherein no device addresses are configured to use the second target device if the number of device addresses supported by the target device is less than the number of device addresses configured to address the first target device.

44. The article of manufacture of claim 30, further comprising:

querying the target device to determine the number of device addresses supported by the target device, wherein the target device indicates the number of supported device addresses.