System and method for addressing protocol translation in a storage environment

• US 20040117522A1
• Filed: 12/11/2002
• Published: 06/17/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Loffink, John S., Lau, Jason, Gregorcyk, Arthur J. Jr.
• Application Number:
  US10/316,366
• Publication Number:
  US 20040117522A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 710/74
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0607 by facilitating the process of upgrading existing storage systems, e.g. for improving compatibility between host and storage device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0661 Format or protocol conversion arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

A system and method for translating addressing protocols between two types of storage drives in a storage environment is provided. A storage environment may include a JBOD of Serial ATA drives coupled to a host server through an external SCSI connection. The addressing protocol of the host server will typically involve addressing each Serial ATA drive by a unique SCSI target ID. This addressing protocol of the host server is translated to an addressing protocol in which each Serial ATA drive is addressed through unique LUN identifier and a single SCSI target ID, which is the addressing scheme of some SCSI-based peripheral controllers.

Claims

1. A storage environment, comprising:

a server having a controller, wherein the controller is able to address a storage drive in the storage environment according to an identifier associated with the storage drive;

a storage device coupled to the server through a network connection and having a plurality of storage drives, wherein each storage drive is associated with a unique identifier; and

a bridge element associated with the storage device and operable to recognize communications addressed to any of the storage drives of the storage device.

2. The storage environment of claim 1,

wherein the network connection between the server and the storage device is a SCSI connection;

and

wherein the plurality of storage drives are Serial ATA drives.

3. The storage environment of claim 2,

wherein the storage device is a JBOD enclosure;

wherein each Serial ATA drive is assigned a unique SCSI target ID; and

wherein the bridge element is operable to recognize communications addressed to any of the unique SCSI target IDs of the associated JBOD enclosure.

4. The storage environment of claim 3, further comprising a PCI bus connection between the bridge element and the Serial ATA drives of the JBOD enclosure.

5. The storage environment of claim 4, further comprising a processor coupled to the PCI bus and able to translate a communication from a SCSI communications protocol to a Serial ATA communications protocol.

6. A method for addressing storage drives in a storage device of a storage environment, comprising the steps of:

assigning a logical target identifier to each storage drive;

providing a bridge element for storage device, wherein the bridge element is operable to recognize communications addressed to any of the storage devices of the storage device;

receiving at the bridge element a communication from a host;

recognizing at the bridge element that the communication is addressed to one of the storage devices of the associated storage device; and

passing the communication to a storage drive on the basis of the target identifier of the communication.

7. The method for addressing storage drives of claim 6,

wherein the storage device is a JBOD enclosure;

wherein the storage drives are Serial ATA drives; and

wherein the step of assigning a logical target identifier to each storage drive comprises the step of assigning a SCSI target ID to each Serial ATA drive.

8. The method for addressing storage drives of claim 7, wherein the bridge element is operable to recognize communications addressed to any of the SCSI target IDs of the JBOD enclosure.

9. The method for addressing storage drives of claim 8, wherein the step of passing the communication to a storage device comprises the step of translating the communication from a SCSI protocol to a Serial ATA protocol.

10. A storage environment, comprising:

a host having a controller, wherein the controller is able to address a storage drive in the storage environment according to a first addressing protocol;

a storage device coupled to the server through a network connection and having a plurality of storage drives, wherein the storage drives are addressable according to a second addressing protocol; and

a bridge element associated with the storage device and able to translate communications between the first addressing protocol and the second addressing protocol.

11. The storage environment of claim 10,

wherein the storage device is a JBOD enclosure;

and

wherein the storage drives are Serial ATA drives.

12. The storage environment of claim 11, wherein the network connection between the JBOD enclosure and the host is a SCSI connection.

13. The storage environment of claim 12, wherein the first addressing protocol comprises addressing communications by a SCSI target ID assigned to each of the Serial ATA drives.

14. The storage environment of claim 13, wherein the second addressing protocol comprises addressing communications to the Serial ATA drives by SCSI LUN number and a single SCSI target ID.

15. The storage environment of claim 14, wherein the JBOD enclosure includes a controller that is coupled by a PCI bus to the Serial ATA drives of the JBOD enclosure.

16. The storage environment of claim 15, further comprising a processor coupled to the PCI bus that is operable to translate communications from a SCSI protocol to a Serial ATA protocol.

17. A method for addressing storage drives in a JBOD enclosure, comprising the steps of:

providing a bridge device coupled between a host and the JBOD enclosure;

receiving communications from the host according to a first addressing scheme;

translating the communications from the host into a second addressing scheme; and

transmitting the communications to the JBOD enclosure according to the second addressing scheme.

18. The method for addressing storage devices of claim 17, wherein the storage drives of the JBOD enclosure represent Serial ATA drives.

19. The method for addressing storage devices of claim 18, wherein the first addressing scheme comprises addressing the Serial ATA drives of the JBOD enclosure by a unique target ID.

20. The method for addressing storage devices of claim 19, wherein the second addressing scheme comprises address the Serial ATA drives according to a LUN identifier and wherein each Serial ATA drive of the JBOD enclosure associated with a single target ID.