Network storage appliance with integrated redundant servers and storage controllers
First Claim
1. A network storage appliance, comprising:
- a chassis;
a backplane, enclosed in said chassis;
a plurality of servers, enclosed in said chassis, each coupled to said backplane; and
a plurality of storage controllers, enclosed in said chassis, each coupled to said backplane, for controlling transfer of data between said plurality of servers and a plurality of storage devices coupled to said plurality of storage controllers;
wherein said plurality of storage controllers and said plurality of servers comprise a plurality of hot-pluggable field replaceable units (FRUs), wherein any one of said plurality of FRUs may be replaced during operation of the appliance without loss of access to said plurality of storage devices.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A network storage appliance is disclosed. The appliance includes a single chassis that encloses a plurality of servers and a plurality of storage controllers coupled together via a chassis backplane. The storage controllers control the transfer of data between the plurality of servers and a plurality of storage devices coupled to the storage controllers. The servers and storage controllers include a plurality of field replaceable unit (FRUs) hot-pluggable into the backplane such that any one of the FRUs may fail without loss of availability to the storage devices'"'"' data. In various embodiments, the chassis fits in a 19″ wide rack; is 1U high; the servers are standard PCs configured to execute off-the-shelf server applications and to facilitate porting of popular operating systems with little modification; the servers include disk-on-chip memory rather than a hard drive; local buses (e.g., PCIX) on the backplane interface the various FRUs.
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Citations
78 Claims
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1. A network storage appliance, comprising:
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a chassis;
a backplane, enclosed in said chassis;
a plurality of servers, enclosed in said chassis, each coupled to said backplane; and
a plurality of storage controllers, enclosed in said chassis, each coupled to said backplane, for controlling transfer of data between said plurality of servers and a plurality of storage devices coupled to said plurality of storage controllers;
wherein said plurality of storage controllers and said plurality of servers comprise a plurality of hot-pluggable field replaceable units (FRUs), wherein any one of said plurality of FRUs may be replaced during operation of the appliance without loss of access to said plurality of storage devices. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60)
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61. A method for providing data storage in a fault-tolerant manner, the method comprising:
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executing a storage software application on redundant active-active failover servers enclosed in a chassis;
issuing data transfer requests, by the servers, to redundant active-active failover storage controllers enclosed in the chassis, in response to said executing;
detecting a failure of a first of the servers, by a second of the servers, after said issuing; and
failing over for the first of the servers, by the second of the servers, in response to said detecting the failure of the first of the servers. - View Dependent Claims (62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70)
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71. A method for transferring data in a storage area network, the method comprising:
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issuing from a first server enclosed in a chassis to a first storage controller also enclosed in the chassis a first request to transfer first data from a storage device controlled by the first storage controller to the first server;
issuing from a second server enclosed in the chassis to a second storage controller also enclosed in the chassis a second request to transfer second data from the storage device to the second server;
removing a blade, of which the first storage controller is comprised, from a backplane enclosed in the chassis after said issuing from the first and second servers; and
providing by the second storage controller, in place of the first storage controller, to the first server the first data, after said removing the blade. - View Dependent Claims (72)
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73. A computer network, comprising:
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a plurality of computers; and
a network storage appliance, networked to said plurality of computers, comprising;
a chassis, having a backplane enclosed therein;
a plurality of servers, enclosed in said chassis, each coupled to said backplane; and
a plurality of storage controllers, enclosed in said chassis, each coupled to said backplane, for controlling transfer of data between said plurality of servers and a plurality of storage devices coupled to said plurality of storage controllers;
wherein said plurality of storage controllers and said plurality of servers comprise a plurality of blades, any one which may be replaced in said backplane during operation of said appliance without loss of access to data stored on said plurality of storage devices by said plurality of computers. - View Dependent Claims (74, 75, 76, 77, 78)
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Specification