Apparatus and method for managing and transporting virtual disks over a network to networked stations
First Claim
1. An apparatus for managing and transporting virtual disks over a network to networked stations comprises a data storage subsystem and at least one data processor connected thereto via a network, said data processor includes a virtual disk interface controller to interface with said storage subsystem in handling the input and output for said storage subsystem, and said storage subsystem manages a pool of storage blocks in the form of a plurality of virtual disk images and transports the virtual disk images over the network to said virtual disk interface controller, wherein each virtual disk image transported via the network is emulated as a virtual disk by said virtual disk interface controller and presented to said data processor.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus and method for managing and transporting virtual disks over a network to networked stations is disclosed. The apparatus comprises a data storage subsystem and a data processor connected thereto via a network. The data processor includes a virtual disk interface controller to interface with the storage subsystem in handling the input and output for the storage subsystem. The storage subsystem manages a pool of storage blocks in the form of a plurality of virtual disk images and transports the virtual disk images over the network to the virtual disk interface controller. A virtual disk image is emulated as a virtual disk by the virtual disk interface controller and presented to the data processor. The architecture for management and delivery of disk images and the data structure for maintenance of disk images facilitate software deployment and installation onto the networked diskless computers enable highly efficient system administration on the whole network to maximize the network availability.
56 Citations
16 Claims
- 1. An apparatus for managing and transporting virtual disks over a network to networked stations comprises a data storage subsystem and at least one data processor connected thereto via a network, said data processor includes a virtual disk interface controller to interface with said storage subsystem in handling the input and output for said storage subsystem, and said storage subsystem manages a pool of storage blocks in the form of a plurality of virtual disk images and transports the virtual disk images over the network to said virtual disk interface controller, wherein each virtual disk image transported via the network is emulated as a virtual disk by said virtual disk interface controller and presented to said data processor.
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10. A data processor for managing and transporting virtual disks over a network to networked stations, comprising:
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a virtual disk interface controller to interface with a storage subsystem having a plurality of virtual disk images in handling the input and output for the storage subsystem; and
a disk interface, a virtual disk image emulated by said virtual disk interface controller is presented to said data processor via a disk interface bus to said disk interface as response to said data processor. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12)
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13. A method for managing and transporting virtual disks over a network to networked stations, comprising the steps of:
- (a) managing a pool of possibly scattered and shared storage blocks in the form of a plurality of virtual disk images, (b) transporting selected virtual disk images over the network to a plurality of connected diskless computers and (c) seamlessly emulating the transported virtual disk image as a disk image to the computer that requests access to the virtual disk image.
- View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16)
Specification