Systems and methods of sharing removable media storage devices in multi-partitioned systems

• US 20060271736A1
• Filed: 05/24/2005
• Published: 11/30/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Zilavy, Daniel V., Cross, Edward A.
• Granted Patent: US 7,370,157 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/115
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0866 for peripheral storage systems, e.g. disk cache
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/152 Virtualized environment, e.g. logically partitioned system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/211 Optical disk storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

Systems and methods of sharing removable media storage (RMS) devices in multi-partitioned systems are disclosed. An exemplary method may include receiving requests from a plurality of partitions of a processor to map at least one shared RMS device for the multi-partitioned system. The method may also include scheduling the requests if the shared RMS device is unavailable. The method may also include automatically mapping the at least one shared RMS device to the partitions one at a time as the at least one shared RMS device becomes available.

Claims

1. A multi-partitioned system with shared removable media storage (RMS), comprising:

a processor having a plurality of partitions;

at least one shared RMS device provided for the plurality of partitions, the at least one shared RMS device logically disconnected from the plurality of partitions by default;

a management processor addressable by the partitions, the management processor mapping the same shared RMS device to the partitions independent of one another for data access operations.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising a switching fabric for linking the partitions to the at least one shared RMS device via the management processor on a requested basis.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising a virtual input/output (I/O) controller provided in the address space of each partition, the virtual I/O controller handling communications between the respective partition and the management processor.

4. The system of claim 1 further comprising a register interface for each of the partitions, the register interface supporting hot-plug operations for the at least one shared RMS device.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising a register interface for each of the partitions, the register interface supporting media-sense operations for the at least one shared RMS device.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the management processor is operatively associated with a queue for scheduling access to the at least one shared RMS device by more than one partition.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the management processor logically disconnects a partition from the at least one shared RMS device before mapping the same shared RMS device to another partition.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the management processor logically disconnects a partition from the at least one shared RMS device when the partition is finished with a data access operation.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the management processor establishes a smart cache for mapping the at least one shared RMS device to more than one partition for read-only operations.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one shared RMS device is mapped directly to the management processor for system-wide firmware install operations.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one shared RMS device is mapped directly to the management processor for writing system state information to a removable storage media in the at least one shared RMS device.

12. A method of sharing removable media storage (RMS) devices in a multi-partitioned system, comprising:

receiving requests from a plurality of partitions of a processor to map at least one shared RMS device for the multi-partitioned system;

scheduling the requests if the at least one shared RMS device is unavailable; and

automatically mapping the at least one shared RMS device to the partitions one at a time as the at least one shared RMS device becomes available.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising releasing the at least one shared RMS device mapped to one of the partitions before mapping the at least one shared RMS device to another partition for independent access to the at least one shared RMS device.

14. The method of claim 12 further comprising establishing a hot-plug connection between a partition and a shared RMS device mapped to the partition.

15. The method of claim 12 further comprising establishing a media-sense connection between a partition and the shared RMS device mapped to the partition.

16. The method of claim 12 further comprising establishing a smart cache to support simultaneous access by the plurality of partitions to the shared RMS device for read-only operations.

17. The method of claim 12 further comprising mapping a shared RMS device to a management processor supporting each of the partitions in the multi-partitioned system.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising installing firmware for the multi-partitioned system from a removable storage media in a shared RMS device when the shared RMS device is mapped directly to the management processor.

19. The method of claim 17 further comprising writing system state information for the multi-partitioned system to a removable storage media in a shared RMS device when the shared RMS device is mapped directly to the management processor.

20. A multi-partitioned system comprising:

means for connecting at east first and second partitions on a processor to a shared RMS device simultaneously;

means for mapping the shared RMS device to the first partition; and

means for logically releasing the shared RMS device from the first partition before mapping the shared RMS device to the second partition.

21. The system of claim 20 further comprising means for scheduling independent access to the shared RMS device by a plurality of partitions.

22. The system of claim 20 further comprising means for mapping the shared RMS device to a plurality of partitions simultaneously for read-only operations.