NETWORK STORAGE APPLIANCE WITH INTEGRATED REDUNDANT SERVERS AND STORAGE CONTROLLERS
First Claim
1. A network storage appliance, comprising:
- a chassis, enclosing a storage controller and first and second servers;
said storage controller, having first and second I/O ports for coupling to first and second I/O links, said storage controller configured to control a plurality of physical disk drives and to present said plurality of physical disk drives as one or more logical disk drives on said first and second I/O links; and
said first and second servers, each having an I/O port for coupling to a respective one of said first and second I/O links, each of said servers configured to transmit packets to said storage controller over said respective I/O link, said packets including block-level protocol disk commands each identifying one of said logical disk drives.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A network storage appliance includes a chassis, enclosing a storage controller and first and second servers. The storage controller has first and second I/O ports for coupling to first and second I/O links. The storage controller controls a plurality of physical disk drives and presents the plurality of physical disk drives as one or more logical disk drives on the first and second I/O links. The servers each have an I/O port for coupling to a respective one of the first and second I/O links. Each of the servers transmits packets to the storage controller over the respective I/O link. The packets include block-level protocol disk commands each identifying one of the logical disk drives, such as SCSI block level protocol commands each identifying one of said logical disk drives as a SCSI logical unit. The I/O links may be FibreChannel, Ethernet, or Infiniband links, for example.
126 Citations
21 Claims
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1. A network storage appliance, comprising:
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a chassis, enclosing a storage controller and first and second servers;
said storage controller, having first and second I/O ports for coupling to first and second I/O links, said storage controller configured to control a plurality of physical disk drives and to present said plurality of physical disk drives as one or more logical disk drives on said first and second I/O links; and
said first and second servers, each having an I/O port for coupling to a respective one of said first and second I/O links, each of said servers configured to transmit packets to said storage controller over said respective I/O link, said packets including block-level protocol disk commands each identifying one of said logical disk drives. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A network storage appliance, comprising:
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a chassis, enclosing first and second storage controllers and first and second servers;
said first and second storage controller, each having first and second I/O ports for coupling to first and second I/O links, each of said storage controllers configured to control a plurality of physical disk drives and to present said plurality of physical disk drives as one or more logical disk drives on said first and second I/O links; and
said first and second servers, each having first and second I/O ports, said first server I/O ports for coupling to said respective first I/O link coupled to said first and second storage controller, and said second server I/O ports for coupling to said respective second I/O link coupled to said first and second storage controller, each of said servers configured to transmit to said storage controllers over said respective I/O links block-level disk commands each identifying one of said logical disk drives. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A network storage appliance, comprising:
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a chassis;
a backplane, enclosed in said chassis, having a local bus;
a first blade, enclosed in said chassis and coupled to said backplane, comprising a server, a first portion of a storage controller, and an I/O link coupling said server and said first portion of said storage controller; and
a second blade, enclosed in said chassis and coupled to said backplane, comprising a second portion of said storage controller, said second portion of said storage controller configured to control a plurality of logical storage units;
wherein said server is configured to transmit packets to said first portion of said storage controller over said I/O link, said packets including block-level protocol disk commands each identifying one of said logical storage units, wherein said first portion of said storage controller is configured to forward said block-level protocol disk commands to said second portion of said storage controller via said local bus. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21)
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Specification