Storage Router and Method for Providing Virtual Local Storage
First Claim
1. A storage router for providing virtual local storage on storage devices to a host device, comprising:
- a first controller operable to connect to and interface with a first transport medium;
a second controller operable to connect to and interface with a second transport medium, wherein at least one of the first transport medium and the second transport medium is a serial transport medium; and
a supervisor unit coupled to the first and second controllers, the supervisor unit operable to;
maintain a map that comprises host identifications for host devices connected via the first transport medium and representations of at least a portion of a storage device connected via the second transport medium, the map associating subsets of storage space on the storage devices with the host devices; and
for a request received from a host, access the map to determine the storage space associated with the requesting host using the requesting host'"'"'s host identification and allowing the request from the requesting host to pass through to the requested subset of storage space if the requesting host is mapped to such requested subset of storage space, wherein the request is a native low level block protocol when received from the requesting host and is forwarded to the storage device containing the storage space as a native low level block protocol request.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A storage router (56) and storage network (50) provide virtual local storage on remote SCSI storage devices (60, 62, 64) to Fibre Channel devices. A plurality of Fibre Channel devices, such as workstations (58), are connected to a Fibre Channel transport medium (52), and a plurality of SCSI storage devices (60, 62, 64) are connected to a SCSI bus transport medium (54) The storage router (56) interfaces between the Fibre Channel transport medium (52) and the SCSI bus transport medium (54). The storage router (56) maps between the workstations (58) and the SCSI storage devices (60, 62, 64) and implements access controls for storage space on the SCSI storage devices (60, 62, 64). The storage router (56) then allows access from the workstations (58) to the SCSI storage devices (60, 62, 64) using native low level, block protocol in accordance with the mapping and the access controls.
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Citations
55 Claims
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1. A storage router for providing virtual local storage on storage devices to a host device, comprising:
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a first controller operable to connect to and interface with a first transport medium;
a second controller operable to connect to and interface with a second transport medium, wherein at least one of the first transport medium and the second transport medium is a serial transport medium; and
a supervisor unit coupled to the first and second controllers, the supervisor unit operable to;
maintain a map that comprises host identifications for host devices connected via the first transport medium and representations of at least a portion of a storage device connected via the second transport medium, the map associating subsets of storage space on the storage devices with the host devices; and
for a request received from a host, access the map to determine the storage space associated with the requesting host using the requesting host'"'"'s host identification and allowing the request from the requesting host to pass through to the requested subset of storage space if the requesting host is mapped to such requested subset of storage space, wherein the request is a native low level block protocol when received from the requesting host and is forwarded to the storage device containing the storage space as a native low level block protocol request. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 23, 24, 25, 27, 32)
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18. A method for providing virtual local storage on storage devices to host devices, comprising:
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interfacing with a first transport medium;
interfacing with a second transport medium, wherein at least one of the first transport medium and the second transport medium is a serial transport medium; and
maintaining a map that comprises host identifications for host devices on the first transport medium and representations of at least a portion of a storage device on the second transport medium, the map associating a subset of storage space on the storage devices with the host devices;
receiving a native low level block protocol request from a host; and
accessing the map to determine if the requesting host device is mapped to the requested subset of storage space and forwarding the native low level block protocol request to the requested subset of storage space if the requesting host device is mapped to such requested subset of storage space. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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33. A storage router for providing virtual local storage on storage devices to host devices, comprising:
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a first controller operable to interface with a first transport medium;
a second controller operable to interface with a second transport medium, wherein at least one of the first transport medium and the second transport medium is a serial transport medium; and
a supervisor unit coupled to the first and second controllers and the buffer, the supervisor unit operable to;
present the storage devices to the host devices in a manner so that the storage devices appear to the host devices as locally attached to the host device so as to have the appearance of locally attached storage;
maintain a map that maps between the host devices and the storage devices, the map comprising a representation of the host devices and a representation of the storage devices;
access the map to determine whether a host device making a request is mapped to a requested storage device to control access; and
control host device access by allowing the requesting host device to access the requested storage device if the requesting host device is mapped to the requested storage device, otherwise denying access, wherein the request is low level block protocol request at the requesting host device, during transport over the first and second transport mediums and when received at the requested storage device.
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34. A method for providing virtual local storage on storage devices to host devices, comprising:
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presenting the storage devices to the host devices in a manner so that the storage devices appear to the host devices as locally attached to the host device so as to have the appearance of locally attached storage;
maintaining a map that maps between the host devices and the storage devices, the map comprising a representation of host devices and a representation of storage devices;
receiving a low level block protocol format request from a host device to a requested storage device across a first transport medium;
access the map to determine whether the requesting host device is allowed access to the requested storage device; and
sending the request in a low level block protocol format to the requested storage device if the requesting host device is allowed access to the requested storage device, otherwise denying access.
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35. A storage router for providing virtual local storage on storage devices to host devices, comprising:
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a first controller operable to interface with a first serial transport medium, wherein the first serial transport medium is capable of transporting packets according to a transport protocol;
a second controller operable to interface with a second transport medium; and
a supervisor unit coupled to the first and second controllers and the buffer, the supervisor unit operable to;
provide virtual local storage on storage devices to host devices;
maintain a map that maps between the host devices and the storage devices, the map comprising representations of the host devices and representations of the storage devices;
access the map to determine whether a host device making a request is mapped to a requested storage device to control access, wherein the request from the host is a low level block protocol request packaged in a transport protocol; and
if the host device is determined to have access rights, forwarding the request as a low level block protocol to the requested storage device, else denying access to the requesting host device. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46)
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47. A method for controlling access between host devices and virtual local storage on storage devices, comprising:
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interfacing with a serial transport medium operable according to a transport protocol;
interfacing with a second transport medium;
providing virtual local storage on storage devices to host devices;
maintaining a map that maps between the host devices and the storage devices, the map comprising representations of the host devices and representations of the storage devices;
receiving a low level block protocol request to access a storage device from a requesting host over the serial transport medium, wherein the low level block protocol request is packaged in a transport protocol;
accessing the map to determine whether the requesting host device has access rights to the requested storage device; and
if the requesting host device has access rights to the requested storage device, forwarding the request as a low level block protocol request to the requested storage device. - View Dependent Claims (48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55)
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Specification