System and Computer Program Product for Zoning of Devices in a Storage Area Network

• US 20090083423A1
• Filed: 09/26/2007
• Published: 03/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Hourselt, Andrew Gary, Basham, Robert Beverley, Ricketts, Ashaki Ayanna, McWaters, Kelly Louise, Swingler, Teresa Shen
• Granted Patent: US 7,996,509 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0637 Permissions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

A system and computer program product for performing zoning of devices, such as Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) devices, for example, in a storage area network (SAN) in which all host systems of the SAN are automatically mapped to all of the storage systems are provided. Mechanisms for automatically mapping backend storage enclosures to appropriate storage system controllers on the SAN are provided. The zoning is automatically performed based on whether ports/phys are coupled to host systems, storage systems, and whether there are storage system controllers associated with the storage systems. Based on the automatic zoning, mapping of the storage devices of the storage systems to the host systems may be automatically performed via zone permission tables. By automating the zoning, users that do not necessarily have a detailed knowledge of the storage device communication protocol or SANs may configure the SAN even if it utilizes a complex and large architecture.

Claims

1. A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having a computer readable program, wherein the computer readable program, when executed on a computing device, causes the computing device to:

automatically assign a host system of a chassis, in a storage area network (SAN) implementing a zoning protocol which comprises grouping and mapping components, to a first zone group of the SAN;

automatically assign a second zone group of the SAN to a storage device in the chassis; and

automatically map the assigned first zone group and the second zone group to each other such that the host system is mapped to the storage device, wherein communication between the host system and the storage device is controlled based on the mapping of the assigned first zone group to the assigned second zone group.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the computer program product is executed in a Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) protocol subsystem of the SAN, and wherein the storage device is a SAS storage device.

3. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the SAN comprises a plurality of host systems and a plurality of storage devices, and wherein the computer program product is executed with regard to each of the host systems and each of the storage devices such that each of the plurality of host systems is mapped to each of the plurality of storage devices.

7. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the computer readable program further causes the computing device to:

determine if the chassis has an associated storage system controller; and

assign front end ports of the storage system controller to at least one third zone group if the chassis has an associated storage system controller.

8. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein the computer readable program further causes the computing device to:

determine if backend ports of the storage system controller are in a same SAN as the front end ports; and

assign the backend ports of the storage system controller to at least one fourth zone group.

9. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the computer readable program causes the computing device to automatically assign the second zone group to the storage device by:

determining if there is a storage device enclosure present in the chassis;

determining if a storage system controller is present in the same chassis as the storage device enclosure; and

assigning all of the storage devices in the storage device enclosure to a same third zone group if a storage system controller is present in the chassis.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the computer readable program further causes the computing device to automatically assign the second zone group to the storage device by:

assigning each storage device in the storage device enclosure to its own fourth zone group and re-assigning each host system to its own fifth zone group if there is not a storage system controller in the chassis.

11. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the computer readable program causes the computing device to automatically map the assigned first zone group and the second zone group to each other by:

enumerating zone groups of storage device enclosures within the chassis to thereby generate an enumerated list;

determining, for each storage device enclosure zone group in the enumerated list, whether a storage system controller is present in a same chassis as a storage device enclosure of the storage device enclosure zone group; and

mapping the storage device enclosure zone group to a storage system controller zone group having a smallest number of storage device enclosure zone groups mapped to it.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the computer readable program further causes the computing device to automatically map the assigned first zone group and the second zone group to each other by:

mapping storage device enclosure zone groups internal or external to the chassis equally to host systems of the SAN.

13. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the computer readable program causes the computing device to automatically map the assigned first zone group and the second zone group to each other by:

enumerating unassigned storage device enclosure zone groups to generate an enumerated list; and

iteratively mapping the storage device enclosure zone groups to storage system controller zone groups having a smallest number of storage device enclosure zone groups mapped to them.

14. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the computer readable program causes the computing device to automatically map the assigned first zone group and the second zone group to each other such that the host system is mapped to the storage device by automatically updating a zone permissions table associated with one or more Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) expanders of the SAN.

15. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the chassis is a blade system chassis having one or more blades provided in one or more bays of the blade system chassis.

16. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the computer program product is executed automatically by a zone manager in response to one of initialization of the SAN or addition of a new SAN device to the SAN.

17. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the computer readable program further causes the computing device to:

control communication between the host system and the storage device based on the mapping of the assigned first zone group to the assigned second zone group.

18. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the computer readable program causes the computing device to automatically map the assigned first zone group and the second zone group to each other such that the host system is mapped to the storage device by storing a mapping of the first zone group with the second zone group in a zone permissions table data structure associated with at least one of the host system or the storage device, and wherein the computer readable program further causes the computing device to:

retrieve attribute information for at least one of the host system or the storage device; and

modify the mapping in the zone permissions table data structure based on the attribute information.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the attribute information identifies a capability of the host system or storage device, and wherein the mapping in the zone permissions table data structure is modified to limit mappings associated with the host system or storage device based on the capability.

4-6. -6. (canceled)

20. (canceled)

21. A zone manager system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory comprises instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

automatically assign a host system of a chassis, in a storage area network (SAN) implementing a zoning protocol which comprises grouping and mapping components, to a first zone group of the SAN;

automatically assign a second zone group of the SAN to the storage device in the chassis; and

automatically map the assigned first zone group and the second zone group to each other such that the host system is mapped to the storage device, wherein communication between the host system and the storage device is controlled based on the mapping of the assigned first zone group to the assigned second zone group.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the zone manager is provided in a Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) protocol subsystem of the SAN, and wherein the storage device is a SAS storage device.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the SAN comprises a plurality of host systems and a plurality of storage devices, and wherein the computer program product is executed with regard to each of the host systems and each of the storage devices such that each of the plurality of host systems is mapped to each of the plurality of storage devices.

27. The system of claim 21, wherein the zone manager:

determines if the chassis has an associated storage system controller; and

assigns front end ports of the storage system controller to at least one third zone group if the chassis has an associated storage system controller.

29. The system of claim 21, wherein the zone manager automatically assigns the second zone group to the storage device by:

determining if there is a storage device enclosure present in the chassis;

determining if a storage system controller is present in the same chassis as the storage device enclosure; and

assigning all of the storage devices in the storage device enclosure to a same third zone group if a storage system controller is present in the chassis.

31. The system of claim 21, wherein the zone manager automatically maps the assigned first zone group and the second zone group to each other by:

enumerating zone groups of storage device enclosures within the chassis to thereby generate an enumerated list;

determining, for each storage device enclosure zone group in the enumerated list, whether a storage system controller is present in a same chassis as a storage device enclosure of the storage device enclosure zone group; and

mapping the storage device enclosure zone group to a storage system controller zone group having a smallest number of storage device enclosure zone groups mapped to it.

33. The system of claim 21, wherein the zone manager automatically maps the assigned first zone group and the second zone group to each other by:

enumerating unassigned storage device enclosure zone groups to generate an enumerated list; and

iteratively mapping the storage device enclosure zone groups to storage system controller zone groups having a smallest number of storage device enclosure zone groups mapped to them.

34. The system of claim 21, wherein the zone manager automatically maps the assigned first zone group and the second zone group to each other such that the host system is mapped to the storage device by automatically updating a zone permissions table associated with one or more Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) expanders of the SAN.

35. The system of claim 21, wherein the zone manager operates in response to one of initialization of the SAN or addition of a new SAN device to the SAN to automatically assign the first zone group, automatically assign the second zone group, and map the first zone group to the second zone group.

24-26. -26. (canceled)

28. (canceled)

30. (canceled)

32. (canceled)