COMPUTER SYSTEM INPUT/OUTPUT MANAGEMENT
First Claim
1. A system for collecting information related to I/O performance, comprising:
- a plurality of servers, each server including an input/output (I/O) controller configured as an initiator in the network, an agent configured for collecting initiator event data related to the performance of the network, and a initiator driver stack tailored for enabling communications between the agent and the I/O controller; and
a network diagnostics manager configured for periodically polling the agents and collecting the initiator event data from the plurality of servers to assist in determining root causes of network performance issues.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The collection of performance data at multiple servers in a SAN and forwarding that data to a centralized server for analysis is disclosed. Remote agents and a central server application collect specific interesting negative event data to enable a picture of the operational health of the SAN to be determined. The agents are placed in servers having HBAs acting as initiators. The agents interact with the HBAs through a driver stack to collect event data. Because of the initiator function they perform, HBAs have visibility to parts of the network that other entities do not have access to, and thus are ideal locations for gathering event data. A SAN diagnostics manager then pulls the collected data from each agent so that a “picture” of the SAN can be developed. In addition to collecting initiator data, the agents also collect errors and performance data from the OS of the servers.
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Citations
104 Claims
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1. A system for collecting information related to I/O performance, comprising:
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a plurality of servers, each server including an input/output (I/O) controller configured as an initiator in the network, an agent configured for collecting initiator event data related to the performance of the network, and a initiator driver stack tailored for enabling communications between the agent and the I/O controller; and a network diagnostics manager configured for periodically polling the agents and collecting the initiator event data from the plurality of servers to assist in determining root causes of network performance issues. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. A method for collecting information related to network performance from a plurality of servers in the network, comprising:
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configuring an input/output (I/O) controller in each server as an initiator; employing an agent in each server for collecting initiator event data related to the performance of the network; tailoring an initiator driver stack in each server to enable communications between the agent and the I/O controller and collecting the initiator event data from the I/O controller; and periodically polling the agents by a network diagnostics manager to gather the initiator event data and assist in determining root causes of network performance issues. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55)
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56. A server in a network for collecting information related to network performance, comprising:
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an input/output (I/O) controller configured as an initiator in the network; an initiator driver stack tailored for communicating with the I/O controller; and an agent configured for communicating with the I/O controller through the initiator driver stack to collect initiator event data related to the performance of the network from the I/O controller and transmit the collected event data to a network diagnostics manager. - View Dependent Claims (57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67)
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68. A method for collecting information related to network performance from a server in the network, comprising:
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configuring an input/output (I/O) controller in the server as an initiator; employing an agent in the server for collecting initiator event data related to the performance of the network; tailoring an initiator driver stack to enable communications between the agent and the I/O controller and collecting the initiator event data from the I/O controller; and transmitting the collected event data to a network diagnostics manager. - View Dependent Claims (69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78)
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79. A system for collecting information related to network performance, comprising:
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an input/output (I/O) controller configurable as an initiator in the network; and computer-readable storage media storing an agent configured for collecting initiator event data related to the performance of the network and transmitting the collected event data to a network diagnostics manager, and an initiator driver stack tailored for communicating with the agent and the I/O controller and enabling the agent to collect the initiator event data. - View Dependent Claims (80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89)
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90. Computer-readable storage media comprising program code for collecting information related to network performance, the program code comprising:
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an agent configured for collecting initiator event data related to the performance of the network and transmitting the collected event data to a network diagnostics manager, and an initiator driver stack tailored for communicating with the agent and the I/O controller and enabling the agent to collect the initiator event data. - View Dependent Claims (91, 92, 93, 94, 95)
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96. Computer-readable storage media comprising program code for collecting information related to network performance, the program code comprising:
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an agent configured for communicating with an input/output (I/O) controller configured as an initiator in the network through an initiator driver stack to collect initiator event data related to the performance of the network from the I/O controller; and a network diagnostics manager configured for polling the agent to gather the collected initiator event data and assist in determining root causes of network performance issues. - View Dependent Claims (97, 98, 99, 100, 101)
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102. In a storage area network diagnostic system including servers, server adapters within the servers, and storage systems, the server adapters and storage systems connected in-band to allow data and command messages to flow between the servers and the storage systems, an improvement comprising:
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server adapter drivers within the servers for controlling operations of the server adapters, the server adapter drivers configured to collect performance statistics and error statistics concerning the flow of data and command messages through each server adapter and provide statistics report messages upon request, the statistics report messages containing the collected performance statistics and error statistics; and a network diagnostics manager configured for sending requests for statistics report messages to each of the server adapter drivers, and for receiving and processing the statistics report messages in order to produce an indication to a user. - View Dependent Claims (103, 104)
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Specification