SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SMART STORAGE INTERCONNECTION IN A HETEROGENEOUS STORAGE ENVIRONMENT

• US 20140149662A1
• Filed: 11/28/2012
• Published: 05/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Kamalavannan, Hariharan
• Granted Patent: US 9,268,493 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/114
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0607 by facilitating the process of upgrading existing storage systems, e.g. for improving compatibility between host and storage device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0632 by initialisation or re-initialisation of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/356 for storage area networks

Abstract

An information handling system is provided. The information handling system includes a plurality of storage subsystems a back-end switch connected to each storage subsystem to communicate information about each of the plurality; and a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) volume. Each storage subsystem includes a RAID engine, a storage drive; and a plurality of input ports and output ports. The RAID volume includes the storage drive on a first storage subsystem of the plurality and the storage drive on a second storage subsystem of the plurality. Methods for providing such a system are also disclosed.

Claims

1. An information handling system, comprising:

a plurality of storage subsystems, each storage subsystem including;

a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) engine,

at least one storage drive; and

a plurality of input ports and output ports;

a back-end switch connected to each storage subsystem to communicate information about each of the plurality of storage subsystems; and

a RAID volume including the storage drive on a first storage subsystem of the plurality and the storage drive on a second storage subsystem of the plurality of storage subsystems.

2. The information handling system of claim 1, further comprising a storage area network (SAN) cloud.

3. The information handling system of claim 2, further comprising a host connected to the SAN cloud.

4. The information handling system of claim 2, further comprising a plurality of hosts, at least two of the hosts supporting different communication protocols.

5. The information handling system of claim 1, wherein the RAID engine is provided by a computer processor executing instruction to perform a set of functions associated with the RAID engine.

6. The information handling system of claim 4, wherein the different communication protocols include a Fibre Channel protocol, an Internet Small Computer System Interface protocol, a Serial Attached Small Computer System Interface protocol, and/or a Fibre Channel over Ethernet protocol.

7. The information handling system of claim 2, wherein the plurality of input and output ports of each storage subsystem of the plurality includes:

a front-end input port and a front-end output port coupled to the SAN cloud; and

a back-end input port and a back-end output port coupled to the back-end switch.

8. The information handling system of claim 7, wherein the back-end input port and the back-end output ports are provided by a back-end interface having an input mode and an output mode.

9. The information handling system of claim 7, wherein the front-end input port and the front-end output port of a first storage subsystem of the plurality support a first communication protocol, and the front-end input port and the front-end output port for a second storage subsystem of the plurality support a second communication protocol.

10. The information handling system of claim 1, wherein one storage subsystem of the plurality of storage subsystems acts as a RAID volume master storage subsystem for the RAID volume.

11. A method for accessing storage drives between storage subsystems, the method comprising:

exchanging information between each storage subsystem of a plurality of storage subsystems connected in a domain by a back-end switch;

designating one of the plurality of storage subsystems as a domain master subsystem, the domain master system holding the exchanged information;

creating a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) volume that includes a storage drive from at least two of the plurality of storage subsystems; and

storing data from a host to the RAID volume.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein designating one storage subsystem of the plurality as the domain master subsystem comprises:

exchanging world wide node numbers among the plurality; and

designating a storage subsystem having a lowest world wide node number as the domain master subsystem.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein exchanging information about each storage subsystem includes exchanging world wide node numbers, the number of storage drives in each storage subsystem, the number of unused storage drives in each subsystem, and/or the presence of RAID volumes;

and further comprising storing the exchanged information on the domain master subsystem.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising conducting polling by the domain master subsystem to collect information updates from the rest of the plurality of storage subsystems.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein storing data from a host to the RAID volume comprises:

receiving data from a host at a first storage subsystem of the plurality of storage subsystems,

activating an output mode on a back-end interface of the first storage subsystem;

activating an input mode on a back-end interface of a second storage subsystem of the plurality of storage subsystems; and

transmitting data from the first storage subsystem to the second storage subsystem.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein storing data from a host to the RAID volume comprises:

activating an output mode on a back-end interface of a second storage subsystem of the plurality of storage subsystems;

activating an input mode on a back-end interface of a first storage subsystem of the plurality of storage subsystems;

transmitting an acknowledgment from the second storage subsystem to the first storage subsystem; and

transmitting the acknowledgment from the first storage subsystem to the host.

17. A method for accessing storage drives between storage subsystems, the method comprising:

designating one storage system of a plurality of storage subsystems connected by a back-end switch as a domain master subsystem;

collecting information about each of the plurality of storage subsystems in the domain master subsystem;

identifying unused drives in the plurality of storage subsystems from the collected information; and

creating a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) volume that includes at least one of the unused drives.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising identifying existing RAID volumes existing in the plurality of storage subsystems.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

recognizing a new storage subsystem that has been added to the plurality of storage subsystems; and

electing one of the plurality of storage subsystems that has the lowest world wide node number as the domain master subsystem.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

creating a logical unit number (LUN) identifying the RAID volume;

mapping the LUN to a host so that the host will be associated with the RAID volume.