Emulating disk drives of a first system on a second system

• US 6,006,029 A
• Filed: 09/28/1993
• Issued: 12/21/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/1993
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Bull HN Information Systems Incorporated (Atos SE)
• Original Assignee: Bull HN Information Systems Incorporated (Atos SE)
• Inventors: Kubik, Mathew J., Bianchi, Richard S., Fogelgren, Marcia T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Maung, Zarni
• Application Number:
  US08/128,397
• Time in Patent Office: 2,275 Days
• Field of Search: 395/500, 395/500.45, 395/500.42
• US Class Current: 703/24
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/105 where the programme performs an input/output emulation function

Abstract

The emulation of a first system disk drive on a second processing system including a second system user level process including first system user and executive tasks issuing disk input/output requests. An emulator level is interposed between the second system user level process and a kernel level and includes a pseudo device driver corresponding to the first system disk drive and the kernel level includes a kernel process corresponding to the pseudo device driver and emulating the disk drive. The pseudo device driver and the kernel process execute in a second system process to emulate the operations of the disk drive and the kernel process emulating the disk drive is a file input/output process. The pseudo device driver includes a pseudo device queue, a return queue and a queue manager responsive to first system disk input/output instructions and to completed disk operations. The second system includes a resource control table containing a disk drive type identification as a SCSI type drive and the kernel process reads the file capacity of the second system file emulating the first system disk drive and provides the file capacity to the requesting task as the disk drive capacity.

Claims

1. An emulator for emulating a disk drive of a first data processing system on a second data processing system, the first data processing system including a user level, an executive level, an input/output level and a hardware platform, the user level including at least one user program and at least one executive program for managing operations of the first data processing system and the hardware platform including a plurality of first system input/output devices, including the disk drive, the executive level including at least one user task performing user level program operations and at least one executive task performing executive program operations, the user and executive tasks generating requests for disk drive input/output operations by the disk drive, the input/output level including input/output tasks, at least one input/output task corresponding to the disk drive and performing disk drive input/output operations in response to the input/output requests directed to the disk drive and the disk drive performing input/output operations in response to the corresponding disk drive input/output task, the disk drive emulator executing on the second data processing system and comprising:

a second system user level process executing in a user level of the second data processing system, the second system user level process including

the first system user level program,

the first system executive program, and

the first system user and executive tasks,

an emulator level interposed between the second system user level process and a kernel level, the emulator level including

a pseudo device driver corresponding to the first system disk drive, the kernel level, including

a kernel process corresponding to the pseudo device driver and emulating the disk drive, wherein

the pseudo device driver and the kernel process execute in a second system process to emulate the operations of the disk drive, and wherein

the kernel process emulating the disk drive is a file input/output process, so that the disk drive is emulated by a second system file.

2. The emulator of claim 1, wherein the pseudo device driver further comprises:

a pseudo device queue including a device queue frame for each disk drive input/output request directed to the disk drive, each device queue frame containing the request directed to the disk drive, wherein

the kernel process is responsive to a request stored in a device queue frame of the pseudo device queue for reading the disk drive input/output request from the device queue frame and performing a second system file input/output operation executing the disk drive input/output request,

a return queue including a return queue frame for each disk drive input/output request executed by the kernel process, wherein the kernel process is responsive to the completion of the execution of a disk drive input/output request for writing a request result into a return queue frame of the return queue, and

a pseudo device queue manager responsive to

each disk drive input/output request generated by a task for writing the input/output request into the pseudo device queue, and

to each return queue frame in the return queue for providing the request result to the task which generated the corresponding disk drive input/output request.

3. The emulator of claim 2 wherein each drive input/output request generated by a task is associated with a disk drive input/output instruction and wherein the pseudo device queue manager further comprises:

an instruction monitor for detecting first system disk drive input/output instructions and generating a input/output instruction output indication upon the occurrence of a disk drive input/output instruction, and

a queue write mechanism responsive to a disk drive input/output instruction indication from the instruction monitor for writing the associated disk drive input/output request into the pseudo device queue.

4. The emulator of claim 2 wherein the pseudo device queue manager further comprises:

a queue read mechanism responsive to the writing of a return queue frame into the return queue for reading the request result from the return queue from and providing the request result to the task that generated the corresponding disk drive input/output request.

5. The emulator of claim 1 wherein a first system task executes a disk input/output operation by reading a drive type identification from a resource control table and a the disk drive input/output task reads the disk drive capacity of the disk drive from the disk drive and provides the capacity to the task and wherein, in emulator further comprises:

a resource control table corresponding to the emulated disk drive and containing the disk drive type identification and the task requesting a disk drive input/output operations reads the drive type identification from the resource control table, and wherein

the kernel process reads the file capacity of the second system file emulating the first system disk drive and provides the file capacity to the requesting task as the disk drive capacity.

6. The emulator of claim 5 wherein the emulated disk drive type is identified in the resource control table in the second system as a SCSI type drive.

11. The method of claim 5 wherein a first system task executes a disk input/output operation by reading a drive type identification from a resource control table and a the disk drive input/output task reads the disk drive capacity of the disk drive from the disk drive and provides the capacity to the task and wherein the method further comprises the steps of:

providing a resource control table corresponding to the emulated disk drive and containing the disk drive type identification,

reading the drive type identification from the resource control table, and

reading the file capacity of the second system file emulating the first system disk drive and providing the file capacity to the requesting task as the disk drive capacity.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the emulated disk drive type is identified in the resource control table in the second system as a SCSI type drive.

7. An method for emulating a disk drive of a first data processing system on a second data processing system, the first data processing system including a user level, an executive level, an input/output level and a hardware platform, the user level including at least one user program and at least one executive program for managing operations of the first data processing system and the hardware platform including a plurality of first system input/output devices, including the disk drive, the executive level including at least one user task performing user level program operations and at least one executive task performing executive program operations, the user and executive tasks generating requests for disk drive input/output operations by the disk drive, the input/output level including input/output tasks, at least one input/output task corresponding to the disk drive and performing disk drive input/output operations in response to the input/output requests directed to the disk drive and the disk drive performing input/output operations in response to the corresponding disk drive input/output task, the method for emulating the disk drive emulator executing on the second data processing system and comprising the steps of:

executing a second system user level process, the second system user level process including

the first system user level program,

the first system executive program, and

the first system user and executive tasks,

interposing an emulator level between the second system user level process and a kernel level, and, in the emulator level, constructing a pseudo device driver corresponding to the first system disk drive,

executing a kernel process corresponding to the pseudo device driver and emulating the disk drive, wherein

the pseudo device driver and the kernel process execute in a second system process to emulate the operations of the disk drive, and wherein

the kernel process emulating the disk drive is a file input/output process, so that the disk drive is emulated by a second system file.

8. The emulator of claim 7, wherein the step of constructing a pseudo device driver further comprises the steps of:

constructing a pseudo device queue corresponding to a pseudo device driver and including a device queue frame for each disk drive input/output request directed to the disk drive, each device queue frame containing the request directed to the disk drive, wherein

the kernel process is responsive to a request stored in a device queue frame of the pseudo device queue for reading the disk drive input/output request from the device queue frame and performing a second system file input/output operation executing the disk drive input/output request,

constructing a return queue including a return queue frame for each disk drive input/output request executed by the kernel process, wherein the kernel process is responsive to the completion of the execution of a disk drive input/output request for writing a request result into a return queue frame of the return queue, and

providing a pseudo device queue manager responsive to

each disk drive input/output request generated by a task for writing the input/output request into the pseudo device queue, and

to each return queue frame in the return queue for providing the request result to the task which generated the corresponding disk drive input/output request.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein each disk drive input/output request generated by a task is associated with a disk drive input/output instruction and wherein the pseudo device queue manager further performs the steps of:

detecting first system disk drive input/output instructions, and

responsive to the detection of a disk drive input/output instruction, writing the associated disk drive input/output request into the pseudo device queue.

10. The emulator of claim 8 wherein the pseudo device queue manager further performs the steps comprising:

upon the writing of a return result into a return queue frame, reading the request result from the return queue from and providing the request result to the task that generated the corresponding disk drive input/output request.