Computer system including a device with a plurality of identifiers

• US 6,105,092 A
• Filed: 07/07/1998
• Issued: 08/15/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/1992
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Oeda, Takashi, Yoshida, Minoru, Honda, Kiyoshi, Matsunami, Naoto
• Primary Examiner(s): Myers, Paul R.
• Application Number:
  US09/110,653
• Time in Patent Office: 770 Days
• Field of Search: 710/104, 710/10, 710/128, 710/129, 710/130, 711/173
• US Class Current: 710/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2003/0697 device management, e.g. handlers, drivers, I/O schedulers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0601 Interfaces specially adapted for storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• 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 3/0626 Reducing size or complexity of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0632 by initialisation or re-initialisation of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0637 Permissions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0644 Management of space entities, e.g. partitions, extents, pools
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0661 Format or protocol conversion arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0673 Single storage device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0683 Plurality of storage devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

Abstract

A host computer is connected with a magnetic disk storage device by a SCSI bus. In the magnetic disk storage device, a plurality of partitions are set in a disk drive unit and have device identifiers (ID'"'"'s) respectively allocated thereto as SCSI ID'"'"'s=1, 2 and 3, which are supported by a disk controller. When the host computer has acquired the control of the SCSI bus through an arbitration and has selected, for example, the partition with the device identifier SCSI ID=1, the disk controller permits the host computer to access the partition in response to the selection. Since the partitions are different in attributes, properties etc., they seem to be magnetic disk storage devices that at separate from one another when viewed from the host computer. Thus, the single magnetic disk storage device can be managed as a plurality of storage devices of different nature.

Claims

1. A disk array storage device, comprising:

a disk array assigned a plurality of Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) IDs; and

a disk array controller connectable to a host computer via an SCSI bus and to said disk array,

wherein said disk array controller receives an SCSI-ID from the host computer, and responds to the host computer if the received SCSI-ID coincides with any of the SCSI-IDs assigned to said disk array,

wherein said disk array is divided into a plurality of partitions, and said disk array controller allocates a different SCSI-ID to each of said plurality of partitions.

2. A disk array storage device, comprising:

a disk array assigned a plurality of Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) IDs; and

a disk array controller connectable to a host computer via an SCSI bus and to said disk array,

wherein said disk array controller receives an SCSI-ID from the host computer, and responds to the host computer if the received SCSI-ID coincides with any of the SCSI-IDs assigned to said disk array, and

wherein said disk array is divided into a plurality of partitions, and a different SCSI-ID is assigned to each of said plurality of partitions.

3. A disk array storage device according to claim 2,

wherein each of said partitions include portions of multiple disks of the disk array.

4. A disk array storage device according to claim 3,

wherein each of said partitions is assigned one of RAID levels.

5. A disk storage device responsive to a host computer, comprising:

a disk drive unit; and

a controller for controlling said disk drive unit,

wherein said disk storage device has a plurality of Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) IDs, and responds to said host computer when a SCSI ID received from said host computer coincides with any of said plurality of SCSI IDs, and

wherein said disk drive unit is divided into a plurality of partitions, and a different SCSI ID is assigned to each of said plurality of partitions.

6. In a disk storage device having a disk drive unit and a controller for controlling said disk drive unit, a method of responding to a host computer from said disk storage device comprising the steps of:

assigning a different SCSI ID to each of a plurality of partitions of said disk drive unit; and

responding to said host computer when a SCSI ID received from said host computer coincides with any of said plurality of SCSI IDs.

7. In a disk storage device having a disk drive unit which has a plurality of partitions, a method of responding to a host computer comprising the steps of:

receiving a first SCSI ID from said host computer to access one of said partitions;

responding to said host computer upon receipt of said first SCSI ID;

receiving a second SCSI ID from said host computer to access another one of said partitions; and

responding to said host computer upon receipt of said second SCSI ID,

wherein said first SCSI ID is different from said second SCSI ID.

8. A disk storage device responsive to a host computer, comprising:

a disk drive unit; and

a controller for controlling said disk drive unit,

wherein said disk storage device has a plurality of Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) IDs, and responds to said host computer if a SCSI ID received from said host computer coincides with any of said plurality of SCSI IDs, and

wherein said disk drive unit is divided into a plurality of partitions, and a different SCSI ID is assigned to each of said plurality of partitions.

9. In a disk storage device having a disk drive unit and a controller for controlling said disk drive unit, a method of responding to a host computer from said disk storage device comprising the steps of:

assigning a different SCSI ID to each of a plurality of partitions of said disk drive unit; and

responding to said host computer if a SCSI ID received from said host computer coincides with any of said plurality of SCSI IDs.