Intelligent virtual volume access

• US 6,389,432 B1
• Filed: 04/05/1999
• Issued: 05/14/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Auspex Systems, Inc.
• Inventors: Tripathy, Tarun Kumar, Indurkar, Ravi, Narayanaswamy, Lakshman, Reddy, Pannala Sudhakar, Pothapragada, Srinivas
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Hosain T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ly, Anh
• Application Number:
  US09/286,248
• Time in Patent Office: 1,135 Days
• Field of Search: 707/10, 707/104, 707/205, 707/503, 711/154, 711/114, 345/520, 345/543, 709/201
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3485 for I/O devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to 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: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99956 File allocation

Abstract

A system and a method manages storage space in one or more data storage devices. This is done by receiving a request for storage space from a requester, the request specifying one or more criteria associated with the requested storage space; searching a data structure such as a table containing attributes associated with the data storage devices; selecting one of the data storage devices whose attributes best match the one or more criteria; returning an identification associated with a portion of the selected data storage devices to the requester; and creating a communication path between the requester and the selected data storage device.

Claims

1. A method for managing storage space in one or more data storage devices coupled to a storage area networks (SAN), the method comprising:

receiving a request for storage space from a requester coupled to the SAN, the request specifying one or more criteria associated with the requested storage space;

selecting one of the data storage devices according to volume characteristics of the devices, where the selected device is a device having volume characteristics that best match the one or more criteria specified in the request;

returning an identification associated with the selected data storage device to the requester; and

creating a communication path between the requester and the selected data storage device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the searching step is performed by an external manager.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the volume characteristics of a data storage device are statically configured in a server.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the volume characteristics of a data storage device are statically configured in a switch.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein each data storage device broadcasts its volume characteristics to a manager.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the manager stores the volume characteristics of a data storage device in the table.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the manager statically configures the volume characteristics of a data storage device.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein each data storage device broadcasts value-added services associated with the data storage device to the manager.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the manager communicates with each data storage device using a Fibre Channel protocol.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein the manager manages one or more virtual volumes on each data storage device.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein the requester and the data storage devices communicate using a network protocol.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the network protocol is an Internet Protocol (IP).

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the network protocol is an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) protocol.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the network protocol is an in-band control protocol.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the network protocol is a Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) protocol.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the data storage device is managed by a server.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the server communicates using a Fibre Channel protocol.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the data storage device is managed by a switch.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the switch communicates using a Fibre Channel protocol.

20. The method of claim 5, wherein the manager communicates with another manager over a network.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the data storage devices is a disk drive.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the data storage devices is a tape drive.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the identification is a logical unit number.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the requester is a server.

25. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing manager operations to allocate space.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the manager operations include one operation selected from a group of commands to initialize, attach, detach, connect, bind, write, read, move, signal, query, convert, control, and callback data in a storage partition.

27. A system comprising:

a storage area networks (SAN);

one or more data storage devices coupled to the SAN;

a requester coupled to the SAN; and

a manager for supervising requests for storage space, the manager being operable to;

receive a request for storage space from the requester, the request specifying one or more criteria associated with the requested storage space;

select one of the data storage devices according to volume characteristics of the devices, where the selected device is a device having volume characteristics that best match the one or more criteria specified in the request;

return an identification associated with the selected data storage devices to the requester; and

create a communication path between the requester and the selected data storage device.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the system has two or more SANs and the two or more SANs are interconnected.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the two or more SANs are interconnected over a network.

30. The system of claim 27, wherein the two or more SANs are interconnected using a router.

31. The system of claim 27, wherein the manager conforms to a virtual volume management protocol.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the manager controls one or more virtual partitions.

33. The system of claim 27, wherein the manager resides on a switch.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein the manager resides on a network switch.

35. The system of claim 33, wherein the switch is a Fibre Channel switch.

36. The system of claim 27, wherein one or more of the data storage devices are coupled to the requester.

37. The system of claim 27, wherein one or more of the data storage devices are coupled to the requester over the SAN.

38. The system of claim 27, wherein one or more of the data storage devices are coupled to the requester over a local area network.

39. The system of claim 27, wherein one or more of the data storage devices are coupled to the requester over a wide area network.

40. The system of claim 27, wherein one or more of the data storage devices are coupled to the requester over a storage framework.

41. The system of claim 40, wherein the storage framework is StoreX.

42. The system of claim 27, wherein the manager allocates storage space.

43. The system of claim 42, wherein the storage space is allocated using one or more commands selected from a group of commands to initialize, attach, detach, connect, bind, write, read, move, signal, query, convert, control, and callback data in a storage partition.