Computer system including a device with a plurality of identifiers

• US 6,499,075 B2
• Filed: 04/05/2001
• Issued: 12/24/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/1992
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• 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:
  US09/825,986
• Publication Number:
  US 20010044863A1
• Time in Patent Office: 628 Days
• Field of Search: 710/104, 710/10, 710/305-314, 711/173, 712/15, 713/1, 713/2, 713/100
• 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 (IDs) respectively allocated thereto as SCSI IDs=1, 2 and 3, which are supported by a disk controller. When the host computer has acquired the control 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 device that are 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 having a plurality of partitions, each of which is assigned a different Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) ID; and

a disk array controller connectable to a plurality of computers and to said disk array,

wherein said disk array controller accesses one of said plurality of partitions of said disk array based upon the assigned SCSI-ID indicated by one of plurality of computers and sends said data to said one of plurality of computers.

3. A disk array storage device according to claim 1, wherein said data stored in said one of said plurality of partition are read only when said disk array controller is indicated by said assigned SCSI-ID by said one of plurality of computers.

4. A disk array storage device according to claim 3, wherein each of said partitions includes portions of multiple disks of the disk array.

5. A disk array storage device according to claim 4, wherein each of said partitions is assigned one of RAID levels.

2. A disk array storage device, comprising:

a disk array having a plurality of partitions, each of which is assigned a different Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) ID; and

a disk array controller connectable to a plurality of computers and to said disk array,

wherein said disk array controller reads data stored in one of said plurality of partitions of said disk array based upon the assigned SCSI-ID indicated by one of plurality of computers and sends said data to said one of plurality of computers.

6. A disk array storage device, comprising:

a disk array having a plurality of partitions, each of which is assigned to one of at least two different Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) IDs and each computer is assigned to at least one partition; and

a disk array controller connectable to a plurality of computers and to said disk array,

wherein said disk array controller accesses one of said plurality of partitions of said disk array based upon the assigned SCSI-ID when one of the plurality of computers which is assigned to the one of said plurality of partitions accesses to the disk array.

7. A disk array storage device according to claim 6, wherein said data stored in said one of said plurality of partition are read only when said disk array controller is indicated by said assigned SCSI-ID by said one of plurality of computers.

8. A disk array storage device according to claim 7, wherein each of said partitions includes portions of multiple disks of the disk array.

9. A disk array storage device according to claim 8, wherein each of said partitions is assigned one of RAID levels.

10. A disk array storage device, comprising:

a disk array having a plurality of partitions, each of which is assigned to one of at least two different Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) IDs and each partition is assigned to at least one of a plurality of computers; and

a disk array controller connectable to said plurality of computers and to said disk array,

wherein said disk array controller accesses one of said plurality of partitions of said disk array based upon the assigned SCSI-ID when one of the plurality of computers which is assigned to the one of said plurality of partitions accesses to the disk array.

11. A disk array storage device according to claim 10, wherein said data stored in said one of said plurality of partition are read only when said disk array controller is indicated by said assigned SCSI-ID by said one of plurality of computers.

12. A disk array storage device according to claim 11, wherein each of said partitions includes portions of multiple disks of the disk array.

13. A disk array storage device according to claim 12, wherein each of said partitions is assigned one of RAID levels.

14. A disk array storage device, comprising:

a disk array having a plurality of partitions, each being assigned a Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) ID which is different from the other SCSI IDs assigned to the other partitions and each computer is assigned to at least one partition; and

a disk array controller connectable to a plurality of computers and to said disk array,

wherein said disk array accesses one of said plurality of partitions of said disk array based upon the assigned SCSI-ID when one of the plurality of computers which is assigned to the one of said plurality of partitions accesses to the disk array.

15. A disk array storage device according to claim 14, wherein said data stored in said one of said plurality of partition are read only when said disk array controller is indicated by said assigned SCSI-ID by said one of plurality of computers.

16. A disk array storage device according to claim 15, wherein each of said partitions includes portions of multiple disks of the disk array.

17. A disk array storage device according to claim 16, wherein each of said partitions is assigned one of RAID levels.

18. A disk array storage device, comprising:

a disk array having a plurality of partitions, each being assigned a Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) ID which is different from the other SCSI IDs assigned to the other partitions and each partition is assigned to at least one of a plurality of computers; and

a disk array controller connectable to said plurality of computers and to said disk array,

wherein said disk array controller accesses one of said plurality of partitions of said disk array based upon the assigned SCSI-ID when one of the plurality of computers which is assigned to the one of said plurality of partitions accesses to the disk array.

19. A disk array storage device according to claim 18, wherein said data stored in said one of said plurality of partition are read only when said disk array controller is indicated by said assigned SCSI-ID by said one of plurality of computers.

20. A disk array storage device according to claim 19, wherein each of said partitions includes portions of multiple disks of the disk array.

21. A disk array storage device according to claim 20, wherein each of said partitions is assigned one of RAID levels.