System and method for addressing scheme for use on clusters

• US 6,587,959 B1
• Filed: 07/28/1999
• Issued: 07/01/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Sjolander, Todd Michael, Todd, Stephen James
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, DIEU MINH T
• Application Number:
  US09/362,270
• Time in Patent Office: 1,434 Days
• Field of Search: 714/4, 714/6, 714/9, 714/13, 709/202, 709/203, 709/208, 709/211, 709/219, 709/217
• US Class Current: 714/4.5
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/35 involving non-standard use of addresses for implementing network functionalities, e.g. coding subscription information within the address or functional addressing, i.e. assigning an address to a function
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

A method of forwarding a message received by a server to a coupled hardware device in a server cluster where the server cluster is comprised of a default server and a coupled backup server. A look-up table is created in the server for all hardware devices coupled to the server by a server agent. The look-up table relates a unique identifier of a hardware device to a local path. The server agent sends all of the hardware identifiers to the client. Typically, this occurs as the result of a client application requesting this information. The client can then send a message for a hardware device connected to the server. The message is attached to a unique identifier which contains the hardware identifier. The server agent then extracts the identifier from the message. The server then retrieves the look-up table and locates the path in the look-up table for the coupled hardware device based on the hardware identifier parsed from the unique identifier. The message is then forwarded through the path to the hardware device.

Claims

1. A method for forwarding a message to a hardware device received by a server cluster, the server cluster having a default server and at least one backup server, the server cluster also having a common address, the peripheral hardware device being shared by the server cluster and having a unique peripheral hardware identifier that is not assigned by a server'"'"'s operating system, the method comprising:

creating a look-up table in each server which relates each unique peripheral hardware identifier to a local path wherein the same unique hardware identifier is used in each server;

receiving at the server cluster a message including a unique peripheral hardware identifier;

parsing a unique peripheral hardware identifier from the message;

locating the local path in the look-up table for a peripheral hardware device based on the unique peripheral hardware identifier; and

forwarding the message along the local path to the peripheral hardware device.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the message includes a port number for the peripheral hardware device.

3. A method according to claim 1, further comprising determining if the default server has malfunctioned;

and

switching to the backup server if the default server has malfunctioned.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the peripheral hardware device is a logical group of disks in a disk array.

5. A method according to claim 4, wherein the local path comprises a host bus adapter identifier, a SCSI address of a storage processor, and a logical unit number of the group of disks.

6. A method of sending a message between a client and a peripheral hardware device of a server cluster, the server cluster having a default server and at least one backup server, the server cluster also having a common address, the peripheral hardware device being shared by the server cluster and having a unique peripheral hardware identifier that is not assigned by a server'"'"'s operating system, the method comprising:

sending a message including the unique peripheral hardware identifier from the client to the common address of the server cluster;

parsing the unique peripheral hardware identifier from the message in the server cluster;

looking up a path for the unique peripheral hardware identifier in a look-up table in the default server; and

forwarding the message to the peripheral hardware device in accordance with the local path.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising:

sending the unique peripheral hardware identifier from the server cluster to the client.

8. A method according to claim 6, wherein the peripheral hardware device is a logical group of disks in a disk array commonly shared by the server cluster.

9. The method according to claim 6, wherein the common address is an Internet Protocol address.

10. A method according to claim 6, further comprising:

determining in the server cluster if the default server has malfunctioned; and

switching to the backup server if the default server has malfunctioned.

11. A computer program product on a computer readable medium for forwarding a message received by a server cluster to a commonly shared piece of peripheral hardware of the server cluster comprising:

computer code for creating a look-up table in each server of the server cluster for all peripheral hardware devices coupled to the server cluster which relates a unique peripheral hardware identifier of a peripheral hardware device to a local path wherein the unique peripheral hardware identifier is not assigned by an operating system wherein the unique peripheral hardware identifier for a peripheral hardware device is shared by all servers in the server cluster;

computer code for receiving at a server of the server cluster a message with a unique peripheral hardware identifier appended;

computer code for parsing from the message, the unique peripheral hardware identifier;

computer code for locating the local path in the look-up table for the peripheral hardware device based on the unique peripheral hardware identifier; and

computer code for forwarding the message.to the local path.

12. A computer program product according to claim 11, wherein a common address is appended to the message and the unique peripheral hardware identifier, further comprising:

computer code for parsing the common address; and

computer code for validating that the common address is for the server cluster.

13. A method of sending a message between a client and shared peripheral hardware of a server cluster having one default and at least one backup server, the server cluster having a common address, the peripheral hardware having a unique peripheral hardware identifier, the method comprising:

selecting at the client a shared peripheral hardware device of the server cluster to send a message;

creating at the client an address identifier comprising at least the unique peripheral hardware identifier for the selected peripheral hardware device appended to the common address;

sending a message to the shared peripheral hardware device of the server cluster appended to the address identifier;

receiving the message and the address identifier at the server cluster;

parsing the unique peripheral hardware identifier from the address identifier;

mapping the unique peripheral hardware identifier of the selected peripheral hardware to a local path wherein the unique peripheral hardware identifier for the peripheral hardware is shared by all servers in the server cluster; and

forwarding the message to the shared peripheral hardware device based on the local path.

14. The method according to claim 13, further comprising:

transferring the unique peripheral hardware identifier for each shared peripheral hardware device to the client.

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein the shared peripheral hardware device is a logical group of disks in a disk array.

16. The method according to claim 13, wherein the common address is an Internet protocol address.

17. A digital storage medium encoded with instructions which, when loaded into a computer forwards a message to a peripheral hardware device received by a server cluster, the server cluster having a default server and at least one backup server, the server cluster also having a common address, the peripheral hardware device being shared by the server cluster, the device comprising:

a receiver module at the server for receiving a message with a unique peripheral hardware identifier appended;

a parser for parsing the unique peripheral hardware identifier from the message;

a locator for locating a local path in a look-up table which relates each unique peripheral hardware identifier to a local path for the coupled peripheral hardware device based on the unique peripheral hardware identifier wherein the unique peripheral hardware identifier is not provided by an operating system; and

a forwarder for forwarding the message to the peripheral hardware device along the local path.