Apparatus and method for controlling a peripheral device

• US 6,662,241 B1
• Filed: 09/17/1999
• Issued: 12/09/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Moxham, Kathleen R., Bauer, Andreas, Todd, Stephen James, Sjolander, Todd Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Gaffin, Jeffrey
• Assistant Examiner(s): KIM, HAROLD J
• Application Number:
  US09/398,269
• Time in Patent Office: 1,544 Days
• Field of Search: 710/8, 710/5, 710/10, 710/104, 707/4, 709/202
• US Class Current: 710/8
• 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

Abstract

A method and apparatus for controlling a peripheral device is provided. In a server, in a client/server environment, a server application receives a request for execution of a peripheral device script from a client application. The server application retrieves a peripheral device script which is associated with the request and the peripheral device script is passed to a script interpreter. The script interpreter converts the peripheral device script into at least one control signal. A device control module is coupled to the script interpreter and sends the control signal to the peripheral device. The device control module receives information signals from the peripheral device and forwards the information signals to the client application. The script may include code for configuring the peripheral device, code for requesting information about the peripheral device or code for controlling the peripheral device.

Claims

1. A system for processing peripheral device scripts, the system comprising:

a script interpreter for converting a peripheral device script containing configuration commands that are interpretable by the script interpreter for configuring a peripheral device into at least one control signal wherein the control signal implements the configuration command;

a device interface for sending the at least one control signal to a peripheral device and receiving an information signal from the device; and

a server application for receiving a script request from a client application, forwarding a peripheral device script to the script interpreter, and sending the information signal to the client application.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the peripheral device is a disk storage array.

3. A system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one control signal is capable of configuring the peripheral device.

4. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a peripheral device database containing object representations.

5. A system according to claim 4, wherein the at least one control signal contains at least one object request for at least one object representation in the peripheral device database.

6. A system according to claim 5, wherein the at least one object request configures a parameter of an object representation in the peripheral device database.

7. A system according to claim 4, wherein the object representations represent physical components of the peripheral device.

8. A system according to claim 4, wherein one of the object representations represent a storage processor.

9. A system according to claim 4, wherein an object representation represents a disk storage array.

10. A system according to claim 4, wherein one of the object representations represents a subsystem of the peripheral device.

11. A system according to claim 1, wherein the client application is coupled to the server application through a network.

12. A system according to claim 11, wherein the network is the Internet.

13. A system for obtaining peripheral configuration information from a peripheral device, the system comprising:

a script file containing peripheral device requests;

a script interpreter for receiving the script file and interpreting the peripheral device requests into a control signal wherein the control signal implements the peripheral device requests;

a device control module coupled to the script interpreter and the peripheral device for sending the control signal to the peripheral device and receiving an information signal containing peripheral device configuration information.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein the peripheral device is a data storage array.

15. The system according to claim 13, further comprising:

an interface module for receiving a request for an action, associating the action with a script and providing the script to the script interpreter.

16. A method for controlling a peripheral device coupled to a processor, the method comprising:

receiving a request signal in the processor;

associating the request signal with a peripheral device script;

providing the peripheral device script to a script interpreter;

interpreting the peripheral device script containing peripheral device configuration commands into a peripheral device readable signal for configuring the peripheral device;

sending the peripheral device readable signal to the peripheral device.

17. A method according to claim 16, further comprising:

sending a request signal from a remote client application to the processor.

18. A method according to claim 16, wherein the peripheral device is a data storage array.

19. A method for accessing data representative of a peripheral device coupled to a processor, the method comprising:

receiving a request signal in the processor;

associating the request signal with a peripheral device script;

providing the peripheral device script containing a command for requesting information from a peripheral device to a script interpreter;

interpreting the peripheral device script into a peripheral device readable signal wherein the peripheral device readable signal implements the command for requesting information from a peripheral device;

sending a data signal containing configuration information from the peripheral device to an object in a device database; and

storing the configuration information from the data signal in the object.

20. The method according to claim 19, further comprising:

sending a request signal from a client application to the processor.

21. The method according to claim 19 further comprising:

sending the data from the object to a client application.

22. The method according to claim 19, further comprising:

requesting at a client from the processor access to a world wide web page;

sending to the client the world wide web page;

selecting a function on the world wide web page associated with a peripheral device script;

converting the selected function into a request signal; and

sending the request signal from the client to the processor.

23. A computer program on a computer readable medium, the computer program comprising:

computer code for receiving a request signal in a processor of a server;

computer code for associating the request signal with a peripheral device script;

computer code for providing the peripheral device script to a script interpreter;

computer code for interpreting the peripheral device script containing configuration commands that are interpretable by the script interpreter into a peripheral device readable signal wherein the peripheral device readable signal implements the configuration command for configuring the peripheral device; and

computer code for sending the peripheral device readable signal to the peripheral device.

24. A computer program according to claim 23, wherein the peripheral device is a data storage array.

25. A computer program on a computer readable medium for accessing configuration data representative of a peripheral device coupled to a processor, the computer program comprising:

computer code for receiving a request signal in the processor;

computer code for associating the request signal with a peripheral device script;

computer code for providing the peripheral device script to a script interpreter;

computer code for interpreting the peripheral device script containing a peripheral device information retrieval command into a peripheral device readable signal wherein the peripheral device readable signal implements the information retrieval command; and

computer code for receiving a data signal containing configuration data from the peripheral device in response to the peripheral device readable signal.