Storage aggregator for enhancing virtualization in data storage networks

• US 6,983,303 B2
• Filed: 01/31/2002
• Issued: 01/03/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Elliott, Robert, Pellegrino, Greg, Sabotta, Mike
• Primary Examiner(s): SHAH, KAMINI S
• Application Number:
  US10/061,956
• Publication Number:
  US 20030145045A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,433 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/223, 711/203, 711/111, 711/223, 714/7
• US Class Current: 709/203
• 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 3/0604 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0644 Management of space entities, e.g. partitions, extents, pools
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0665 at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A method, and corresponding storage aggregator, for aggregating data storage within a data storage network. The storage network includes a server with consumers or upper level applications, a storage system with available storage, and a fabric linking the server and the storage system. The method includes pooling the available storage to create virtual drives, which represent the available storage and may be a combination of logical unit number (LUN) pages. The volumes within the available data storage are divided into pages, and volumes of LUN pages are created based on available pages. The virtual drives are presented to the server, and a logical command is received from the server requesting access to the storage represented by the virtual drives. The command is transmitted to controllers for the available storage and a link is established between the server and controllers with data being exchanged directly between the server and controllers.

Claims

1. A method in a computer system for aggregating storage in a data storage network having a server with one or more consumers, a storage system with available storage, and a communication fabric linking the sewer and the storage system, comprising:

pooling the available storage to create virtual drives;

presenting the virtual drives to the server over the fabric;

in response, receiving a logical command from the server for access to the available storage represented by the virtual drives;

transmitting the logical command to a controller of the available storage identified in the logical command; and

,

receiving a snapshot configuration command and copying the virtual drives included in the snapshot configuration command to create snapshot virtual drives.

2. The method of claim 1, further including establishing a direct communication link over the communication fabric between the server and the storage controller to perform actions indicated in the logical command.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual drives comprise a combination of logical unit numbers (LUNs).

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the pooling includes dividing volumes in the available storage into pages and wherein the combination comprises one or more volumes of LUN pages based on the available storage pages.

5. The method of claim 4, further including determining if the logical command is a write to a pages marked as snapped and based on such determination, allocating a new page for the marked page and clearing the snapped marking.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the logical command is a small computer system interface (SCSI) read or write.

7. A data storage network with virtualized data storage, comprising:

a communication fabric;

a server system linked to the communication fabric and running applications that transmit data access commands over the communication fabric;

a storage system linked to the communication fabric including data storage devices and a controller for managing access to the data storage devices; and

a storage aggregator linked to the communication fabric having virtual drives comprising a logical representation of the data storage devices, wherein the storage aggregator receives the data access commands pertaining to the virtual drives and forwards the data access commands to the controller of the storage system.

8. The data storage network of claim 7, wherein the storage system responds to the forwarded data access commands by communicating with the server system over the fabric.

9. The data storage network of claim 7, wherein the storage aggregator includes a virtual controller adapted for at least periodically creating the virtual drives based on available volumes in the data storage devices.

10. The data storage network of claim 9, wherein the creating includes dividing the available volumes into pages and wherein the virtual drives include aggregate volumes comprising a plurality of logical unit number (LUN) pages representing pages from the available volumes.

11. The data storage network of claim 7, wherein the data access commands are SCSI commands.

12. The data storage network of claim 7, wherein the data access commands are SCSI RDMA Protocol (SRP) commands.

13. The data storage network of claim 7, wherein the communication fabric is a switched matrix including a switch and the server system, the storage system, and the storage aggregators each include an adapter linked to the switch for transmitting and receiving messages to and from the switch.

14. The data storage network of claim 13, wherein the server system adapter is a host channel adapter and the storage system and storage aggregator adapters are target channel adapters.

15. The data storage network of claim 14, wherein the communication fabric is an InfiniBand Architecture switched communication fabric.

16. A storage aggregation apparatus for virtualizing data access commands, comprising:

an input and output interface linking the storage aggregation apparatus to a digital data communication fabric, wherein the interface receives a data access command from a host server over the fabric;

a command processor configured to parse a data movement portion from the data access command and to transmit the data movement portion to a storage controller; and

a mechanism for receiving a reply signal from the storage controller in response to acting on the received data movement portion directly with the host server and for transmitting a data access response to the host server via the interface and fabric based on the storage controller reply signal.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the data access command is a SCSI command and the data access response is a SCSI response.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the apparatus is adapted for controlling access to a pool of storage and further includes a mechanism for creating virtual storage based on the storage pool and for presenting the virtual storage to the host server over the fabric.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the apparatus is a node on the fabric remote from the storage controller.

20. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the apparatus is a component of a storage system including the storage controller.