Method and apparatus for managing data volumes in a distributed computer system
First Claim
1. A method for managing data volumes from a management terminal in a distributed computer system having a host computer system with at least one storage device connected to the computer system by driver software, the method comprising:
- (a) inserting an interface layer between the driver software and the storage device, the interface layer exporting a platform dependent API comprising a plurality of API methods are called to control data passing between the driver software and the storage device;
(b) running, in the host computer system, management facade software, wherein said management facade software receives calls to platform-independent methods and generates at least one API method call to the interface layer in order to execute the platform-independent method calls;
(c) running, in the host computer system, a federated bean, wherein said federated bean discovers data volumes in the storage device and generates platform-independent method calls to the management facade to control the interface layer via the plurality of API methods; and
(d) controlling the federated bean to display and configure the data volumes.
2 Assignments
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Accused Products
Abstract
Data volumes on local hosts are discovered and managed by federated Java beans that run on each host. The Java beans form part of a three-tiered data services management. The lowest tier comprises management facade software running on each machine that converts platform-dependent interface written with the low-level kernel routines to platform-independent method calls. The middle tier is a set of federated Java beans that communicate with the management facades and with the upper tier of the system. The upper tier of the inventive system comprises presentation programs that can be directly manipulated by management personnel to view and control the system. The federated beans can configure and control data volumes with either a SCSI terminal emulation interface or a storage volume interface and use a logical disk aggregator to present all volumes available on a local host as a single “logical volume” in which all information regarding the various volumes is presented in a uniform manner.
44 Citations
25 Claims
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1. A method for managing data volumes from a management terminal in a distributed computer system having a host computer system with at least one storage device connected to the computer system by driver software, the method comprising:
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(a) inserting an interface layer between the driver software and the storage device, the interface layer exporting a platform dependent API comprising a plurality of API methods are called to control data passing between the driver software and the storage device; (b) running, in the host computer system, management facade software, wherein said management facade software receives calls to platform-independent methods and generates at least one API method call to the interface layer in order to execute the platform-independent method calls; (c) running, in the host computer system, a federated bean, wherein said federated bean discovers data volumes in the storage device and generates platform-independent method calls to the management facade to control the interface layer via the plurality of API methods; and (d) controlling the federated bean to display and configure the data volumes. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. An apparatus for managing data volumes from a management terminal in a distributed computer system having a host computer system with at least one storage device connected to the computer system by driver software, the apparatus comprising:
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an interface layer is inserted between the driver software and the storage device, the interface layer exporting a platform dependent API comprising a plurality of API methods are called to control data passing between the driver software and the storage device; management facade software in the host computer system, wherein said management facade software receives calls to platform-independent methods and generates at least one API method call to the interface layer in order to execute the platform-independent method calls; running, in the host computer system, a federated bean, wherein said federated bean discovers data volumes in the storage device and generates platform-independent method calls to the management facade to control the interface layer via the plurality of API methods; and a presentation program controls the federated bean to display and configure the data volumes. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A computer program product for managing data volumes from a management terminal in a distributed computer system having a host computer system with at least one storage device connected to the computer system by driver software, the computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code thereon, including:
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interface layer program code for insertion between the driver software and the storage device, the interface layer program code exporting a platform dependent API comprising a plurality of API methods are called to control data passing between the driver software and the storage device; management facade software receives calls to platform-independent methods and generates at least one API method call to the interface layer in order to execute the platform-independent method calls; federated bean program code discovers data volumes in the storage device and generates platform-independent method calls to the management facade to control the interface layer via the plurality of API methods; and a presentation program controls the federated bean to display and configure the data volumes. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25)
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Specification