Methods and apparatus for controlling devices within storage network
First Claim
1. A method for controlling zoning within a device of a storage network, the method comprising the steps of:
- receiving a generic zone control command that controls a configuration of zoning in the storage network;
translating the generic zone control command to at least one vendor specific device command of a plurality of vendor specific device commands that respectively control zoning in a plurality of different vendor devices; and
performing functions associated with the at least one vendor specific device command to control which of multiple ports in the device shall be grouped together to form a zone through which servers are able to access a data storage system in the storage network; and
configuring multiple server ports and multiple data storage ports of the device to be in the zone, the multiple server ports associated with the zone handling a transfer of data between a server and the device, the multiple data storage ports associated with the zone handling a transfer of data between the device and the data storage system.
9 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A management station includes a management application that controls zoning within devices manufactured or provided from different vendors within a network, such as a data storage network. The management application receives a generic zone control command from a user to control zoning within a device in the network. The management application translates the zone control command to one or more vendor specific device zone control commands in a vendor specific device command set that is specifically designed to control zoning within devices from a specific vendor. To perform the translation, the management application identifies the vendor of one or more devices that are affected by the zone control command. Based on this identification, the management application selects an appropriate vendor specific device command set that contains vendor specific zone control commands.
200 Citations
44 Claims
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1. A method for controlling zoning within a device of a storage network, the method comprising the steps of:
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receiving a generic zone control command that controls a configuration of zoning in the storage network; translating the generic zone control command to at least one vendor specific device command of a plurality of vendor specific device commands that respectively control zoning in a plurality of different vendor devices; and performing functions associated with the at least one vendor specific device command to control which of multiple ports in the device shall be grouped together to form a zone through which servers are able to access a data storage system in the storage network; and configuring multiple server ports and multiple data storage ports of the device to be in the zone, the multiple server ports associated with the zone handling a transfer of data between a server and the device, the multiple data storage ports associated with the zone handling a transfer of data between the device and the data storage system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A computer system configured to control zoning in a plurality of devices from different vendors in a network, the computer system comprising:
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an input-output interface; a processor; and a memory system coupled to the processor and to the input-output interface and encoded with instructions that form a multi-zone management application that, when performed on the processor, cause the computer system to; receive, via the input-output interface, a generic zone control command; translate the generic zone control command to at least one vendor specific device command of a plurality of vendor specific device commands that respectively control zoning in a plurality of different vendor devices coupled to the input-output interface; and perform the at least one vendor device specific command to control zoning in a device coupled to the input-output interface; wherein the instructions that control zoning within the device, and when performed on the processor, cause the computer system to control which of multiple ports in the device shall be grouped together to form a zone through which servers are able to access a data storage system in a storage area network; and wherein the instructions that control which of multiple ports in the device shall be grouped together to form the zone, when performed on the processor, cause the computer system to configure multiple server ports and multiple data storage ports of the device to be in the zone, the multiple server ports associated with the zone handling a transfer of data between a server and the device, the multiple data storage ports associated with the zone handling a transfer of data between the device and the data storage system. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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39. A computer program product having a computer-readable medium including computer program logic encoded thereon that when performed on a computer system provides a method for controlling zoning within a device, and wherein when the computer program logic is performed on a processor in the computer system, the computer program logic causes the processor to perform the operations of:
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receiving a generic zone control command; translating the generic zone control command to at least one vendor specific device command of a plurality of vendor specific device commands that respectively control zoning in a plurality of different vendor devices; and performing the at least one vendor specific device command to control which of multiple ports in the device are grouped together to form a zone through which servers are able to access a data storage system in a storage area network; and configuring multiple server ports and multiple data storage ports of the device to be in the zone, the multiple server ports associated with the zone handling a transfer of data between a server and the device, the multiple data storage ports associated with the zone handling a transfer of data between the device and the data storage system. - View Dependent Claims (40, 41)
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42. A management application that operates to control zoning in devices from different vendors in a data storage network, the management application comprising:
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a management application user interface that receives a generic zone control command; a multi-vendor application programming interface coupled to the multi-zone management application user interface, the multi-vendor application programming interface obtaining from a multi-zone command database, based on the generic zone control command, a vendor specific command set containing functions that control zoning in a device associated with the generic zone control command; a command mapping accessible by the multi-vendor application programming interface, the command mapping defining mappings between parameters from the generic zone control command to parameters required by the vendor specific commands within the vendor specific command set; the multi-vendor application programming interface using the command mapping to map the generic zone control command to at least one vendor specific command and performing the at least one vendor specific command to control zoning within a specific vendor device associated with the generic zone control command; wherein the management application controls which of multiple ports in the device shall be grouped together to form a zone through which servers are able to access a data storage system in a storage area network; and wherein the management application configures multiple server ports and multiple data storage ports of the device to be in the zone, the multiple server ports associated with the zone handling a transfer of data between a server and the device, the multiple data storage ports associated with the zone handling a transfer of data between the device and the data storage system.
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43. In a network management application operating in a management station computer system controlling zoning of different vendor types of data switches in a network, a method comprising:
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receiving a generic zone control command; identifying at least two different vendor specific types of switch devices to which the generic zone control command pertains; translating the generic zone control command into corresponding vendor specific device commands for the at least two different vendor specific types of switch devices; transmitting the vendor specific device commands over the network to the at least two different vendor specific types of switch devices; wherein the receiving, identifying, translating and transmitting are executed by a management application that controls zoning within the at least two different vendor specific types of switch devices; wherein the management application controls which of multiple ports in the at least two different vendor specific types of switch devices shall be grouped together to form a zone through which servers are able to access a data storage system in a storage area network; and wherein the management application configures multiple server ports and multiple data storage ports of the switch devices to be in the zone, the multiple server ports associated with the zone handling a transfer of data between a server and the switch devices, the multiple data storage ports associated with the zone handling a transfer of data between the switch devices and the data storage system. - View Dependent Claims (44)
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Specification