Method, apparatus, and program for performing boot, maintenance, or install operations on a storage area network

• US 7,093,120 B2
• Filed: 05/29/2003
• Issued: 08/15/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: McBrearty, Gerald F., Mullen, Shawn P., Murillo, Jessica Kelley, Shieh, Johnny M., Keohane, Susann
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Patel, Hari
• Application Number:
  US10/448,238
• Publication Number:
  US 20040243796A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,174 Days
• Field of Search: 713/2, 709/222
• US Class Current: 713/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4416 Network booting; Remote initial program loading [RIPL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

A mechanism is provided for configuring a set of devices for a given machine attached to a storage area network. The initial program load firmware and network adapter firmware for each machine on the storage area network are modified to query a storage area network appliance for lists of devices. The storage area network appliance may be identified by a world wide name and may store lists of boot devices, root volume group devices, primary devices, and secondary devices for each machine on the storage area network. The storage area network appliance then listens for queries and returns the appropriate list of devices based on query type and/or boot type. The boot type for a machine may be set to normal boot, maintenance boot, or install boot.

Claims

1. A method for performing operations on a machine connected to a storage area network the method comprising:

sending a boot device query to a storage area network appliance;

receiving a list of boot devices from the storage area network appliance, the boot devices each having at least one boot file for use in booting another device;

configuring at least one boot device in the list of boot devices; and

booting the machine from the at least one boot device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending a root volume group device query to the storage area network appliance;

receiving a list of root volume group devices identifying a set of root volume group devices front the storage area network appliance; and

configuring the set of root volume group devices.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the storage area network appliance stores a boot type for the machine and wherein the list of root volume group devices returned by the storage area network appliance to the machine is selected based on the boot type.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the boot type is one of normal, install, and maintenance.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

sending a primary device query to the storage area network appliance;

receiving a list of primary devices identifying a set of primary devices from the storage area network appliance; and

configuring the prinxaiy devices.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising sending a secondary device query to the storage area network appliance;

receiving a list of secondary devices identifying a set of secondary devices from the storage area network appliance; and

configuring the set of secondary devices.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

sending a non-essential device query to the storage area network appliance;

receiving a list of non-essential devices identifying a set of non-essential devices from the storage area network appliance; and

configuring the set of non-essential devices.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage area network appliance stores a boat type for the machine and wherein the list of boot devices returned by the storage area network appliance to the machine is selected by the storage area network appliance based on the boot type for the machine.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the boot type is one of normal, install, and maintenance.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage area network appliance receives a query from the machine, identifies a query type for the query, and returns a list of devices to the machine based on the query type.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the query type is one of boot, root volume group, primary, secondary, and non-essential.

12. A storage area network data processing system, comprising:

a storage area network fabric;

a plurality of machines connected to the storage area network fabric;

a plurality of storage devices connected to the storage area network fabric; and

a storage area network appliance connected to the storage area network fabric, wherein the storage area network appliance receives a query from a given machine within the plurality of machines, identifies a query type for the query, and returns a list of devices to the given machine based on the query type, wherein the list of devices identifies a set of one or more devices each having at least one boot file for use in booting another device.

13. The storage area network data processing system of claim 12, wherein the storage area network appliance stores a boot type for each machine within the plurality of machines and wherein the list of devices returned by the storage area network appliance to the machine is selected by the storage area network appliance based on the boot type for the machine.

14. The storage area network data processing system of claim 13, wherein the boot type is one of normal, install, and maintenance.

15. The storage area network data processing system of claim 12, wherein the given machine receives the list of devices from the storage area network appliance and configures at least one device in the set of one or more devices.

16. The storage area network data processing system of claim 15, wherein the given machine boots from the at least one device.

17. The storage area network data processing system of claim 15, wherein the given machine performs an install operation on the at least one device.

18. The storage area network data processing system of claim 15, wherein the given machine performs a maintenance operation on the at least one device.

19. The storage area network data processing system of claim 12, wherein the query type is one of boot, root volume group, primary, secondary, and non-essential.

20. A computer program product, in a computer readable medium, for performing operations on a machine connected to a storage area network, the computer program product comprising:

instructions for sending a boot device query to a storage ares network appliance;

instructions for receiving a list of boot devices from the storage area network appliance the boot devices each having at least one boot file for use in booting another device;

instructions for configuring at least one boot device in the list of boot devices; and

instructions for booting the machine from the at least one boot device.