Methods and apparatus for implementing a high availability fibre channel switch
First Claim
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1. A method comprising:
- receiving a message from a first application running on an active supervisor in a fibre channel switch in a storage area network;
determining high availability characteristics associated with the message, wherein high availability characteristics provide information for synchronizing a second application running on a standby supervisor with the first application, wherein a high availability characteristic table is referenced using a message type to determine persistent, logged, and mirrored characteristics associated with the message;
providing the message to the second application running on the standby supervisor when high availability characteristics indicate that the message should be mirrored; and
writing the message to a pending transaction buffer when high availability characteristics indicate that the message should be logged; and
writing the message to a persistent table when high availability characteristics indicate that the message is persistent.
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Abstract
High availability for a fibre channel switch in a storage area network can be implemented using redundant supervisors. An active supervisor can identify high availability characteristics associated with a message and determine whether the message should be mirrored onto a redundant supervisor, logged, and/or made persistent. Messages can be logged in a pending transaction buffer and stored using persistent storage services. Mirroring can be performed using synchronization queues that allow messages to be passed asynchronously to a redundant supervisor while maintaining full synchronization between supervisors and causing little delay to operation of the active supervisor.
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Citations
37 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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receiving a message from a first application running on an active supervisor in a fibre channel switch in a storage area network; determining high availability characteristics associated with the message, wherein high availability characteristics provide information for synchronizing a second application running on a standby supervisor with the first application, wherein a high availability characteristic table is referenced using a message type to determine persistent, logged, and mirrored characteristics associated with the message; providing the message to the second application running on the standby supervisor when high availability characteristics indicate that the message should be mirrored; and writing the message to a pending transaction buffer when high availability characteristics indicate that the message should be logged; and writing the message to a persistent table when high availability characteristics indicate that the message is persistent. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 36, 37)
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13. A fibre channel switch, comprising:
- a fibre channel line card coupled to an external fibre channel network entity;
a first supervisor coupled to the fibre channel line card through a backplane;
a second supervisor coupled to the first supervisor;
wherein the first supervisor is operable to receive a message from the external fibre channel network entity that alters the state of the first supervisor and send an acknowledgement to the external fibre channel network entity before the message is passed to the second supervisor, the first supervisor operable to determine high availability characteristics associated with the message, wherein high availability characteristics provide information for synchronizing the second supervisor in the fibre channel switch with the first supervisor, wherein a high availability characteristic table is referenced using a message type to determine persistent, logged, and mirrored characteristics associated with the message. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
- a fibre channel line card coupled to an external fibre channel network entity;
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27. A switch comprising:
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means for receiving a message from a first application running on an active supervisor in a fibre channel switch in a storage area network; means for determining high availability characteristics associated with the message, wherein high availability characteristics provide information for synchronizing a second application running on a standby supervisor in the fibre channel switch with the first application, wherein a high availability characteristic table is referenced using a message type to determine persistent, logged, and mirrored characteristics associated with the message; means for providing the message to the second application running on the standby supervisor when high availability characteristics indicate that the message a should be mirrored; and means for writing the message to a pending transaction buffer when high availability characteristics indicate that the message should be logged; and means for writing the message to a persistent table when high availability characteristics indicate that the message is persistent. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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Specification