Storage router and method for providing virtual local storage
First Claim
1. A storage router for providing virtual local storage on storage devices to a host device, comprising:
- a buffer providing memory work space for the storage router;
a first controller operable to connect to and interface with a first transport medium;
a second controller operable to connect to and interface with a second transport medium, wherein the first transport medium is connected to a host device and the second transport medium is connected to the storage devices, and wherein at least one of the first transport medium and the second transport medium is a serial transport medium; and
a supervisor unit coupled to the first and second controllers and the buffer, the supervisor unit operable to;
maintain a map that maps between the host device and at least a portion of the storage devices, the map comprising a representation of the host device and a representation of at least a portion of a first storage device; and
access the map to control access from the host devices connected to the first transport medium to the storage devices to allow the host device to access the at least a portion of the first storage device through native low level block protocol.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A storage router (56) and storage network (50) provide virtual local storage on remote SCSI storage devices (60, 62, 64) to Fiber Channel devices. A plurality of Fiber Channel devices, such as workstations (58), are connected to a Fiber Channel transport medium (52), and a plurality of SCSI storage devices (60, 62, 64) are connected to a SCSI bus transport medium (54). The storage router (56) interfaces between the Fiber Channel transport medium (52) and the SCSI bus transport medium (54). The storage router (56) maps between the workstations (58) and the SCSI storage devices (60, 62, 64) and implements access controls for storage space on the SCSI storage devices (60, 62, 64). The storage router (56) then allows access from the workstations (58) to the SCSI storage devices (60, 62, 64) using native low level, block protocol in accordance with the mapping and the access controls.
202 Citations
89 Claims
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1. A storage router for providing virtual local storage on storage devices to a host device, comprising:
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a buffer providing memory work space for the storage router; a first controller operable to connect to and interface with a first transport medium; a second controller operable to connect to and interface with a second transport medium, wherein the first transport medium is connected to a host device and the second transport medium is connected to the storage devices, and wherein at least one of the first transport medium and the second transport medium is a serial transport medium; and a supervisor unit coupled to the first and second controllers and the buffer, the supervisor unit operable to; maintain a map that maps between the host device and at least a portion of the storage devices, the map comprising a representation of the host device and a representation of at least a portion of a first storage device; and access the map to control access from the host devices connected to the first transport medium to the storage devices to allow the host device to access the at least a portion of the first storage device through native low level block protocol. - 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, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. A storage router for providing virtual local storage on storage devices to a host device, comprising:
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a buffer providing memory work space for the storage router; a first controller operable to connect to and interface with a first transport medium; a second controller operable to connect to and interface with a second transport medium, wherein at least one of the first transport medium and the second transport medium is a serial transport medium; and a supervisor unit coupled to the first and second controllers and the buffer, the supervisor unit operable to; maintain a map that comprises host identifications for host devices on the first transport medium and representations of at least a portion of a storage device on the second transport medium, the map associating subsets of storage space on the storage devices connected to the second transport medium with the host devices connected to the first transport medium; and for a request received from a first host, access the map to determine the storage space associated with a first host using the host identification for the first host to direct the request to the appropriate subset of storage space, wherein the request is received from the first host and forwarded to the storage device containing the storage space using a native low level block protocol format. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59)
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60. A method for providing virtual local storage on storage devices connected to a first transport medium to host devices connected to a second transport medium, comprising:
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interfacing with a first transport medium; interfacing with a second transport medium, wherein at least one of the first transport medium and the second transport medium is a serial transport medium; and maintaining a map that maps between the host devices and the storage devices, the map comprising a representation of at least one host device and a representation of at least a portion of a first storage device; and controlling access from the host devices to the storage devices using the map; and accessing the storage devices from the host devices using native low level block protocol. - View Dependent Claims (61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78)
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79. A method for providing virtual local storage on storage devices to a host device, wherein the host device is connected to a first transport medium, the storage devices are connected to a second transport medium and at least one of the first and second transport mediums is a serial transport medium, comprising:
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maintaining a map comprising host identifiers for each host device representations of at least a portion of each storage device by associating each host identification with zero or more representations of at least a portion of each storage device; and receiving a request from a first host device for access to a first portion of a storage device; accessing the map to whether the first host may access the requested portion of the first storage device; and if the first host may access the requested portion of the first storage device, forwarding the request to the portion of the first storage device using a native low level block protocol. - View Dependent Claims (80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89)
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Specification