Routing communications to a storage area network

• US 7,346,802 B2
• Filed: 01/30/2004
• Issued: 03/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Valtrus Innovations Limited (f/k/a Dolya Holdco 9 Limited) (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Quan, Bo, Greenidge, Scott, Ziegler, Michael L., Adams, Aland B.
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, DIEU MINH T
• Application Number:
  US10/769,371
• Publication Number:
  US 20050188243A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,509 Days
• Field of Search: 714/4, 714/5, 714/46, 370/351, 370/356, 709/238
• US Class Current: 714/4.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/604 Address structures or formats
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/631 Small computer system interface [SCSI] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/645 Fibre channel identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/22 Alternate routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/28 using route fault recovery
• 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

Systems, methods, and machine-readable media are disclosed for routing communications to a storage area network (SAN). In one embodiment, the machine-readable media includes first program code to determine a route path through a gateway to a SAN for each of a plurality of addresses of an interface of a server. The first program code determines the route path by applying an algorithm to one or more numerical values associated with the address. The machine-readable media includes second program code to configure the gateway with the route paths.

Claims

1. At least one machine-readable storage media comprising:

first program code executable on a processor to determine a route path through a gateway to a storage area network for each of a plurality of addresses of an interface of a server, the first program code to determine a particular route path from the plurality of route paths by applying an algorithm to one or more numerical values associated with a particular address that is one of the plurality of addresses; and

second program code executable on a processor to configure the gateway with the particular route path.

2. The storage media of claim 1, wherein each of the addresses comprises an interface card number, a target number, and a logical unit number (LUN) and wherein the first program code determines the route path for each of the addresses by applying the algorithm to the interface card number, the target number, and the LUN.

3. The storage media of claim 2, wherein the first program code determines the route path by summing the interface card number, the target number and the LUN, and taking a modulo of the sum.

4. The storage media of claim 2, wherein the first program code takes a modulo two of the sum.

5. The storage media of claim 4, wherein the second program code configures the gateway to route to a first interface of the gateway if the modulo two of the sum is egual to zero, and otherwise configures the gateway to route to a second interface of the gateway.

6. The storage media of claim 1, further comprising third program code executable on a processor to determine the plurality of addresses based on configuration information of the server.

7. A system comprising:

a server including a first interface;

a first gateway communicatively coupled to the first interface, the first gateway comprising a first gateway interface to a storage area network (SAN), a second gateway interface to the SAN, and first configuration information, the first gateway to route a network communication received from the first interface, based on the first configuration information, to one of the first gateway interface and the second gateway interface;

logic, communicatively coupled to the first gateway, to determine a route path through the first gateway for each of a plurality of addresses of the first interface, the logic to determine a particular route path by applying an algorithm to one or more numerical values associated with the particular address from the plurality of addresses and to configure the first configuration information with the particular route path, wherein the particular route path is one of the route paths determined for the plurality of addresses; and

a storage device comprising a first storage device interface and a second storage device interface, the first storage device interface communicatively coupled to the first gateway interface and the second storage device interface communicatively coupled to the second gateway interface.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the server further comprises a second interface and the system further comprises:

a second gateway, communicatively coupled to the second interface and to the logic, the second gateway comprising a third gateway interface to the SAN communicatively coupled to the first storage device interface, a fourth gateway interface to the SAN communicatively coupled to the second storage device interface, and second configuration information, the second gateway to route a network communication received from the second interface based on the second configuration information to one of the third gateway interface and the fourth gateway interface; and

wherein the logic is further to determine a second route path through the second gateway for each of a plurality of addresses of the second interface by applying the algorithm to one or more numerical values associated with the address of the second interface, and to configure the second configuration information with the second route paths.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein each of the addresses comprises an interface card number, a target number, and a logical unit number (LUN) and wherein the logic determines the route path for each of the addresses by applying the algorithm to the interface card number, the target number, and the LUN for each of the addresses.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the logic determines the route path for each of the addresses by summing the interface card number, the target number and the LUN, and taking the modulo two of the sum.

11. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

a first switch, communicatively coupled between the first gateway interface and the first storage device interface, the first switch to route network communications received from the first gateway interface to the first storage device interface;

a second switch, communicatively coupled between the second gateway interface and the second storage device interface, the second switch to route network communications received from the second gateway interface to the second storage device interface.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the storage device comprises a disk array.

13. The system of claim 7, wherein the first gateway includes a Fibre Channel to Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) converter.

14. The system of claim 7, wherein the first interface is a SCSI card.

15. A method comprising:

determining a first address of an interface of a server and a second address of the interface of the server;

determining a first route path for the first address by applying an algorithm to one or more numerical values associated with the first address;

determining a second route path for the second address by applying the algorithm to one or more numerical values associated with the second address; and

configuring a gateway between the interface and a storage area network (SAN) with the first route path and the second route path.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein determining a first route path comprises applying the algorithm to an interface card number, a target number and a logical unit number (LUN) associated with the first address.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein applying the algorithm comprises summing the interface card number, the target number and the LUN, and taking the modulo two of the sum.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein:

the first address comprises a first logical unit number of a first target of the interface and the second address comprises a second logical unit number of the first target;

determining the first route path comprises determining a route path to the first interface of a storage device; and

determining the second route path comprises determining a route path to the second interface of a storage device.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

receiving a third address of a second interface of the server;

determining a third route path for the third address by applying the algorithm to one or more numerical values associated with the third address; and

configuring the gateway with the third route path.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein determining a first route path comprises determining an interface of the gateway to route communications received from the first address.