Data storage system having shared resource

• US 7,437,425 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2003
• Issued: 10/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Chilton, Kendell A., Guyer, James M., Baxter, William F. III, Walton, John K., Bermingham, Michael, Castel, Daniel
• Primary Examiner(s): WINDER, PATRICE L
• Application Number:
  US10/675,040
• Publication Number:
  US 20050071556A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,841 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 709/213
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1666 where the redundant component is memory or memory area
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/101 using crossbar or matrix
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/3009 Header conversion, routing tables or routing tags
• 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]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

A system interface having a plurality of directors, one portion of such directors being adapted for coupling to a host computer/server and another portion of the directors being adapted for coupling to a bank of disk drives. The plurality of directors are interconnected through a network. A common resource section is provided having a resource shared among the plurality of directors. The common shared resource section includes a shared computer code used by the plurality of directors. The code includes computer code for booting up each one of the plurality directors. The common shared code storage section is interconnected to the directors through the network. A second, redundant common shared resource section is provided. The network is a packet switching network.

Claims

1. A system interface comprising:

plurality of directors, one portion of such directors being adapted for coupling to a host computer/server and another portion of the directors being adapted for coupling to a bank of disk drives, the plurality of directors being interconnected through a network;

a common resource section for providing a resource shared among the plurality of directors; and

wherein the common shared resource section includes a shared computer code used by the plurality of directors; and

wherein each one of the directors accesses the shared code stored in the common shared resource in the shared resource section.

2. The system interface recited in claim 1 wherein the code includes computer code for booting up each one of the plurality directors.

3. The system interface recited in claim 2 wherein the common shared code storage section is interconnected to the directors through the network.

4. A system interface comprising:

plurality of directors, one portion of such directors being adapted for coupling to a host computer/server and another portion of the directors being adapted for coupling to a bank of disk drives, the plurality of directors being interconnected through a network;

a common resource section for providing a resource shared among the plurality of directors wherein the common shared resource section includes a shared computer code used by the plurality of directors;

wherein each one of the directors accesses the shared code stored in the common shared resource in the shared resource section; and

including second, redundant common shared resource section.

5. The system interface recited in claim 4 wherein second, redundant common shared resource section stores computer code used by the plurality of directors in the event the first mentioned one of the common shared code storage section fails.

6. The system interface recited in claim 4 wherein such system interface includes a second, redundant network coupled to the second shared resource section for use in interconnecting the directors in the event the first mentioned one of the shared resource sections fails.

7. A system interface comprising:

plurality of directors, one portion of such directors being adapted for coupling to a host computer/server and another portion of the directors being adapted for coupling to a bank of disk drives, the plurality of directors being interconnected through a network;

a common resource section for providing a resource shared among the plurality of directors wherein the common shared resource section includes a shared computer code used by the plurality of directors;

wherein each one of the directors accesses the shared code stored in the common shared resource in the shared resource section; and

wherein the network is a packet switching network.

8. The system recited in claim 7 wherein the redundant network is a packet switching network.

9. A system interface comprising:

plurality of directors, one portion of such directors being adapted for coupling to a host computer/server and another portion of the directors being adapted for coupling to a bank of disk drives, the plurality of directors being interconnected through a network;

a common resource section for providing a resource shared among the plurality of directors wherein the common shared resource section includes a shared computer code used by the plurality of directors;

wherein each one of the directors accesses the shared code stored in the common shared resource in the shared resource section; and

including a cache memory coupled to the directors and the shared resource though the network.