System and method for automatic reassignment of shared storage on blade replacement

• US 7,478,177 B2
• Filed: 07/28/2006
• Issued: 01/13/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Cherian, Jacob, Nguyen, Nam V.
• Primary Examiner(s): PEYTON, TAMMARA R
• Application Number:
  US11/460,681
• Publication Number:
  US 20080028107A1
• Time in Patent Office: 900 Days
• Field of Search: 710 8- 10, 710/36, 710/74
• US Class Current: 710/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0607 by facilitating the process of upgrading existing storage systems, e.g. for improving compatibility between host and storage device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

Abstract

A system and method is disclosed for the automatic assignment, or reassignment, of shared storage resources to blade computers in a blade server environment. A chassis manager is implemented as a processing entity on the mid-plane of a blade server chassis to provide, independently or in conjunction with other systems and/or attached storage devices, management of shared storage resources. Management of these resources includes, but is not limited to, creation of logical units, assignment of logical units to predetermined blade server chassis slots, and deletion of logical units. Host-based software is not required to assign shared resources to a computer blade, only its presence in a predetermined slot of a blade server chassis. Logical unit numbers (LUNs) are assigned by the chassis manager based on blade server slot IDs while host-unique identifiers, such as world wide names (WWNs) are used by one or more shared storage controllers for internal LUN addressing.

Claims

1. A data storage system comprising:

a plurality of data storage entities;

at least one information handling system (IHS);

at least one connector having a unique connector identifier, said connector being operable to transmit data between said plurality of data storage entities and said information handling system; and

management logic operable to associate said plurality of data storage entities to define a shared data storage resource and to correlate said unique connector identifier with said shared data storage resource, thereby enabling transfer of data between said information handling system and said shared data storage resource.

2. The data storage system of claim 1, wherein said management logic is operable to create logical units.

3. The data storage system of claim 2, wherein said management logic is operable to assign logical units to predetermined connector identifiers.

4. The data storage system of claim 2, wherein said management logic is operable to delete logical units.

5. The data storage system of claim 1, wherein said information handling system further comprises a unique IHS identifier.

6. The data storage system of claim 5, wherein said management logic is further operable to associate said unique IHS identifier with said shared data resource.

7. The data storage system of claim 6, wherein said management logic is operable to use said unique connector identifier to assign a logical unit number to said connector.

8. The data storage system of claim 7, wherein said management logic is implemented on the mid-plane of a blade server chassis.

9. The data storage system of claim 7, wherein said management logic is implemented in a management information handling system operably connected to a blade server chassis.

10. The data storage system of claim 7, wherein said unique connector identifier comprises a unique serial-attached small computer system interface (SAS) phy identifier.

11. A method of allocating storage resources in a data storage system, comprising:

providing a plurality of data storage entities;

providing at least one connector having a unique connector identifier, said connector being operable to transmit data between said plurality of data storage entities and an information handling system; and

using management logic to associate said plurality of data storage entities to define a shared data storage resource and to correlate said unique connector identifier with said shared data storage resource, thereby enabling transfer of data between said information handling system and said shared data storage resource.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

using said management logic to create logical units.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

using said management logic to assign logical units to predetermined connector identifiers.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

using said management logic to delete logical units.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein said information handling system further comprises a unique IHS identifier.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

using said management logic to associate said unique IHS identifier with said shared data resource.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

using said unique connector identifier to assign a logical unit number to said connector.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein said management logic is implemented on the mid-plane of a blade server chassis.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein said management logic is implemented in a management information handling system operably connected to a blade server chassis.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein said unique connector identifier comprises a unique serial-attached small computer system interface (SAS) phy identifier.