Managing stored data on a computer network

• US 7,676,564 B2
• Filed: 09/27/2005
• Issued: 03/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Raciborski, Bohdan, Raghavan, Kartik N., Phillips, Thomas G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lin; Kenny S
• Application Number:
  US11/236,256
• Publication Number:
  US 20060026230A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,624 Days
• Field of Search: 707/9, 709/206, 709/223, 709/226
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/45 Network directories; Name-to-address mapping
• 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 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A method and system for managing stored data on a computer network organizes data into logical volumes, and each logical volume has a friendly name associated with it. A domain controller keeps track of the friendly names of the logical volumes and associates those friendly names with the actual physical paths of the logical volumes. When a client computer on the network wishes to access a logical volume, it sends a look-up request having the friendly name to the domain controller. The domain controller may fulfill the request by sending the path of the logical volume to the client computer.

Claims

1. A domain controller server for a storage area network (SAN) residing on a data network, the SAN comprising a plurality of heterogeneous storage devices providing logical storage volumes and hosts accessing the logical storage volumes via the SAN, wherein the hosts and storage devices communicate using a standardized SAN protocol that defines storage communications on the SAN and which is stacked on an underlying network communication protocol for general communication via the data network, the domain controller server comprising:

a SAN application programming interface (API) module on the domain controller server, the SAN API module implementing the SAN protocol and handling SAN exchanges between the domain controller server and the storage devices linked to the SAN for storing computer-readable data, wherein the storage devices have corresponding globally unique SAN addresses according to the SAN protocol, wherein logical storage volumes in the SAN have corresponding SAN location paths defined according to the SAN protocol, each logical volume'"'"'s SAN location path including the SAN address of the logical volume'"'"'s storage device and a globally unique SAN identifier of the logical volume, wherein a logical volume is accessed by a host via the SAN protocol according to the logical volume'"'"'s SAN location path, and wherein the hosts access the storage devices with SAN protocol and the logical volumes of the SAN appear to the hosts as though the logical volumes were local storage devices of the hosts;

the domain controller server linked to the SAN and providing a name service to the hosts and the storage devices, the name service not part of the SAN protocol and operating separately from the SAN, the name service comprising associations between SAN location paths of corresponding logical volumes on the SAN and text names of the logical volumes, respectively, the text names having been entered by human input, wherein when a new logical volume first becomes available on the SAN the domain controller server automatically recognizes the new logical volume and in response obtains a new text name for the new logical volume on the SAN and registers with the name service the SAN location path of the new logical volume in association with the new text name; and

the domain controller server receiving from the host a lookup request comprising one of the text names of one of the logical volumes, the lookup request not sent via the SAN protocol, and in response to the request the name service on the domain controller server using the requested text name to find, among the associations, the SAN location path of the requested text name, and returning the SAN location path to the host thereby enabling the host to access the logical volume via the SAN with the SAN protocol.

2. The domain controller server of claim 1, wherein the domain controller server executes software for performing steps comprising:

in response to receiving the request from the host, determining whether or not the host is permitted to have access to the logical volume; and

granting or denying the request based on the determining step.

3. The domain controller server of claim 1, wherein the domain controller server executes software for performing steps comprising:

reviewing a request from one of the storage device to register a logical volume;

determining whether or not the storage device is permitted to participate in the storage network; and

granting or denying the request based on the determining step.

4. The domain controller server of claim 1, wherein one of the logical volumes corresponds to a single removable computer-readable medium.

5. The domain controller server of claim 1, wherein one of the logical volumes corresponds to a single disk of the storage device.

6. The domain controller server of claim 1, wherein one of the logical volumes corresponds to a block of data that is striped across multiple physical disks of the storage device.

7. The domain controller server of claim 1, wherein at least some of the text names do not by themselves identify network locations of the logical volumes.

8. One or more computer readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by a computing device cause the computing device to operation as a domain controller server for a storage area network (SAN) residing on a data network, the SAN comprising a plurality of heterogeneous storage devices providing logical storage volumes and hosts accessing the logical storage volumes via the SAN, wherein the hosts and storage devices communicate using a standardized SAN protocol that defines storage communications on the SAN and which is stacked on an underlying network communication protocol for general communication via the data network, the domain controller server comprising:

a SAN application programming interface (API) module on the domain controller server, the SAN API module implementing the SAN protocol and handling SAN exchanges between the domain controller server and the storage devices linked to the SAN for storing computer-readable data, wherein the storage devices have corresponding globally unique SAN addresses according to the SAN protocol, wherein logical storage volumes in the SAN have corresponding SAN location paths defined according to the SAN protocol, each logical volume'"'"'s SAN location path including the SAN address of the logical volume'"'"'s storage device and a globally unique SAN identifier of the logical volume, wherein a logical volume is accessed by a host via the SAN protocol according to the logical volume'"'"'s SAN location path, and wherein the hosts access the storage devices with SAN protocol and the logical volumes of the SAN appear to the hosts as though the logical volumes were local storage devices of the hosts;

the domain controller server linked to the SAN and providing a name service to the hosts and the storage devices, the name service not part of the SAN protocol and operating separately from the SAN, the name service comprising associations between SAN location paths of corresponding logical volumes on the SAN and text names of the logical volumes, respectively, the text names having been entered by human input, wherein when a new logical volume first becomes available on the SAN the domain controller server automatically recognizes the new logical volume and in response obtains a new text name for the new logical volume on the SAN and registers with the name service the SAN location path of the new logical volume in association with the new text name; and

the domain controller server receiving from the host a lookup request comprising one of the text names of one of the logical volumes, the lookup request not sent via the SAN protocol, and in response to the request the name service on the domain controller server using the requested text name to find, among the associations, the SAN location path of the requested text name, and returning the SAN location path to the host thereby enabling the host to access the logical volume via the SAN with the SAN protocol.

9. A method performed by a computing device comprising a domain controller server for a storage area network (SAN) residing on a data network, the computing device comprised of memory and a processor, the SAN comprising a plurality of heterogeneous storage devices providing logical storage volumes and hosts accessing the logical storage volumes via the SAN, wherein the hosts and storage devices communicate using a standardized SAN protocol that defines storage communications on the SAN and which is stacked on an underlying network communication protocol for general communication via the data network, the domain controller server performing the method, which comprises:

providing a SAN application programming interface (API) module on the domain controller server, the SAN API module implementing the SAN protocol and handling SAN exchanges between the domain controller server and the storage devices linked to the SAN for storing computer-readable data, wherein the storage devices have corresponding globally unique SAN addresses according to the SAN protocol, wherein logical storage volumes in the SAN have corresponding SAN location paths defined according to the SAN protocol, each logical volume'"'"'s SAN location path including the SAN address of the logical volume'"'"'s storage device and a globally unique SAN identifier of the logical volume, wherein a logical volume is accessed by a host via the SAN protocol according to the logical volume'"'"'s SAN location path, and wherein the hosts access the storage devices with SAN protocol and the logical volumes of the SAN appear to the hosts as though the logical volumes were local storage devices of the hosts;

linking the domain controller server to the SAN and providing a name service to the hosts and the storage devices, the name service not part of the SAN protocol and operating separately from the SAN, the name service comprising associations between SAN location paths of corresponding logical volumes on the SAN and text names of the logical volumes, respectively, the text names having been entered by human input, wherein when a new logical volume first becomes available on the SAN the domain controller server automatically recognizes the new logical volume and in response obtains a new text name for the new logical volume on the SAN and registers with the name service the SAN location path of the new logical volume in association with the new text name; and

receiving, at the domain controller server, from the host, a lookup request comprising one of the text names of one of the logical volumes, the lookup request not sent via the SAN protocol, and in response to the request the name service on the domain controller server using the requested text name to find, among the associations, the SAN location path of the requested text name, and returning the SAN location path to the host thereby enabling the host to access the logical volume via the SAN with the SAN protocol.