Detecting missing elements in a storage area network with multiple sources of information

• US 7,725,555 B2
• Filed: 09/06/2006
• Issued: 05/25/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/06/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Hattrup, Glen, Chokshi, Ashmi A., Sarkar, Soumitra, Sarkar, Prasenjit, Merbach, David L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Donaghue; Larry
• Assistant Examiner(s): TAYLOR, NICHOLAS R
• Application Number:
  US11/470,580
• Publication Number:
  US 20080059599A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,357 Days
• Field of Search: 709/212, 709/220, 709/221, 709/223, 709/224, 709/242, 714/1, 714/8, 714/25, 714/42
• US Class Current: 709/212
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• 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

A detectibility service for a storage infrastructure manager (SIM) operating on a storage area network (SAN) is disclosed directed to addressing a situation where there may be multiple sources of duplicate or contradictory information to the SIM about the presence and condition of an element in the SAN. The service can account for both authoritative as well as nonauthoritative sources of information in a SAN, which participate in the discovery process scanning for SAN elements. Both authoritative and nonauthoritative sources of information can be used to report a given SAN element during a probe, taking advantage of the more efficient processing of information from authoritative sources to override information from nonauthoritative sources regardless of the order in which the various scans may occur.

Claims

1. A computer program embodied on a computer readable medium, comprising:

program instructions for gathering information of one or more storage area network (SAN) components in a discovery process from one or more sources for a storage infrastructure manager (SIM);

program instructions for storing the information in a database; and

program instructions for analyzing the information from the discovery process to infer which of the one or more SAN components are currently detectable to the SIM, where each of the one or more sources of the information are each classified as either only an authoritative source or only a nonauthoritative source and the information from any authoritative source is prioritized over the information from any nonauthoritative source and the nonauthoritative sources can define one of the one or more SAN components in the discovery process as missing only if all of the nonauthoritative sources report the one as missing in their most recent scan and any authoritative source can define the one as missing;

wherein the SIM accepts a report from an authoritative source that a SAN component is missing without waiting for reports from additional sources.

2. The computer program of claim 1, wherein analyzing the information from the discovery process is performed by a detectability service of the SIM.

3. The computer program of claim 1, wherein prioritizing the information from any authoritative source over the information from any nonauthoritative source includes consensus determining such that a missing SAN component is only identified when all the one or more sources of the information are nonauthoritative and all the one or more sources of the information report the missing SAN component.

4. The computer program of claim 1, wherein the SIM comprises a discovery engine including:

one or more scanners for probing for the one or more storage area network (SAN) components in the discovery process and receiving the information;

one or more parsers for parsing the information received from the one or more scanners;

and one or more processors for communicating the parsed information through one or more database mappers to store the parsed information in the database.

5. The computer program of claim 4, wherein the information reported by each of the one or more scanners is either only authoritative or only nonauthoritative.

6. The computer program of claim 4, wherein each of the one or more scanners are selected from the group consisting of an in-band scanner and an out-of-band scanner.

7. The computer program of claim 1, wherein the SIM comprises one or more database mappers for updating the database with the information from the one or more SAN components.

8. The computer program of claim 1, wherein one or more management agents manage the one or more SAN components communicating the information of the one or more SAN components to the SIM.

9. The computer program of claim 1, wherein the information of the one or more SAN components is dynamically determined and persisted in the database.

10. The computer program of claim 1, wherein the information reported during a scan is used to populate one or more metadata tables in a database to assist the detectability process.

11. A method comprising the steps of:

gathering information of one or more storage area network (SAN) components in a discovery process from one or more sources for a storage infrastructure manager (SIM);

storing the information in a database; and

analyzing the information from the discovery process to infer which of the one or more SAN components are currently detectable to the SIM, where each of the one or more sources of the information are each classified as either only an authoritative source or only a nonauthoritative source and the information from any authoritative source is prioritized over the information from any nonauthoritative source and the nonauthoritative sources can define one of the one or more SAN components in the discovery process as missing only if all of the nonauthoritative sources report the one as missing in their most recent scan and any authoritative source can define the one as missing;

wherein the SIM accepts a report from an authoritative source that a SAN component is missing without waiting for reports from additional sources.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein analyzing the information from the discovery process is performed by a detectability service of the SIM.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein prioritizing the information from any authoritative source over the information from any nonauthoritative source includes consensus determining such that a missing SAN component is only identified when all the one or more sources of the information are nonauthoritative and all the one or more sources of the information report the missing SAN component.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the SIM comprises a discovery engine performing the steps of:

probing for the one or more storage area network (SAN) components in the discovery process with one or more scanners and receiving the information;

parsing the information received from the one or more scanners with one or more parsers; and

communicating the parsed information through one or more database mappers with one or more processors to store the parsed information in the database.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the information reported by each of the one or more scanners is either only authoritative or only nonauthoritative.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein each of the one of the one or more scanners are selected from the group consisting of an in-band scanner and an out-of-band scanner.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the SIM comprises one or more database mappers for updating the database with the information from the one or more SAN components.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein one or more management agents manage the one or more SAN components communicating the information of the one or more SAN components to the SIM.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein the information of the one or more SAN components is dynamically determined and persisted in the database.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein the information reported during a scan is used to populate one or more metadata tables in a database to assist the detectability process.