Disk drive partitioning methods and apparatus
DCFirst Claim
1. An apparatus comprising:
- a storage medium;
a network interface configured to communicatively couple the apparatus to a network; and
a storage element communicatively coupled to the storage medium and the network interface and configuredto receive, via the network interface, a request for a partition allocation, the request including a name;
to create and allocate a partition of the storage medium based at least in part on the request;
to obtain, from a dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) server, an internet protocol (IP) address for the partition of the storage medium; and
to associate the name with the IP address.
13 Assignments
Litigations
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A storage device has partitions that are separately addressed by distinct IP addresses. This allows direct access of the partitions, on a peer-to-peer basis, by any other device that can communicate using IP. Preferred storage devices support spanning between or among partitions of the same device, as well as between or among different storage devices. Both multicast and proxy spanning are contemplated. Combinations of the inventive storage devices with each other, and with prior art storage devices are contemplated, in all manner of mirroring and other arrangements. In still other aspects of the invention, a given storage device can comprise one or more types of media, including any combination of rotating and non-rotating media, magnetic and optical, and so forth.
197 Citations
25 Claims
-
1. An apparatus comprising:
-
a storage medium; a network interface configured to communicatively couple the apparatus to a network; and a storage element communicatively coupled to the storage medium and the network interface and configured to receive, via the network interface, a request for a partition allocation, the request including a name; to create and allocate a partition of the storage medium based at least in part on the request; to obtain, from a dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) server, an internet protocol (IP) address for the partition of the storage medium; and to associate the name with the IP address. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10)
-
-
7. The apparatus of 1, wherein the storage element is further configured
to receive, from a requester via the network interface, a broadcast name resolution request including a requested name to resolve; -
to determine that the requested name is the name; and to respond, to the requester via the network interface, with the IP address. - View Dependent Claims (8)
-
-
11. A method comprising:
-
receiving, from a network element via a network interface, a request for a partition allocation, the request including a name; creating and allocating a partition of a storage medium based at least in part on the received request; obtaining, from a dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) server, an internet protocol (IP) address for the partition of the storage medium; and associating the name with the IP address. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15)
-
-
16. An apparatus comprising:
-
a network interface; and a network element communicatively coupled to the network interface and configured to transmit, to a storage element via the network interface, a request for a partition of a storage medium associated with the storage element to be created and allocated to the network element, the request including a name to be used to identify a partition created in reponse to the request; and to receive, from the storage element via the network interface, an internet protocol (IP) address to associate with the name. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19)
-
-
20. An apparatus comprising:
-
one or more storage media; and a storage element communicatively coupled to the one or more storage media and configured to partition the one or more storage media into a plurality of partitions; and to obtain, from a dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) server, a unique internet protocol (IP) address for each partition of the plurality of partitions, and a multicast IP address for at least two partitions of the plurality of partitions. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22)
-
-
23. An apparatus comprising:
-
a storage medium; and a storage element communicatively coupled to the storage medium and configured to partition the storage medium into a plurality of partitions; and to obtain, from a dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) server, a first unique internet protocol (IP) address for a first partition of the plurality of partitions and a second unique IP address for the first partition. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25)
-
Specification