Managing stored data on a computer network

• US 8,224,947 B2
• Filed: 01/05/2010
• Issued: 07/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Raghavan, Kartik N., Phillips, Thomas G., Raciborski, Bohdan
• Primary Examiner(s): LIN, KENNY S
• Application Number:
  US12/652,207
• Publication Number:
  US 20100115586A1
• Time in Patent Office: 924 Days
• Field of Search: 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 server computer for a storage area network (SAN) residing on a data network, the SAN comprising a plurality of storage devices providing logical storage volumes where hosts access the logical storage volumes via the SAN by exchanging SAN protocol messages carried by packets of a network communication protocol used for general communication via the data network, the server computer comprising:

a SAN module implementing the SAN protocol and handling exchanges of SAN protocol messages between the server computer and the storage devices, 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 given logical volume is accessed by a given host via SAN protocol messages according to the logical volume'"'"'s SAN location path;

a name service module storing associations between SAN location paths of corresponding logical volumes on the SAN and text names of the logical volumes, respectively, wherein the given logical volume on the SAN is registered with the name service by the name service storing a text name for the given logical volume in association with the SAN location path of the given logical volume; and

the server computer receiving from the given host a lookup request comprising one of the text names of one of the logical volumes, 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.

2. A server computer according to claim 1, wherein the registering is in response to automatically detecting the presence of given logical volume on the SAN network.

3. server computer according to claim 1, wherein the server computer determines grants the lookup request responsive to determining that the host has permission to access the given logical volume.

4. A server computer according to claim 1, wherein the server computer receives a request from one of the storage devices to register a logical volume, and grants the request in response to determining whether the storage device is permitted to participate in the SAN network.

5. A server computer according to claim 1 wherein the server computer comprises a domain controller.

6. A server computer according to claim 1, wherein one of the logical volumes corresponds to a single disk of the corresponding storage device.

7. A server computer according to claim 1, wherein one of the logical volumes is striped across multiple physical disks of the corresponding storage device.

8. A server computer according to claim 1, wherein at least some of the text names do not identify network locations of the logical volumes they are associated with.

9. A server computer according to claim 1, wherein the lookup request is not transmitted from the given host via a SAN protocol message.

10. A server computer according to claim 1, wherein the SAN protocol allows the given host to treat the logical volume as a storage device local to the given host.

11. One or more computer readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by a computing device cause the computing device to perform a process when connected with a storage area network (SAN) residing on a data network, the SAN comprising a plurality of data storage devices each providing one or more logical storage volumes, where hosts access the logical storage volumes as though local volumes by exchanging SAN protocol messages via the data network, 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, wherein a given logical volume is accessed by a given host via SAN protocol messages according to the logical volume'"'"'s SAN location path, the process comprising:

maintaining associations between SAN location paths of corresponding logical volumes on the SAN and text names of the logical volumes, respectively; and

servicing requests from the hosts by receiving via the data network requests from the hosts, each request comprising one of the text names, searching for the text names in the maintained associations, and, according to the searching, returning to the hosts the SAN location paths of the logical volumes associated with the text names.

12. One or more computer readable storage medium according to claim 11, wherein the SAN protocol is transported by IP transmissions.

13. One or more computer readable storage medium according to claim 12, wherein the SAN protocol comprises iSCSI.

14. One or more computer readable storage medium according to claim 11, wherein a given logical volume on the SAN is registered by adding to the maintained associations an association between the given logical volume'"'"'s SAN location path and a text name of the given logical volume.

15. One or more computer readable storage medium according to claim 11, wherein each logical volume'"'"'s SAN location path includes the SAN address of the logical volume'"'"'s storage device and a globally unique SAN identifier of the logical volume.

16. One or more computer readable storage medium according to claim 11, wherein when a logical volume'"'"'s SAN location path changes, the corresponding maintained association is updated such that the text name of the logical volume becomes associated with the new SAN location path of the logical volume.

17. A method implemented by a domain controller computer connected with a storage area network (SAN) residing on a data network, the SAN comprising a plurality of data storage devices each providing one or more logical storage volumes, where hosts access the logical storage volumes as though local volumes of the hosts by exchanging SAN protocol messages with the storage devices via the data network, wherein logical storage volumes in the SAN have corresponding SAN location paths defined according to the SAN protocol, wherein a given logical volume is accessed by a given host via SAN protocol messages according to the logical volume'"'"'s SAN location path, the method comprising:

storing and maintaining associations between the SAN location paths of the corresponding logical volumes on the SAN and text names of the logical volumes, respectively; and

receiving requests from the hosts via the data network, each request comprising one of the text names, and for the text name of a given request, searching the associations for the text name of the given request, finding the association of the text name, and returning to the host that submitted the given request the SAN location path in the found association.

18. A method according to claim 17, wherein one of the storage devices provides at least two logical storage volumes, and the SAN location paths stored in association with the text names are updated when the SAN location paths of the logical storage volumes change.

19. A method according to claim 17, wherein a SAN location path comprises a unique SAN identifier of the corresponding logical volume and an identifier of the storage device providing the logical volume.

20. A method according to claim 17, wherein SAN protocol messages are transported by IP packets.