Storage area network multi-pathing

• US 8,788,702 B2
• Filed: 03/13/2013
• Issued: 07/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/06/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Padia, Praveen K., Scales, William J., Shekhar, Rohit
• Primary Examiner(s): Meky, Moustafa M
• Application Number:
  US13/801,537
• Publication Number:
  US 20130219079A1
• Time in Patent Office: 496 Days
• Field of Search: 709200-202, 709/224, 709/238, 709/239, 710/1, 710/36, 710/37, 710/74
• US Class Current: 709/238
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/24 Multipath
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/101 based on network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1014 based on the content of a request
• 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

Provided are a method, computer program product and system for network multi-pathing. Paths to a storage system are through a first network type and a second network type. The first network type has a higher Input/Output (I/O) per second performance characteristic than the second network type. A length is determined from a received I/O request. The I/O request is sent on one of the paths to the storage system through the first network type in response to determining that the length of the I/O request is below a threshold length. The I/O request is sent on one of the paths to the storage system through the second network type in response to determining that the length of the I/O request is above the threshold length.

Claims

1. A method for network multi-pathing, comprising:

maintaining paths to a storage system through a first network type and a second network type, wherein the first network type has a higher Input/Output (I/O) per second performance characteristic than the second network type;

receiving an I/O request;

determining a length of the I/O request;

sending the I/O request on one of the paths to the storage system through the first network type in response to determining that the length of the I/O request is below a threshold length; and

sending the I/O request on one of the paths to the storage system through the second network type in response to determining that the length of the I/O request is above the threshold length.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether a bandwidth of the second network type is full for a time period in response to determining that the length of the I/O request is above the threshold length;

sending the I/O request having the length above the threshold length on one of the paths to the storage system through the first network type in response to determining that the bandwidth of the second network type is full.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining whether the bandwidth of the second network type is full comprises:

determining whether a total of lengths of I/O requests in a given time period is above a threshold bandwidth, wherein the bandwidth is full in response to determining that the total of the lengths is above the threshold.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

tuning the threshold bandwidth and the given time period to the available bandwidth of the second network type.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting types of the first and second network types from a low level transport driver.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving user configuration of the types of the first and second network types.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first network type is a Fibre Channel (FC) SAN, and the second network type is an Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) based SAN.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first network type is a Fibre Channel (FC) type SAN having a first bandwidth, and the second network type is a Fibre Channel (FC) type SAN having a second bandwidth which is lower than the first bandwidth.