Event-based in-band host registration

• US 9,417,942 B1
• Filed: 03/29/2012
• Issued: 08/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Venkataraman, Srikanth, Balakrishnan, Ajith
• Primary Examiner(s): Mejia, Anthony
• Application Number:
  US13/434,087
• Time in Patent Office: 1,601 Days
• Field of Search: 709/221
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0727 in a storage system, e.g. in a DASD or network based storage system drivers for digital recording or reproducing units G06F3/06; circuits for error detection or correction within digital recording or reproducing units G11B20/18; 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], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/1642 with request queuing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4022 using switching circuits, e.g. switching matrix, connection or expansion network G06F13/4009 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4221 being an input/output bus, e.g. ISA bus, EISA bus, PCI bus, SCSI bus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4234 being a memory bus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0635 by changing the path, e.g. traffic rerouting, path reconfiguration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0665 at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• 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 method of registering a host bus port (HBP) of a host computer (host) at a storage bus port (SBP) of a data storage array over a storage network includes (a) acquiring a configuration instruction directing the host to process registration messages from an event processing engine, (b) receiving a registration message from the event processing engine indicating that the HBP needs to be registered with the SBP, the registration message having been generated by the event processing engine in response to receiving an event notification message indicating that a data path across the storage network between the HBP and the SBP is available, and (c) in response to receiving the registration message, processing the registration message by registering the HBP with the SBP by sending a registration command from the HBP to the SBP across the storage network, the registration command including registration information associated with the HBP.

Claims

1. A method of registering a host bus port of a host computer (host) at a storage bus port of a data storage array over a storage network, the host being configured to process data input/output operations on the data storage array, the method comprising:

acquiring, by a control circuit of the host, a configuration instruction directing the control circuit to process registration messages from an event processing engine;

receiving, by the control circuit, a registration message from the event processing engine indicating that the host bus port needs to be registered with the storage bus port, the registration message having been generated by the event processing engine in response to receiving an event notification message indicating that a data path across the storage network between the host bus port and the storage bus port is available;

in response to receiving the registration message, processing, by the control circuit, the registration message by registering the host bus port with the storage bus port by sending a registration command from the host bus port to the storage bus port across the storage network, the registration command including registration information associated with the host bus port;

detecting, by a multipathing driver operating within a kernel of an operating system running on the control circuitry of the host, that the data path between the host bus port and the storage bus port has become available, the multipathing driver being configured to manage a plurality of data paths across the storage network between the host and the data storage array; and

sending the event notification message from the multipathing driver to the event processing engine;

wherein registering the host bus port with the storage bus port by sending the registration command from the host bus port to the storage bus port across the storage network includes sending the registration command from a storage management application running on the control circuitry of the host within a user space of the host.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the event processing engine runs on the control circuitry of the host within the user space of the host;

sending the event notification message from the multipathing driver to the event processing engine includes sending the event notification message from the kernel to the user space using a first application interface; and

the method further includes;

receiving, at the event processing engine of the user space of the host, the event notification message from the multipathing driver;

detecting, at the event processing engine of the user space of the host, that the received event notification message indicates that the data path across the storage network between the host bus port and the storage bus port is available; and

in response to detecting that the received event notification message indicates that the data path across the storage network between the host bus port and the storage bus port is available, sending the registration message from the event processing engine of the user space of the host to the storage management application using a second application interface.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the event processing engine operates on a remote computer;

sending the event notification message from the multipathing driver to the event processing engine includes sending the event notification message from the kernel of the host to the remote computer over a network connection; and

the method further includes;

receiving, at the event processing engine operating on the remote computer, the event notification message from the multipathing driver;

detecting, at the event processing engine operating on the remote computer, that the received event notification message indicates that the data path across the storage network between the host bus port and the storage bus port is available;

in response to detecting that the received event notification message indicates that the data path across the storage network between the host bus port and the storage bus port is available, selecting, at the event processing engine operating on the remote computer, the host from a plurality of storage host computers connected to the remote computer; and

sending the registration message over the network connection from the event processing engine operating on the remote computer to the storage management application of the selected host.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the registration information associated with the host bus port includes:

a name of the host;

a unique port number associated with the host bus port; and

a version number of the multipathing driver.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein detecting that the data path between the host bus port and the storage bus port has become available includes detecting that the data path between the host bus port and the storage bus port is a new data path.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein detecting that the data path between the host bus port and the storage bus port has become available includes detecting that the data path between the host bus port and the storage bus port is a preexisting data path which has transitioned from a dead status to an alive status.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises:

at the storage management application of the host, detecting that the registration information associated with the host bus port has changed since registering the host bus port at the storage bus port; and

in response to detecting that the registration information associated with the host bus port has changed, re-registering the host bus port with the storage bus port by sending another registration command from the host bus port to the storage bus port across the storage network, the other registration command including the changed registration information associated with the host bus port.

8. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a set of instructions, which, when executed by a computer configured to process data input/output operations on a data storage array, cause the computer to:

acquire a configuration instruction directing the computer to process registration messages from an event processing engine;

receive a registration message from the event processing engine indicating that a host bus port of the computer needs to be registered with a storage bus port of the data storage array over a storage network, the registration message having been generated by the event processing engine in response to receiving an event notification message indicating that a data path across the storage network between the host bus port and the storage bus port is available; and

in response to receiving the registration message, process the registration message by registering the host bus port with the storage busport by sending a registration command from the host bus port to the storage bus port across the storage network, the registration command including registration information associated with the host bus port;

detect, by a multipathing driver operating within a kernel of an operating system running on the computer, that the data path between the host bus port and the storage bus port has become available, the multipathing driver being configured to manage a plurality of data paths across the storage network between the computer and the data storage array; and

send the event notification message from the multipathing driver to the event processing engine;

wherein the computer, when registering the host bus port with the storage bus port by sending the registration command from the host bus port to the storage bus port across the storage network, sends the registration command from a storage management application running on the control circuitry of the computer within a user space of the computer.

9. The computer program product of claim 8 wherein:

the event processing engine runs on the control circuitry of the computer within the user space of the computer;

sending the event notification message from the multipathing driver to the event processing engine includes sending the event notification message from the kernel to the user space using a first application interface; and

the computer, when executing the set of instructions, is further caused to;

receive, at the event processing engine of the user space of the computer, the event notification message from the multipathing driver;

detect, at the event processing engine of the user space of the computer, that the received event notification message indicates that the data path across the storage network between the host bus port and the storage bus port is available; and

in response to detecting that the received event notification message indicates that the data path across the storage network between the host bus port and the storage bus port is available, send the registration message from the event processing engine of the user space of the computer to the storage management application using a second application interface.

10. The computer program product of claim 8 wherein:

the event processing engine operates on a remote computer;

sending the event notification message from the multipathing driver to the event processing engine includes sending the event notification message from the kernel of the computer to the remote computer over a network connection; and

the computer, when executing the set of instructions, is further caused to;

receive, at the event processing engine operating on the remote computer, the event notification message from the multipathing driver;

detect, at the event processing engine operating on the remote computer, that the received event notification message indicates that the data path across the storage network between the host bus port and the storage bus port is available;

in response to detecting that the received event notification message indicates that the data path across the storage network between the host bus port and the storage bus port is available, select, at the event processing engine operating on the remote computer, the computer from a plurality of storage host computers connected to the remote computer; and

send the registration message over the network connection from the event processing engine operating on the remote computer to the storage management application of the selected computer.

11. The computer program product of claim 8 wherein the registration information associated with the host bus port includes:

a host name of the computer;

a unique port number associated with the host bus port; and

a version number of the multipathing driver.

12. The computer program product of claim 8 wherein detecting that the data path between the host bus port and the storage bus port has become available includes detecting that the data path between the host bus port and the storage bus port is a new data path.

13. The computer program product of claim 8 wherein the computer, when detecting that the data path between the host bus port and the storage bus port has become available, is constructed and arranged to detect that the data path between the host bus port and the storage bus port is a preexisting data path which has transitioned from a dead status to an alive status.

14. The computer program product of claim 8 wherein the computer, when executing the set of instructions, is further caused to:

at the storage management application of the computer, detect that the registration information associated with the host bus port has changed since registering the host bus port at the storage bus port; and

in response to detecting that the registration information associated with the host bus port has changed, re-register the host bus port with the storage bus port by sending another registration command from the host bus port to the storage bus port across the storage network, the other registration command including the changed registration information associated with the host bus port.

15. A method of registering a host bus port of a host computer (host) at a storage bus port of a data storage array over a storage network, the host being configured to process data input/output operations on the data storage array, the method comprising:

acquiring, by the host, a configuration instruction directing the control circuit to process registration messages from an event processing engine;

receiving, by the host, a registration message from the event processing engine indicating that the host bus port needs to be registered with the storage bus port, the registration message having been generated by the event processing engine in response to receiving an event notification message indicating that a data path across the storage network between the host bus port and the storage bus port is available;

in response to receiving the registration message, processing, by the host, the registration message by registering the host bus port with the storage bus port by sending a registration command from the host bus port to the storage bus port across the storage network, the registration command including registration information associated with the host bus port;

detecting, by a multipathing driver of the host, that the data path between the host bus port and the storage bus port has become available, the multipathing driver being configured to manage a plurality of data paths across the storage network between the host and the data storage array; and

sending the event notification message from the multipathing driver to the event processing engine;

wherein registering the host bus port with the storage bus port by sending the registration command from the host bus port to the storage bus port across the storage network includes sending the registration command from a storage management application running on the host within a user space of the host.