Disk system adapted to be directly attached to network

• US 20020069245A1
• Filed: 10/09/2001
• Published: 06/06/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SynKloud Technologies, LLC (SY Ventures)
• Original Assignee: Zhe Khi Pak
• Inventors: Kim, Han-Gyoo
• Granted Patent: US 7,792,923 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/387 for adaptation of different data processing systems to different peripheral devices, e.g. protocol converters for incompatible systems, open system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0664 at device level, e.g. emulation of a storage device or system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

A network-attached disk (NAD) system is disclosed that includes an NAD device for receiving a disk access command from a host through a network, and a device driver at the host for controlling the NAD device through the network, where the device driver creates a virtual host bus adapter so that the host recognizes the NAD device as if it is a local device to the host. The host may run the UNIX or Windows family of operating systems. The NAD device includes a disk for storing data, a disk controller for controlling the disk, and a network adapter for receiving a disk access command from the host through a network port.

Claims

1. A network-attached disk (NAD) system where a host, having a system bus and running an operating system, controls a disk through a front-end network connecting the host and other devices for carrying general-purpose network traffic including storage as well as other application traffic using a certain network protocol, comprising:

a network interface card (NIC) installed at the host for providing a general-purpose network connection;

a network-attached disk (NAD) device having one or more disks to store data, the NAD device attached to the network, for receiving disk access commands from the host in data link frames through the network; and

a device driver, running at the host, for creating a virtual host bus adapter in software controlling the NAD device through the network via the NIC;

wherein the virtual host bus adapter controls the NAD device in a way indistinguishable from the way as a physical host bus adapter device controls a device so that the host recognizes the NAD device as if it is a local device connected directly to the system bus of the host.

2. The NAD system of claim 1, wherein the network is a wired network.

3. The NAD system of claim 1, wherein the network is a wireless network.

4. The NAD system of claim 1, wherein the NIC is an Ethernet card.

5. The NAD system of claim 1, wherein the operating system is the UNIX family of operating systems.

6. The NAD system of claim 5, wherein the device driver comprises a device file and device driver routines for the device driver to register the device driver to the host.

7. The NAD system of claim 6, further comprising a device accessing thread for accessing the NAD device.

8. The NAD system of claim 6, further comprising a device searching thread for searching for a device attached to the network.

9. The NAD system of claim 6, further comprising a network connection setting thread for making a connection between the device driver and the NAD device.

10. The NAD system of claim 6, wherein the NAD disk further comprises a plurality of individual disk partitions.

11. The NAD system of claim 10, wherein the device driver comprises a plurality of individual device drivers, each individual device driver for controlling the individual disk partition whereby each individual disk partition is accessed as an independent local disk.

12. The NAD system of claim 10, wherein the device driver comprises a plurality of individual partitions, each driver partition for controlling each individual disk partition.

13. The NAD system of claim 1, further comprising a second NAD device, a second device driver, and a unified device driver combining the device driver and the second device driver so that the NAD device and the second NAD device are recognized as logically a single local device.

14. The NAD system of claim 1, wherein the driver includes:

a bus driver for creating the virtual host adapter to access the NAD device as if it is a local device connected directly to the system bus of the host; and

a port driver for communicating the disk access command from the host to the NAD device through a network port.

15. The NAD system of claim 14, wherein the operating system is the Windows family of operating systems.

16. The NAD system of claim 1, wherein the NAD device further comprises:

a disk controller for controlling the disk; and

a network adapter for receiving the disk access command through the network.

17. The NAD system of claim 16, wherein said one or more disks are formatted as local disks.

18. The NAD system of claim 16, further comprising a filter program providing a utility function.

19. The NAD system of claim 18, wherein the utility function includes the function of controlling sharing of access among multiple hosts.

20. The NAD system of claim 18, wherein the utility function includes the function of controlling transfer of access right of one host to another.

21. The NAD system of claim 18, wherein the utility function includes the function of providing automatic back-up of the NAD device.

22. The NAD system of claim 18, wherein the utility function includes the function of controlling access to the NAD device.

24. The disk interface of claim 23, wherein the operating system is the UNIX family of operating systems.

25. The disk interface of claim 24, further comprising a device file and device driver routines for the device driver to register the device driver to the host

26. The disk interface of claim 25, further comprising a device accessing thread for accessing the NAD device.

27. The disk interface of claim 25, further comprising a device searching thread for searching for a device attached to the network.

28. The disk interface of claim 25, further comprising a connection setting thread for making a connection between the device driver and the NAD device.

29. The disk interface of claim 25, wherein the NAD device has a disk partitioned into a plurality of individual disk partitions.

30. The disk interface of claim 29, wherein the device driver further comprises a plurality of individual device drivers, each individual device driver for controlling the individual disk partition whereby each individual disk partition is accessed as an independent local disk.

31. The disk interface of claim 29, wherein the device driver comprises a plurality of partitions, each driver partition for controlling each individual disk partition.

32. The disk interface of claim 23, wherein the device driver comprises:

a bus driver for creating the virtual host bus adapter to access the NAD device as a local device connected directly to the system bus of the host; and

a port driver for communicating a disk access command through a network port.

33. The disk interface of claim 32, wherein the operating system is the Windows family of operating systems.

35. The NAD device of claim 34, wherein the network runs Ethernet.

36. The NAD device of claim 34, wherein said disk is formatted as a local disk.

37. The NAD device of claim 34, wherein said disk is partitioned as a local disk.

38. The NAD device of claim 34, wherein the network adapter has a physical network interface for receiving data from a host and a media access control (MAC) controller.

39. The NAD device of claim 34, wherein the controller has a state machine for controlling the operation of the NAD device.

40. The NAD device of claim 34, wherein the controller has a filter for controlling access to the disk.

41. The NAD device of claim 34, wherein the disk is partitioned into a plurality of disk partitions.

42. The NAD device of claim 41, wherein each disk partition is controlled by a separate driver.

23. A disk interface at a host, having a system bus and running an operating system, for controlling a network-attached disk (NAD) device having a disk through a front-end network connecting the host and other devices for carrying general-purpose network traffic including storage as well as other application traffic using a certain network protocol, comprising:

a network interface card (NIC) installed at the host for providing a general purpose network connection; and

a device driver, running at the host, for creating a virtual host bus adapter in software controlling the NAD device through the network via the NIC;

wherein the virtual host bus adapter controls the NAD device in a way indistinguishable from the way a physical host bus adapter device controls a device so that the host recognizes the NAD device as if it is a local device directly connected to the system bus of the host.

34. A network-attached disk (NAD) device adapted to be connected through a network to a host having a system bus, wherein the host has a virtual host bus adapter that recognizes the device as if it is a local device connected directly to the system bus of the host, the NAD device comprising:

a network adapter for receiving disk access command in data link frames through the network;

a disk controller, connected to the LAN adapter, for executing disk access commands; and

a disk for storing data; and

a controller, connected to the network adapter and the disk controller, for controlling the operation of the NAD device.

43. A storage interface at a host having a system bus for controlling a storage device through a front-end network connecting the host and other devices for carrying general-purpose network traffic, comprising:

a network interface card (NIC) installed at the host for providing a general-purpose network connection;

a bus driver for creating a virtual host bus adapter for recognizing the network port as if the storage device is a local device connected directly to the system bus of the host; and

a port driver for communicating a storage command through a network port.

44. The storage interface of claim 43, wherein the storage device is a disk.

45. The storage interface of claim 43, wherein the storage device is a tape system.

46. The storage interface of claim 43, wherein the storage device is a memory system.

47. The storage interface of claim 43, wherein the storage device is a CD drive.

48. The storage interface of claim 43, wherein the host runs the UNIX family of operating system.

49. The storage interface of claim 43, wherein the host runs the Windows family of operating system.

50. A network-attached storage device adapted to be connected through a network to host having a system bus, wherein the host has a virtual host bus adapter that recognizes the device as if it is a local device connected directly to the system bus of the host, the storage device comprising:

a storage device;

a network adapter for receiving a storage command through the network; and

a storage controller for executing the storage command.

51. The network-attached storage device of claim 50, further comprising a state machine controlling the operation of the storage device.

52. The network-attached storage device of claim 50, wherein the storage device is a disk.

53. The network-attached storage device of claim 50, wherein the storage device is a tape device.

54. The network-attached storage device of claim 50, wherein the storage device is a CD drive.

55. The network-attached storage device of claim 50, wherein the storage device is a memory device.

57. The disk interface of claim 56, wherein the operating system is the UNIX family of operating systems.

58. The disk interface of claim 56, wherein the operating system is the Windows family of operating systems.

56. A disk interface at a host having a system bus and running an operating system for controlling a disk device through a network, comprising:

a protocol converter as a host bus adapter for converting protocols from disk access commands to data link frames containing the disk access commands; and

wherein the device driver recognizes the disk device as if it is a local device connected to the system bus of the host.

59. A network-attached disk (NAD) device adapted to be connected through a network to a host having a system bus, wherein the host having a system bus recognizes the device as if it is a local device connected directly to the system bus of the host, the NAD device comprising:

a disk for storing data;

a disk controller for executing a disk access command; and

a network adapter, connected to the network, for receiving data link frames containing the disk access command through the network; and

a counter-protocol-controller, connected to the network adapter and the disk controller, for retrieving the disk access commands from the received data link frames.

60. A storage interface at a host having a system bus for controlling through a network a storage device attached to the network, comprising:

a protocol converter as a host bus adapter for converting storage commands to data link frames for controlling the storage device through the network;

a device driver for creating a virtual host bus adapter controlling the storage device through the network so that the host computer recognizes the storage device as if it is a local device connected directly to the system bus of the host.

61. The storage interface of claim 60, wherein the storage device is a disk.

62. The storage interface of claim 60, wherein the storage device is a tape device.

63. The storage interface of claim 60, wherein the storage device is a CD drive.

64. The storage interface of claim 60, wherein the storage device is a memory device.

65. A network-attached storage device adapted to be connected through a network to a host having a system bus, wherein the host has a virtual host bus adapter so that the host recognizes the device as if it is a local device connected directly to the system bus of the host, the network-attached storage device comprising:

a network adapter for receiving data link frames containing storage commands through the network;

a storage controller, connected to the network adapter, for executing the storage commands; and

a storage device for storing data; and

a counter-converter, connected to the network adapter and the storage controller, for retrieving the storage commands from the data link frames received by the network adapter.

66. The network-attached storage device of claim 65, wherein the storage device is a disk.

67. The network-attached storage device of claim 65, wherein the storage device is a tape device.

68. The network-attached storage device of claim 65, wherein the storage device is a CD drive.

69. The network-attached storage device of claim 65, wherein the storage device is a memory device.

70. A computer juke box for playing multimedia content, comprising:

a network;

a host computer having a system bus and a network interface card (NIC) for providing a network connection;

a plurality of multimedia player for playing multimedia content attached to the network; and

a device driver, running at the host, for creating a virtual host bus adapter whereby the computer recognizes each multimedia player as if it is a local device connected directly to the system bus of the computer.

71. The compute juke box of claim 70, wherein said network is a local area network.

72. The computer juke box of claim 70, wherein said network runs Ethernet.

73. The computer juke box of claim 70, wherein said multimedia players include a CD drive.

74. The computer juke box of claim 70, wherein said multimedia players include a DVD drive.

75. A method of accessing a disk device through a network from a host having a system bus, comprising the steps of:

creating a virtual host bus adapter whereby the host recognizes the disk device as if it is a local device connected to the system bus of the host;

receiving a disk access command from the host through the network;

executing the disk access command; and

sending the result of the command to the host through the network

76. The method of claim 75, wherein the step of creating a virtual host bus adapter includes the step of detecting presence of a network interface card installed at the host.

77. The method of claim 75, wherein the step of creating a virtual host bus adapter includes the step of detecting removal of a network interface card at the host.

79. The method of claim 78, wherein the storage device is a disk.

80. The method of claim 78, wherein the storage device is dynamically installed.

81. The method of claim 78, wherein the host runs the UNIX family of operating systems.

82. The method of claim 78, wherein the host runs the Windows family of operating systems.

83. The method of claim 78, wherein said step of communicating a storage command includes the step of sending an I/O request packet (IRP) containing an I/O transaction to be performed by the storage device.

84. The method of claim 78, wherein said step of communicating a storage command includes steps for translating a storage command to a command specific to an IDE storage device.

85. The method of claim 78, wherein said step of communicating a storage command includes steps for translating a storage command to a command specific to a SCSI storage device.

78. A method of accessing a storage device connected through a network to a host having a system bus, comprising the steps of:

creating a virtual host bus adapter whereby the host recognizes the storage device as if it is a local device connected directly to the system bus of the host; and

communicating a storage command through the network port.