Creation and management of destination ID routing structures in multi-host PCI topologies

• US 7,363,404 B2
• Filed: 10/27/2005
• Issued: 04/22/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Freimuth, Douglas M., Hunter, Steven W., Recio, Renato J., Vega, Madeline, Holland, William G., Thurber, Steven M., Boyd, William T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Myers; Paul R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Stiglic; Ryan M
• Application Number:
  US11/260,610
• Publication Number:
  US 20070097948A1
• Time in Patent Office: 908 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 710/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4004 Coupling between buses
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2213/0026 PCI express

Abstract

System and method for managing routing of data in a distributed computing system, such as a distributed computing system that uses PCI Express protocol to communicate over an I/O fabric. A physical tree that is indicative of a physical configuration of the distributed computing system is determined, and a virtual tree is created from the physical tree. The virtual tree is then modified to change an association between at least one source device and at least one target device in the virtual tree. A validation mechanism validates the changed association between the at least one source device and the at least one target device to enable routing of data from the at least one source device to the at least one target device.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for managing routing of data in a distributed computing system, the computer implemented method comprising:

determining a physical tree indicative of a physical configuration of the distributed computing system;

creating a virtual tree from the physical tree by copying the physical tree, wherein a configuration of the virtual tree is a same configuration as the physical configuration;

enabling modification of the virtual tree to change an association between at least one source device and at least one target device in the virtual tree to form a modified virtual tree; and

validating the changed association between the at least one source device and the at least one target device in the modified virtual tree to enable routing of data from the at least one source device to the at least one target device, wherein the changed association in the modified virtual tree must be validated to allow access between the at least one source device and the at least one target device.

2. The computer implemented method according to claim 1, wherein determining a physical tree indicative of a physical configuration of the distributed computing system, comprises:

providing a destination identification routing table in at least one of a bridge and switch in the physical tree for indicating at least one port in the at least one of a bridge and switch that is associated with the at least one target device through which data is to be routed.

3. The computer implemented method according to claim 1, wherein creating a virtual tree from the physical tree comprises:

creating a virtual tree for a source device of the at least one source device.

4. The computer implemented method according to claim 3, wherein enabling modification of the virtual tree to change an association between at least one source device and at least one target device in the virtual tree, comprises:

presenting the virtual tree to a representative of the source device of the at least one source device, wherein the representative modifies the virtual tree to change an association between the at least one source device and the at least one target device in the virtual tree.

5. The computer implemented method according to claim 2, wherein validating the changed association between the at least one source device and the at least one target device to enable routing of data from the at least one source device to the at least one target device, comprises:

creating a validation table in the at least one of a bridge and switch that associates one or more source devices with each of a plurality of target devices to enable routing of data from the at least one source device to the at least one target device through the at least one of a bridge and switch, wherein the one or more source devices are authorized to access a specific target device in the plurality of target devices.

6. The computer implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one source device comprises one of a root complex and an Input/Output Adapter, and wherein the at least one target device comprises the other one of the root complex and the Input/Output Adapter.

7. The computer implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one source device comprises a plurality of source devices, and wherein the creating, enabling modification of and validating steps are repeated for each of the plurality of source devices.

8. The computer implemented method according to claim 1, wherein enabling modification of the virtual tree to change an association between at least one source device and at least one target device in the virtual tree, comprises at least one of enabling transfer of at least one target device to a different source device, and enabling, adding or deleting of at least one source device and/or at least one target device from the virtual tree.

9. The computer implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the distributed computing system comprises a distributed computing system that uses PCI Express protocol.

10. The computer implemented method according to claim 5, wherein the validation table indicates that a plurality of target devices share a same source device.