Consistent binding of shared storage across clustered servers

• US 8,990,367 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2006
• Issued: 03/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Michael, Tesfamariam, Ahmadian, Mahmoud B.
• Primary Examiner(s): GREENE, JOSEPH L
• Application Number:
  US11/537,393
• Publication Number:
  US 20080082623A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,098 Days
• Field of Search: 709/213, 709/214, 709/215, 709/223
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/221 Column-oriented storage; Management thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/00 Methods or arrangements for processing data by operating upon the order or content of the data handled logic circuits H03K19/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2553 Binding renewal aspects, e.g. using keep-alive messages

Abstract

An information handling system includes first and second nodes and a storage enclosure. The nodes share access to the storage enclosure. The nodes bind a logical unit number (LUN) in the storage enclosure consistently regardless of an order in which the two devices access the LUN. The system further preferably includes a switch between the nodes and the storage enclosure wherein multiple paths exist between a node and the storage enclosure. The storage enclosure preferably includes first and second storage processors and multiple ports per processor. The first node preferably includes first and second host bus adapters. The first host bus adapter preferably connects the node to a first of the switches and the second host bus adapter connects the node to a second of the switches. The system preferably includes multiple paths between the first node and a LUN in the storage enclosure.

Claims

1. A method of binding shared storage in an information handling system, comprising:

obtaining, by a first node, unique identifiers for each of a plurality of storage devices in the information handling system;

determining, by the first node, if one or more of the unique identifiers is shared among two or more of the plurality of storage devices;

in response to determining that one or more of the unique identifiers is shared among two or more of the plurality of storage devices, determining, by the first node, for each storage device having a shared unique identifier, whether a particular storage device is bound with a second node by an existing binding label;

in response to determining that the particular storage device is not bound by the existing binding label, automatically assigning, by the first node, a new binding label to the particular storage device; and

in response to determining that the particular storage device is bound by the existing binding label, binding, by the first node, the particular storage device using the existing binding label.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the unique identifiers are each universally unique identifiers (UUIDs) of the storage devices.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the storage device comprises a logical unit number (LUN) in a storage enclosure.

4. A method according to claim 1, further comprising deleting, by the information handling system, the existing binding label when the existing binding label associated with the particular storage device is from a different cluster group.

5. A computer program product comprising instructions stored on a computer readable storage device for binding shared storage in an information handling system, the instructions comprising:

instructions for obtaining unique identifiers for each of a plurality of storage devices in an information handling system;

instructions for determining if one or more of the unique identifiers is shared among two or more of the plurality of storage devices;

instructions for in response to determining that one or more of the unique identifiers is shared among two or more of the plurality of storage devices, determining, for each storage device having a shared unique identifier, whether a particular storage device is bound with a first node by an existing binding label;

instructions for in response to determining that the particular storage device is not bound by the existing binding label, automatically assigning a new binding label to the particular storage device; and

instructions for in response to determining that the particular storage device is bound by the existing binding label, binding the particular storage device to a second node using the existing binding label.

6. A computer program product according to claim 5, wherein the unique identifiers are each universally unique identifiers (UUIDs) of the storage devices.

7. A computer program product according to claim 5, wherein the storage device comprises a logical unit number (LUN) in a storage enclosure.

8. A computer program product according to claim 5, further comprising instructions for deleting the existing binding label when the existing binding label associated with the particular storage device is from a different cluster group.

9. An information handling system, comprising:

a server cluster having a first node and a second node; and

a storage enclosure shared by the first and second nodes, the storage enclosure having a plurality of storage devices;

wherein the server cluster is configured to;

obtain unique identifiers for each of the plurality of storage devices;

determine if one or more of the unique identifiers is shared among two or more of the plurality of storage devices;

in response to determining that one or more of the unique identifiers is shared among two or more of the plurality of storage devices, determine, for each storage device having a shared unique identifier, whether a particular storage device is bound with the first node by an existing binding label;

in response to determining that the particular storage device is not bound by the existing binding label, automatically assign a new a binding label to the particular storage device; and

in response to determining that such particular storage device is bound by the existing binding label, bind the particular storage device to the second node using the existing binding label.

10. An information handling system according to claim 9, wherein the unique identifiers are each universally unique identifiers (UUIDs) of the storage devices.

11. An information handling system according to claim 9, wherein the storage device comprises a logical unit number (LUN) in a storage enclosure.

12. An information handling system according to claim 9, the server cluster further configured to delete the existing binding label when the existing binding label associated with the particular storage device is from a different cluster group.