System and method for sharing san storage

• US 9,578,101 B2
• Filed: 10/30/2015
• Issued: 02/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/20/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Devassy, Varghese, Vijayan, Manoj Kumar, Viswanathan, Srikant, Attarde, Deepak Raghunath, Kottomtharayil, Rajiv
• Primary Examiner(s): KROFCHECK, MICHAEL C
• Application Number:
  US14/929,130
• Publication Number:
  US 20160127470A1
• Time in Patent Office: 480 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/426 using an embedded synchronisation, e.g. Firewire bus, Fibre Channel bus, SSA 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 3/064 Management of blocks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0641 De-duplication techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• 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

According to various embodiments, systems and methods are provided that relate to shared access to Storage Area Networks (SAN) devices. In one embodiment, a Storage Area Network (SAN) host is provided, comprising: a server component: a first host bus adapter configured to be connected to a SAN client over a first SAN; a second host bus adapter configured to be connected to a SAN storage device over a second SAN; and wherein the server component is configured to manage a data block on the SAN storage device, receive a storage operation request from the SAN client through the first host bus adapter, and in response to the storage operation request, perform a storage operation on the data block, the storage operation being performed over the second SAN through the second host bus adapter.

Claims

1. A storage area network (SAN) client, comprising:

a client component comprising one or more computer processors that receives one or more storage operations and translates one or more storage operations to one or more SAN host operation requests that identify a SAN host in communication with at least a first SAN comprising at least a first plurality of SAN storage devices connected to the first SAN, the SAN host further in communication with a second SAN comprising at least a second plurality of SAN storage devices connected to with a second SAN wherein the second plurality of SAN storage devices are not connected to the first SAN, wherein the one or more SAN host operation requests is sent with the first SAN to the SAN host, and wherein the SAN host communicates with second plurality of SAN storage devices with the second SAN;

a first host bus adapter in communication with the client component, the first host bus adapter communicates with the SAN host over the first SAN;

wherein the client component is configured to;

send with the first host bus adapter, a first storage operation request to the SAN host, wherein the first storage operation is a discovery request that causes the SAN host to provide storage available on the second plurality of SAN devices connected to the second SAN;

receive a request to perform a second storage operation on the storage available on the second plurality of SAN storage devices not connected to the first SAN;

translate the second storage operation to a first SAN host storage operation request that identifies the SAN host; and

send with the first host bus adapter the first SAN host storage operation request to the SAN host over the first SAN; and

in response to the first SAN host storage operation request, the SAN host performs a third storage operation on the storage available on the second plurality of SAN storage devices over the second SAN with a second host bus adapter, and wherein the SAN host denies the first SAN host storage operation request when the storage available on the second plurality of SAN storage devices reaches capacity.

2. The SAN client of claim 1 wherein the first and second host bus adapters use at least one of the group consisting of:

Fiber Channel (FC), InfiniBand, and Serial Attached SCSI (SAS).

3. The SAN client of claim 1 wherein the first host bus adapter is in initiator mode.

4. The SAN client of claim 1 wherein the first storage operation or the second storage operation is a file read, a file write, a file create, or a file delete operation.

5. The SAN client of claim 1 wherein the first storage operation is a discovery request.

6. The SAN client of claim 5 wherein the client component is further configured to:

receive a discovery response from the SAN host indicating that the SAN host is a traditional SAN storage device; and

interpret the discovery response.

7. The SAN client of claim 1 wherein the client component receives the request to perform first storage operation through an application program interface (API) function call.

8. A method of operating a storage area network (SAN) client, comprising:

receiving with a client component of a SAN client a request to perform one or more storage operations;

translating with one or more processors of the client component the one or more storage operations to one or more SAN host storage operation requests that identify a SAN host in communication with at least a first SAN comprising at least a first plurality of SAN storage devices, the SAN host further in communication with a second SAN comprising at least a second plurality of SAN storage devices connected to a second SAN, wherein the second plurality of SAN storage devices are not connected to the first SAN, wherein the one or more SAN host storage operation requests is sent with the first SAN to the SAN host, and wherein the SAN host communicates with the second plurality of SAN storage devices with the second SAN; and

sending with a first host bus adapter a first storage operation request to the SAN host, wherein the first storage operation is a discovery request that causes the SAN host to provide storage available on the second plurality of SAN devices connected to the second SAN;

receiving a request to perform a second storage operation on the storage available on the second plurality of SAN storage devices not connected to the first SAN;

translating the second storage operation to a first SAN host storage operation request that identifies the SAN host;

electronically sending with a first host bus adapter the first SAN host storage operation request to the SAN host over the first SAN; and

in response to the first SAN host storage operation request, performing with the SAN host a third storage operation on the storage available on the second plurality of SAN storage devices over the second SAN with a second host bus adapter, and wherein the SAN host denies the first SAN host storage operation request when the storage available on the second plurality of SAN storage devices reaches capacity.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the first and second host bus adapters use at least one of the group consisting of:

Fiber Channel (FC), InfiniBand, and Serial Attached SCSI (SAS).

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the first host bus adapter is in initiator mode.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the first storage operation or the second storage operation is a file read, a file write, a file create, or a file delete operation.

12. The method of claim 8 wherein said receiving is through an application program interface (API) function call.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein the first storage operation is a discovery request.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

with the client component, receiving a discovery response from the SAN host indicating that the SAN host is a traditional SAN storage device; and

interpreting the discovery response with one or more processors of the client component.