International Business Machines Corporation

Allen Robert Heitman

David Lynn Merbach

Gary Thomas Axberg

William Roy Yonker

Robert Beverley Basham

Duane Mark Baldwin

Sumant Padbidri

Gregory John Knight

Sunil K Nagarajrao

Gregory John Tevis

Daniel Graham Douglas

Michael L Lamb

Sunil Bharadwaj

Raymond M Swank

Zhengwen He

David W Groves

Douglas Paul Dunham

Nancy Lott Hobbs

Paul Lawrence Bradshaw

Raymond M Li

Vinh-Thuan Nguyen-Phuc

Vincent Jomartin Hoang

Lisa Anne Huston

Robert Bruce Nicholson

Greg Knight

Roman David Druker

Barbara J Camacho

Alireza Razzaghi Daryan

Hans Hanhsia Lin

Ron H Clark

Amir Nakhforoush

Uma Devi Immaneni

A system, method and computer program product for intelligent discovery of network information from multiple information gathering agents adapted to discover information concerning the network. The discovery agents each have an associated discovery capability. Based on consideration of the agent discovery capabilities, discovery assignments are computed and network discovery is performed according to the assignments so as to reduce discovery poll overhead.

Intelligent discovery of network information from multiple information gathering agents

Novel storage area networks (SANs) and methods of operation thereof utilize a plurality of hosts coupled via an interconnect with one or more storage units. A manager device, process or other functionality in communication with a plurality of agent processes, devices or other functionality, each of which is associated with a host. The agents identify attributes of (i) their associated hosts, (ii) interconnect to which that host is coupled, and/or (iii) storage units to which that host is coupled via the interconnect. The manager responds to these attributes identified by the agents to manage the SAN. The manager can be implemented on a first digital data processor and the hosts on further digital data processors. These digital data processors can be coupled via a first network, e.g., an IP or other network, to support communications between the manager and the agents. A second network, e.g., SCSI and/or fiber channel based fabric, separate from the first network, can be utilized as the interconnect between the hosts and the storage devices.

Storage area network methods and apparatus with centralized management

An improved storage area network has a manager digital data processor that includes a first element that maintains a first representation of the SAN, and a second element that maintains a second representation of the SAN. The first element generates notifications of events in the SAN, e.g., addition or removal of components or relationships between components. The second element responds to such notifications by accessing the first representation (e.g., via the first element) and updating the second representation. In the event of a discrepancy between the event notification and either representation, the second element selectively disregards the event notification or rebuilds (recovers) the second representation by copying one or more attributes of the first representation.

Storage area network methods  with event notification conflict resolution

A storage area network (SAN) has a plurality of components including digital data processors, e.g., hosts, coupled to a plurality of storage device. Common, platform-independent processes execute on the hosts, which can be of varied platform types, e.g., Unix&#x2122;, Windows&#x2122;, Solaris, and so forth. Those processes utilizes the command line interface of the host operating system to invoke platform-dependent processes on the respective hosts. The platform-dependent processes return data to the platform-independent processes, e.g., via Standard Output or Standard Error of the host operating system command line interface.

Storage area network methods and apparatus for communication and interfacing with multiple platforms

A digital data processor of the type used, e.g., in management of a storage area network (SAN), executes a process (a 'manager' process) to maintain a representation of the SAN topology or at least an attribute thereof. A graphical output device displays the SAN representation. A further process (a 'user interface' process) controls the output device for purposes of displaying that representation. An interface element effects retrieval of the SAN representation, for example, in response to a request from the user interface process. It transmits that representation to the user interface process for display on the graphical output device.

User interface architecture for storage area network

A storage area network has a plurality of components, such as host digital data processors and storage devices. A store, e.g., resident on a manager digital data processor, contains one or more objects (or other data constructs) that represent information gathered from the hosts, i.e., scans. Further such objects represent components in the SAN and/or relationships between and among those components. A discover engine or other functionality executing on the manager digital data processor validates information gathered from a selected host concerning a selected component or relationship based on a scan object, if any, that is associated with a component object or relationship object, respectively, corresponding to the selected component or relationship.

Storage area network methods and apparatus for validating data from multiple sources

A storage area network (SAN) has one or more host digital data processors are coupled to one or more storage devices (e.g., LUNs) by an interconnect, e.g., a fiber channel-based fabric. Switches or switch-like interfaces on the interconnect fabric define zones or regions in which certain hosts can access certain storage devices, but not other storage devices. Scanners, e.g., operating within agents associated with the hosts, collect information regarding the regions and, more particularly, the hosts, storage devices and interconnect elements that make them up. A manager operating, for example, on a further digital data processor disambiguates information from the regions and discerns the topology of the portion of the SAN spanned by the regions. Thus, it identifies as a virtual SAN elements from regions that have at least one common storage device with at least one other region.

Storage area network methods and apparatus with virtual SAN recognition

A distributed storage management program manages a network comprising multiple data storage devices attached to multiple host computer systems. The management program includes a separate agent in each host, and a central manager. The agents gather data and communicate with the manager across a communications path which is independent of the storage network. The manager collates the data from different agents to produce a coherent view of the network. Preferably, each local agent actively builds an internal topological view of the network as seen by its host and collects data such as error events, which it stores in internal data structures. The manager is able to resolve gaps in the information of each agent from information provided by other agents. Preferably, the manager represents the network as a collection of objects of different classes in an object-oriented class library. This collection is graphically displayed in a logical and understandable manner to a user on a display device.

Method for producing a coherent view of storage network by a storage network manager using data storage device configuration obtained from data storage devices

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Rochester, MN, United States of America

Allen Robert Heitman