International Business Machines Corporation

Dung Ngoc Dang

Steven Edward Klein

Gail Andrea Spear

Chung Man Fung

Patricia Ching Lu

Minh-Ngoc Le Huynh

Richard Anthony Ripberger

Christopher Michael Sansone

James C Chen

Daniel W Sherman

Daniel W Fok

Matthew J Kalos

James Chien-Chiung Chen

Sherman Daniel Wayne

Daniel Wayne Sherman

Matthew Joseph Kalos

A method for verifying the integrity of a communication link is disclosed herein. In selected embodiments, such a method may include detecting, during normal operation of a communication link, a condition indicative of a high failure rate (HFR) on the communication link. The method may further include placing the communication link in an HFR state as a result of the condition. While in HFR state, the method may repeatedly transmit test I/Os over the communication link. The method may then automatically exit HFR state and resume normal operation on the communication link when one or more of the following has occurred: a selected number of test I/Os have been successfully transmitted over the communication link, and a number of test I/Os have been successfully transmitted over the communication link for a selected period of time. A corresponding system, apparatus, and computer program product are also disclosed and claimed herein.

Self-healing fibre channel link

A fabric login (FLOGI) in a Fiber Channel (FC) adapter is throttled. The system includes a first tracking mechanism, a second tracking mechanism, a switch, and an FC adapter. The FC adapter comprises three or more FLOGIs and a controller. First and second FLOGI requests are transmitted to the switch and indicate, via a first tracking mechanism, that a first FLOGI associated with the first FLOGI request and a second FLOGI associated with the second FLOGI request are active. A third FLOGI request is queued until the first FLOGI request or the second FLOGI request is processed by the switch and indicates, via a second tracking mechanism, that a third FLOGI associated with a third FLOGI request is queued.

Systems and methods for throttling a fabric login in a Fibre Channel adapter

A method for dynamically enabling and disabling use of XFR_RDY is disclosed herein. In one embodiment of the invention, such a method includes receiving a write command at a target and determining whether XFR_RDY is enabled or disabled for the write command. In the event XFR_RDY is disabled, the method determines whether one or more buffers are available at the target. If at least one buffer is available, the method processes the write command by writing data associated with the write command to the one or more buffers. The method then returns information indicating the number of buffers that are still available at the target after completing the write command. A corresponding apparatus and computer program product are also disclosed and claimed herein.

[object Object]

A fabric login (FLOGI) in a Fibre Channel (FC) adapter is throttled by a system. The system includes a first tracking mechanism, a second tracking mechanism, a switch, and an FC adapter. The FC adapter comprises three or more FLOGIs and a controller.

Systems and methods for throttling a fabric login in a fibre channel adapter

System and computer program product are provided to configure a path between nodes through a fabric in a fibre channel storage area network (SAN). A node name is provided for a target node on the SAN and a port name is provided for each port in the target node. A relationship is established in a data structure between each port name and a slot in which each port is physically located in the target node. Prior to configuring a path between a source node and a port in the target node, the ports which are physically connected and logged in to the fabric are identified by port address. The port names corresponding to the port addresses are then identified. The port names are used to generate interface_ids of the ports corresponding to the physical slots in which the ports are located. A data structure is created to maintain the relationship between interface_ids and port names. To establish a path connection between a port in the source node and a selected port in the target node, the node name of the target node and the interface_id of the selected port are input to the data structure and the port name of the selected port is output. The port name is then used to obtain the address of the selected port and an I/O session path opened between the source and target nodes.

Configuration of fibre channel SAN path

A method for performing a data exchange between an initiator and a receiver in a fiber channel protocol (FCP) is provided. A control flag is set in a write command to indicate the presence of an identifier. The identifier is copied into a command descriptor block (CDB) of the write command and appended to a data frame. The write command and data frame, including the identifier, is sent from the initiator to the receiver.

FCP command-data matching for write operations

Disclosed is a technique for assigning priorities. A request to manipulate data is received. A type of the request is determined. A priority is assigned to the request based on the type of the request.

Assigning priorities

Methods, system and computer program product are provided to configure a path between nodes through a fabric in a fibre channel storage area network (SAN). A node name is provided for a target node on the SAN and a port name is provided for each port in the target node. A relationship is established in a data structure between each port name and a slot in which each port is physically located in the target node. Prior to configuring a path between a source node and a port in the target node, the ports which are physically connected and logged in to the fabric are identified by port address. The port names corresponding to the port addresses are then identified. The port names are used to generate interface_ids of the ports corresponding to the physical slots in which the ports are located. A data structure is created to maintain the relationship between interface_ids and port names. To establish a path connection between a port in the source node and a selected port in the target node, the node name of the target node and the interface_id of the selected port are input to the data structure and the port name of the selected port is output. The port name is then used to obtain the address of the selected port and an I/O session path opened between the source and target nodes.

Growing community of inventors

Seattle, WA, United States of America

Dung Ngoc Dang