Network Appliance, Inc.

Netapp, Inc.

Herman Lee

Mohan Srinivasan

Vijayan Rajan

Arthur F Lent

Brian J Pawlowski

Fang Wang

Joseph C Pittman

Rebecca S Beaman

Brian Pawloski

A system and method for utilizing virtual ports associated with a physical port in a Fiber Channel adapter for use in a clustered storage system is disclosed. A plurality of virtual ports are created and associated with a physical port on a storage system. One of the virtual ports is utilized as a standby port to be used to assume the identity of a port associated with a failed storage system in the cluster. In the event of a failover operation, the standby port is activated and assumes the identity of the failed storage systems port. Data access requests previously directed to the failed storage system are received by the activated virtual port and processed by the surviving storage system.

System and method for failover using virtual ports in clustered systems

A system and method proxies data access commands across a cluster interconnect between storage appliances in a cluster. Each storage appliance activates two ports for data access, a local port for data access requests directed to clients of the storage appliance and a proxy port for data access requests directed to the partner storage appliance. Clients utilizing multi-pathing software may send data access requests to either the local port of the storage appliance or the proxy port of the storage appliance.

System and method for proxying data access commands in a clustered storage system

A system and method for providing persistent node names is provided. The system and method stores the node name associated with a given storage system in the root volume associated with the storage system. Thus various components of the storage appliance may be modified without changing the node name associated with a given storage system. This enables clients to have a consistent and persistent node name to connect to in a given network environment.

System and method for providing persistent node names

A multi-protocol storage appliance serves file and block protocol access to information stored on storage devices in an integrated manner for both network attached storage (NAS) and storage area network (SAN) deployments. A storage operating system of the appliance implements a file system that cooperates with novel virtualization modules to provide a virtualization system that 'virtualizes' the storage space provided by the devices. Notably, the file system provides volume management capabilities for use in block-based access to the information stored on the devices. The virtualization system allows the file system to logically organize the information as named file, directory and virtual disk (vdisk) storage objects to thereby provide an integrated NAS and SAN appliance approach to storage by enabling file-based access to the files and directories, while further enabling block-based access to the vdisks.

Multi-protocol storage appliance that provides integrated support for file and block access protocols

A system and method for clustered failover of storage appliances is provided. In the event of a failover of one storage appliance to a surviving storage appliance, the surviving storage appliance assumes the identity of the failed storage appliance. This assumption of the identifier is accomplished by activating a network interface controller or host bus adapter with a network address associated with the failed storage appliance and by mapping a iSCSI name from the failed storage appliance to the surviving storage appliance.

System and method for transport-level failover for loosely coupled iSCSI target devices

A system and method for optimizing lun masking of a storage appliance is provided. Upon login, an initiator data structure containing a lun map is created and associated with each initiator connected to the storage system. When an initiator sends a message directed to a lun associated with the storage system, the storage system maps the lun sent by the initiator to a physical lun associated with the storage system using the lun map. If the lun map contains an appropriate entry, then the lun has been successfully exported and/or masked to the given initiator.

System and method for optimized lun masking

A system and method for clustered failover of storage appliances is provided. In the event of a failover of one storage appliance to a surviving storage appliance, the surviving storage appliance assumes the identity of the failed storage appliance. This assumption of the identifier is accomplished by initializing a Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter on the surviving storage appliance with the NodeName and PortNames of the failed storage appliance.

System and method for transport-level failover of FCP devices in a cluster

A system and method for utilizing virtual ports associated with a physical port in a Fibre Channel adapter for use in a clustered storage system is disclosed. A plurality of virtual ports are created and associated with a physical port on a storage system. One of the virtual ports is utilized as a standby port to be used to assume the identity of a port associated with a failed storage system in the cluster. In the event of a failover operation, the standby port is activated and assumes the identity of the failed storage systems port. Data access requests previously directed to the failed storage system are received by the activated virtual port and processed by the surviving storage system.

The present invention provides a system and method for inband management of a virtual disk. A novel volume information command, which is a vendor-specific SCSI command, is sent by a client to a storage appliance, in response, generates a data structure containing various path and networking data associated with a vdisk. This data structure is then returned to the requesting client via a SCSI connection. A client may then utilize the returned information for generating snapshots or other data integrity/backup features offered by the storage appliance.

System and method for inband management of a virtual disk

A system and method proxies data access commands across a cluster interconnect between storage appliances in a cluster. Each storage appliance activates two ports for data access, a local port for data access requests directed to clients of the storage appliance and a proxy port for data access requests directed to the partner storage appliance. Clients utilizing multi-pathing software may send data access requests to either the local port of the storage appliance or the proxy port of the storage appliance. The system and method improve high availability especially during a loss of connectivity due to non-storage appliance hardware failure.

A technique enables efficient access to logical unit numbers (luns) or virtual disks (vdisks) stored on a storage system, such as a multi-protocol storage appliance. The technique allows a grouping of initiators by a 'human friendly' logical name that is mapped to a lun or vdisk on the storage appliance. The initiators are clients operating in, e.g., a storage area network (SAN) environment that initiate requests for the vdisk using block-based access protocols, such as the Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) protocol encapsulated over TCP/IP (iSCSI) or over fibre channel (FCP). The technique enables access to the vdisk by all initiators that are members of the initiator group (igroup). An igroup is a logical named entity that is assigned to one or more addresses associated with one or more initiators. These addresses may comprise fibre channel (FC) world wide name (WWN) or iSCSI name identifiers (IDs). Therefore, rather than having to specify these IDs when desiring access to a vdisk, an initiator need only specify the human friendly name of the igroup.

Growing community of inventors

Mountain View, CA, United States of America

Herman Lee