International Business Machines Corporation

Other

Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.

Rpx Corporation

John Lewis Hufferd

Renato John Recio

William Todd Boyd

Madeline Vega

Agustin Mena, Iii

Julian Satran

Michael Anthony Ko

Giora Biran

Suresh Vobbilisetty

Vadim Makhervaks

Anoop Ghanwani

Zorik Machulsky

Shanker Singh

Kalman Zvi Meth

Ezio Valdevit

Brian Jeffrey Corcoran

Glenn Wenig

Robert Norman Snively

Boris Zemlyak

Sandra Snively, Legal Representative

Kalman Meht

This invention permits all FCoE (Fiber Channel over Ethernet) frames to be transferred from one FCoE network adapter to another without having to traverse through a Fiber Channel Forwarder (FCF) device. After the FCF is determined not to be present, a logical End-To-End connection is established between Peer FCoE Adapters. This invention permits an FCoE message originating at an FCoE network adapter to be sent to an FCoE receiving adapter across 'Ethernet' links and switches, or via a single 'Ethernet' link (Point-To-Point) but without having to pass through FCF devices.

Direct mode adapter based shortcut for FCoE data transfer

Provided are a method, system, and program performed at a local node to communicate with a remote node. A first communication protocol is used to communicate with the remote node to establish a connection for a second communication protocol. Data structures are created to enable communication with the remote node to establish the connection with the remote node for the second communication protocol. An extension layer is invoked for the second communication protocol. The data structures are passed to the extension layer to use to communicate with the remote node using the second communication protocol.

Method, system, and program for enabling communication between nodes

A method of initializing a Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) link between a Fiber Channel over Ethernet node (ENode) and Fiber Channel Forwarders (FCFs) in a network by discovering the presence of FCFs available to the ENode and other FCFs, assigning second MAC addresses to the ENode corresponding to each available FCF, and converting from a management and initialization process using the first MAC address to normal Fiber Channel operation using the second MAC addresses. The implementations described herein may additionally distinguish management and initialization processes from normal Fiber Channel operation using separate Ethertypes.

Address assignment in Fibre Channel over Ethernet environments

Provided are a method, system, and program for forwarding a message from a transmitting node. A first message is received encoded using a first communication protocol from the transmitting node, wherein the first message includes a direct reference to a memory location in one node. A determination is made as to whether the first message is directed to a receiving node using a second communication protocol. A second message is generated that is compatible with the second communication protocol, wherein the second message causes an operation to be performed with respect to the direct reference in the first message. The second message is transmitted to the receiving node.

Method, system, and program for forwarding messages between nodes

The present invention provides mechanisms that enable application instances to pass block mode storage requests directly to a physical I/O adapter without run-time involvement from the local operating system or hypervisor. In one aspect of the present invention, a mechanism is provided for handling user space creation and deletion operations for creating and deleting allocations of linear block addresses of a physical storage device to application instances. For creation, it is determined if there are sufficient available resources for creation of the allocation. For deletion, it is determined if there are any I/O transactions active on the allocation before performing the deletion. Allocation may be performed only if there are sufficient available resources and deletion may be performed only if there are no active I/O transactions on the allocation being deleted.

Mechanisms for creation/deletion of linear block address table entries for direct I/O

Provided are a system and article of manufacture performed at a local node to communicate with a remote node. A first communication protocol is used to communicate with the remote node to establish a connection for a second communication protocol. Data structures are created to enable communication with the remote node to establish the connection with the remote node for the second communication protocol. An extension layer is invoked for the second communication protocol. The data structures are passed to the extension layer to use to communicate with the remote node using the second communication protocol.

System and article of manufacture for enabling communication between nodes

Methods for recovery from server-failures wherein servers control a communication initiator's access to a set of resources. A probable server failure leads to a communication initiator performing a discovery operation to identify available servers capable of accessing a required resource. A server checks whether any of the servers has failed. If a server has failed, a server other than the failed server sends the communication initiator an identification of the failed server together with a network address of an identified available server. The identified available server configures itself to respond to resource access requests directed to the failed server. The communication initiator establishes a connection to an available server enabling access to the required resource. The available server uses initiator-provided elements to recreate a reservation identifier, so that replacing server can also manage resources that were reserved by the failed server at the time of its failure.

Recovery from failures in a computing environment

A mechanism is provided that enables user space middleware or applications to pass file name based storage requests directly to a physical I/O Adapter without run-time involvement from the local Operating System (OS). A mechanism is provided for using a file protection table (FPT) data structure, which may include a file name protection table (FNPT) and file extension protection table (FEPT), to control user space and out of user space Input/Output (I/O) operations. In addition, a mechanism is provided for managing the FPT based on user space operations to create, query, modify and delete entries in the FPT.

Processing user space operations directly between an application instance and an I/O adapter

Provided are a method, system, and program for transferring data between an initiator node and target node. A request is received conforming to a first data transfer protocol at the initiator node to transmit to the target node. A reference to a memory location is obtained to use to transfer the request to the target node. At least one function is called that executes in a user address space of the initiator node, wherein the initiator node includes a kernel address space and the user address space. The at least one function executing in the user address space interfaces with an adaptor to transmit the request and reference to the memory location to the target node using a second data transfer protocol.

Method, system, and program for executing data transfer requests

Enabling user space middleware or applications to pass file name based storage requests directly to a physical I/O Adapter without run-time involvement from the local Operating System (OS)is provided. A mechanism is provided for using a file protection table (FPT) data structure, which may include a file name protection table (FNPT) and file extension protection table (FEPT), to control user space and out of user space Input/Output (I/O) operations. The FNPT has an entry for each file managed by the OS' file system and points to a segment of the FEPT. Each entry in the FEPT may include a protection domain, along with other protection table context information, against which I/O requests may be checked to determine if an application instance that submitted the I/O requests may access the file identified in the I/O requests.

Out of user space I/O directly between a host system and a physical adapter using file based linear block address translation

The present invention provides a method that enables application instances to pass block mode storage requests directly to a physical I/O adapter without run-time involvement from either the local operating system or hypervisor. In one aspect of the present invention, a mechanism is provided for determining whether a user space operation is a resource management operation of a work processing operation. If the user space operation is a resource management operation, appropriate functions are performed to either query, create, modify or destroy resource allocations in the I/O adapter. If the user space operation is a work processing operation, appropriate functions are performed to create work queue entries and inform the I/O adapter of the work queue entries and to retrieve completion queue entries for work queue entries whose processing has been completed by the I/O adapter.

Method for user space operations for direct I/O between an application instance and an I/O adapter

Provided are a method, system, and program for communicating data transfer requests between data transfer protocols. A request is received conforming to a first data transfer protocol at an initiator node to transmit to a target node, wherein the request includes a request identifier in the first data transfer protocol. A reference is obtained to a memory location to use for the request using a second data transfer protocol, wherein the reference is used by the second data transfer protocol. An entry is added to a map associating the reference to the memory location for the second data transfer protocol with the request identifier for the first data transfer protocol. The second data transfer protocol is used to transfer the request with the request identifier and the reference to the memory location.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

John Lewis Hufferd