Dell Products Inc.

Richard K Golasky

William Price Dawkins

Jacob Cherian

Nam Van Nguyen

Kevin Thomas Marks

Daniel McConnell

The invention provides for a method and corresponding Information Handling System (IHS) to protect storage systems from device discontinuity caused by misconfigurations. An embodiment of the IHS comprises a network switch coupled for communication to a storage group where a member of the storage group is a group leader. The group leader has access to configuration information for each member of the group and the network switch. The IHS further comprises an agent monitor that communicates a proposed change affecting the switch and/or a member of the group to the group leader. The group leader in response to the proposed change determines the acceptability of the proposed change using the accessed configuration information and in turn, communicates the determined acceptability to the agent monitor at the network switch. The agent monitor or the group leader then provides output indicating the acceptability of the proposed change to a network administrator.

Method to protect storage systems from discontinuity due to device misconfiguration

An information handling system may include a processor, a tape drive coupled to the processor, and a cache control module. The cache control module may be configured to receive a request from the processor for the tape drive; determine whether the tape drive is powered off; determine whether the tape drive needs to be powered on to process the request; and respond to the request on behalf of the tape drive if it is determined that (a) the tape drive is powered off and (b) the tape drive does not need to be powered on to process the request.

Systems and methods for managing power for data storage devices

Methods, systems, and computer programs are disclosed. The method includes issuing a command in a first protocol, converting the first protocol into a second protocol, adding information to the command in the second protocol that identifies the host that may have issued the command, and sending the command to a target device.

Identifying host computers at a physical layer

A method, software and system are disclosed for enabling multi-path error recovery of failed communicators with sequential storage device systems. In one embodiment, an information handling system (IHS) coupled to a sequential storage device via first and second communication paths is provided. Information exchanges between the IHS and the sequential storage device are monitored for communication path failure. In response to a failure event on a primary communication path, status of the halted information exchange is maintained by a host bus adapter and its supporting software on the IHS and in a fibre channel interface module of the sequential storage device. Status information regarding the halted information exchange is communicated to a fail-over host bus adapter of the IHS. The information exchange is completed on the fail-over communications path beginning from the point of failure such that data of the sequential information exchange is maintained in order.

Method, software and system for multi-path fail-over recovery in sequential storage systems

A system and method for providing automatic data restoration after a storage device failure are disclosed. An agent module detects a failure at a logical unit located at a primary storage device. The agent module locates backup data from the failed logical unit that is stored on a backup storage device and transfers the backup data from the backup storage device to a spare logical unit located on the primary storage device. The agent module then maps the spare logical unit to an address associated with a host in response to detecting the failure at the logical unit.

System and method for providing automatic data restoration after a storage device failure

A bus reset control module associated with a fibre-SCSI bridge manages target resets sent from a fibre bus to one or more SCSI buses to reduce or eliminate unnecessary bus resets of SCSI buses having sequential devices, such as tape storage drives. The bus reset control module accepts target resets from a fibre bus host to intercept the initiation of bus resets and communicates with target devices of the SCSI bus to determine whether the target devices are faulty. The bus reset control module issues bus resets to SCSI buses having a faulty target device but prevents issuance of bus resets to SCSI buses that do not have a faulty target device so that a sequential device interfaced with a SCSI bus is not subject to a bus reset if all devices associated with the SCSI bus are operating properly.

Growing community of inventors

Round Rock, TX, United States of America

Richard K Golasky