International Business Machines Corporation

Roman David Druker

Douglas Paul Dunham

Nancy Lott Hobbs

Barbara J Camacho

Duane Mark Baldwin

Gregory John Tevis

David Lynn Merbach

Daniel Graham Douglas

John Earle Lindley

Michael L Lamb

William Roy Yonker

Allen Robert Heitman

Raymond M Swank

Gregory John Knight

David W Groves

Clement Lambert Dickey

Paul Lawrence Bradshaw

Tina Lynn Dunton

Vinh-Thuan Nguyen-Phuc

Vincent Jomartin Hoang

Lisa Anne Huston

Alireza Razzaghi Daryan

Amir Nakhforoush

Ron H Clark

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

A storage area network has one or more digital data processors, e.g., hosts, in communication with one or more storage devices. At least a selected one of the hosts has an operating system in which a storage device must be claimed before the storage device can be accessed by applications programs executing on that host. The improvement is characterized by a selectively actuable filter, e.g., loaded with the selected host operating system, that when downloaded and actuated to a host intervenes to block claiming of one or more selected storage devices.

Storage area network methods and apparatus for dynamically enabled storage device masking

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San Ramon, CA, United States of America

Roman David Druker