International Business Machines Corporation

Tohru Sumiyoshi

Gregg Steven Lucas

Yoshihiko Terashita

Yoshihiro Fujie

Robert Akira Kubo

Shah Mohammad Rezaul Islam

Takeshi Ishimoto

Koji Nakase

Jason Aaron Matteson

Brian James Cagno

Hiroyuki Miyoshi

Tony Carl Sass

Bret W Lehman

Kenneth Robert Schneebeli

Katherine Tyldesley Blinick

Robert Earl Medlin

Ronald Dean Parrish

Michihiro Okamoto

Robert Mark Lindsay

Kenji Hidaka

Hirokazu Nishimura

Rezaul Shah Mohammad Islam

Kifumi Numata

Makio Mukai

A high speed fabric is provided and is partitioned into sub-fabrics for host adapter traffic and device adapter traffic. A high-speed switch includes an expander for host adapter traffic and an expander for device adapter traffic. The high-speed switch also includes a plurality of connectors, where each connector is partitioned into dual interfaces. For each connector, one interface is connected to the host adapter traffic expander and the other interface is connected to the device adapter traffic expander. Blades are provided with one or more connectors, where each connector is partitioned into dual interfaces for host adapter traffic and device adapter traffic. The blades may be any combination of processor blades, boot drive enclosure blades, switched bunch of disks enclosure blades, and/or integrated RAID controller disk enclosure blades.

Independent drive enclosure blades in a blade server system with low cost high speed switch modules

A mechanism is provided for a one card to filter false signals due to a another card being hot-plugged. A discriminator circuit in the card receives a low-state signal via an input and, responsive to receiving the low-state signal, the discriminator circuit compares the low-state signal to a static signal. Responsive to the low-state signal being greater than the static signal, the discriminator circuit outputs a high-voltage signal. The high-voltage signal output by the discriminator circuit indicates that the low-state signal is a false low signal. Responsive to the low-state signal being less than or equal to the static signal, the discriminator circuit outputs a low-voltage signal. The low-voltage signal output by the discriminator circuit indicates that the low-state signal is a valid low signal.

Detection and accommodation of hot-plug conditions

When data are transferred to a cache from disk drives, through a back end I/F unit, a redundant code verifier of a data path controller compares write-history information (a Destaging Counter (DC) value) embedded in a redundant code of the data with a DC value embedded in a redundant code of a corresponding parity, thereby verifying whether the data are imprecise. In addition, in a case where the data are updated, the redundant code verifier makes a similar verification when old data to be used for creating a parity are read. When the data are not imprecise, a redundant code generator of the data path controller adds to new data and the parity a redundant code into which a new DC value has been embedded. When the data are imprecise, a controller informs a host of an occurrence of a problem through a front end I/F unit.

Unit, method and program for detecting imprecise data

A data storage library includes a drive enclosure bay which can be adapted to work with multiple air-flow configuration requirements. This is accomplished by creating air-flow ports in the top and bottom of the drive enclosure bay, by forming drive tray slots and printed circuit board ports in associated drive trays, by creating frame ports and PCB notches in associated interface cards, and replacing traditional connectors with slimmer but longer connectors that provide additional standoff and improved air-flow.

Air distribution system compatible with disparate data storage systems

An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for integrating a blade RAID controller and storage. A storage blade enclosure communicates with a blade chassis. The storage blade enclosure is mounted within the blade chassis. A RAID controller disposed in the storage blade enclosure receives a command through the storage blade enclosure. In one embodiment, the command is communicated through the blade chassis from a processor blade mounted in the blade chassis. The RAID controller redundantly stores data to or retrieves data from a storage module disposed in the storage blade enclosure in response to the command using a RAID redundancy methodology.

Apparatus, system, and method for integrated blade raid controller and storage

A method is disclosed to provide power to a plurality of data storage devices disposed in a data storage system. The data storage system comprises a system controller comprising a data storage device power-up algorithm and a plurality of data storage devices, where each of the plurality of data storage devices cannot automatically provide a device present signal. The method detects the presence of each of the plurality of data storage devices, and then provides power to each of the detected data storage devices using the data storage device power-up algorithm.

Apparatus and method to provide power to a plurality of data storage devices disposed in a data storage system

An external storage device is part of a ring-like first route formed by connecting multiple external storage devices to each other via communication channels. The external storage device comprises a first connection unit having a first input port and a first output port, and a second connection unit having a second output port and a second input port that are connected to a first input port and a first output port of an adjacent external storage device on the first route, respectively, to form one communication channel of the first route. When both connection units are enabled, information received by the first input port and the second input port is sent from the second output port and the first output port, respectively. When one of the connection units is disabled, information received by the input port of an enabled connection unit is sent from the output port of the enabled connection unit. If a communication failure has been detected in one communication channel of the first route, connections to the first spare communication channel are enabled, and connections to the failure-detected communication channel are disabled.

Method for controlling an external storage system having multiple external storage devices

A storage system in which a set of a data block and a redundancy block is stored has a plurality of control sections which respectively control a plurality of storages, a host connection unit which selects the control section controlling one of the storage in which a write data block which is a write-object block is to be stored, and a transfer unit which transfers the write data block to the control section. Each of the plurality of control sections includes a data block write section which writes the write data block transferred by a transfer unit to the storage in which the write data block is to be stored, a redundancy block update request section which requests the control section controlling the storage in which a redundancy block is to be stored to update the redundancy block, and a redundancy block update section which updates the redundancy block stored in the storage controlled by the control section when another of the control sections makes a request for updating the redundancy block.

Storage system, controller, control method and program product therefor

A disk enclosure is provided with a plurality of HDDs, an enclosure manager that outputs control and management information of the disk enclosure, and S/P converters that are provided for the respective HDDs. Each S/P converter converts a control and management command outputted from the HDD in the form of a parallel signal into a serial signal and outputs it to the enclosure manager. Further, each S/P converter converts control and management information outputted from the enclosure manager into a parallel signal. With this configuration, merely providing a serial port in the enclosure manager and connecting the S/P converters to the enclosure manager by a serial bus can make the SES function of the ESI scheme effective for the HDDs.

Controlling and managing plurality of disk drives in disk enclosure having serial port wherein serial to parallel converters are connected to individual disk drives

An external storage device including first and second input/output units for performing input/output of information from/to an outside, a plurality of storage units connected between the first and second input/output units so that a transmission path of information forms a series connection, and a configuration control unit. The configuration control unit selects two adjacent units from the first input/output unit, each of the plurality of storage units, and the second input/output unit to set a boundary between the two units. Thus the configuration control unit causes the storage units located on a first input/output unit side of the boundary to communicate with the outside by using the first input/output unit and causes the storage units located on a second input/output unit side of the boundary to communicate with the outside by using the second input/output unit.

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Tohru Sumiyoshi