The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 26, 2001
Filed:
Oct. 30, 1998
Gary Thomas Axberg, Minneapolis, MN (US);
Duane Mark Baldwin, Kasson, MN (US);
Allen Robert Heitman, Rochester, MN (US);
Uma Devi Immaneni, Huntington Beach, CA (US);
Greg Knight, Rochester, MN (US);
David Lynn Merbach, Rochester, MN (US);
Robert Bruce Nicholson, San Jose, CA (US);
William Roy Yonker, Rochester, MN (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A distributed storage management program manages a network comprising multiple data storage devices attached to multiple host computer systems. The management program includes a separate agent in each host, and a central manager. The agents gather data and communicate with the manager across a communications path which is independent of the storage network. The manager collates the data from different agents to produce a coherent view of the network. Preferably, each local agent actively builds an internal topological view of the network as seen by its host and collects data such as error events, which it stores in internal data structures. The manager is able to resolve gaps in the information of each agent from information provided by other agents. Preferably, the manager represents the network as a collection of objects of different classes in an object-oriented class library. This collection is graphically displayed in a logical and understandable manner to a user on a display device.