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:
Jul. 19, 2005
Filed:
Oct. 05, 2001
Allen Robert Heitman, Rochester, MN (US);
David Lynn Merbach, Rochester, MN (US);
William Roy Yonker, Rochester, MN (US);
Allen Robert Heitman, Rochester, MN (US);
David Lynn Merbach, Rochester, MN (US);
William Roy Yonker, Rochester, MN (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A storage area network (SAN) has one or more host digital data processors are coupled to one or more storage devices (e.g., LUNs) by an interconnect, e.g., a fiber channel-based fabric. Switches or switch-like interfaces on the interconnect fabric define zones or regions in which certain hosts can access certain storage devices, but not other storage devices. Scanners, e.g., operating within agents associated with the hosts, collect information regarding the regions and, more particularly, the hosts, storage devices and interconnect elements that make them up. A manager operating, for example, on a further digital data processor disambiguates information from the regions and discerns the topology of the portion of the SAN spanned by the regions. Thus, it identifies as a virtual SAN elements from regions that have at least one common storage device with at least one other region.