Modular switched fabric for data storage systems

A method of operating a data storage system, the method comprising:

• in a plurality of storage drives, storing data and retrieving the data stored on associated storage media responsive to storage operations received over a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) interface;
• in a plurality of processors communicatively coupled to network interfaces and the plurality of storage drives over a PCIe fabric comprised of one or more PCIe switches, sharing a PCIe address space associated with the PCIe fabric among the plurality of processors, with each of the plurality of processors allocated to at least a corresponding portion of the PCIe address space;
• associating each of the network interfaces with a different Internet Protocol (IP) address and associating at least two of the network interfaces with an Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) portal group;
• and
• in a first processor associated with a first network interface and the iSCSI portal group, identifying data packets received over the first network interface as comprising a first storage operation, processing the first storage operation against allocation information related to the PCIe address space to determine the first storage operation is associated with at least one of the plurality of storage drives managed by a second processor, and responsively transferring the first data packets for handling of the first storage operation by the second processor as if the data packets were received by a second network interface associated with the second processor and the iSCSI portal group.

A modular data storage system, comprising:

• a plurality of storage modules each comprising a plurality of solid state drives and configured to communicate over a switched Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) fabric;
• a plurality of processing modules each comprising one or more processors configured to share a PCIe address space associated with the switched PCIe fabric, and manage storage operations for a designated subset of the plurality of storage modules over the switched PCIe fabric based at least on allocation of the one or more processors among the PCIe address space;
• a plurality of network interfaces configured to communicate with the processing modules over the switched PCIe fabric, each of the network interfaces configured to be associated with a different Internet Protocol (IP) address and at least two of the network interfaces configured to be associated with an Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) portal group;
• one or more PCIe switches configured to establish the switched PCIe fabric over a plurality of PCIe links to interconnect at least the storage modules to the processing modules and interconnect at least the processing modules to the network interfaces;
• and
• a first processor associated with a first network interface and the iSCSI portal group configured to identify data packets received over the first network interface as comprising a first storage operation, process the first storage operation against allocation information related to the PCIe address space to determine the first storage operation is associated with at least one of the plurality of storage modules managed by a second processor, and responsively transfer the first data packets for handling of the first storage operation by the second processor as if the data packets were received by a second network interface associated with the second processor and the iSCSI portal group.

A data storage system, comprising:

• a plurality of storage drives each comprising a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) interface, and configured to store data and retrieve the data stored on associated storage media responsive to storage operations;
• one or more processors communicatively coupled to the plurality of storage drives over a PCIe fabric comprised of one or more PCIe switches;
• the one or more processors configured to share a PCIe address space associated with the PCIe fabric, with each of the one or more processors allocated to at least a corresponding portion of the PCIe address space;
• the one or more processors configured to process received ones of the storage operations against allocation information related to the PCIe address space to determine one or more target processors to handle the received ones of the storage operations, and transfer the received ones of the storage operations for handling by the one or more target processors;
• at least one of the one or more processors configured to present an associated one or more storage drives as at least one NVM Express (NVMe) virtual logical unit number (VLUN) over a PCIe interface that communicatively couples the at least one of the one or more processors and a computing system external to the data storage system;
• and
• the at least one of the one or more processors configured to receive NVMe storage transactions transferred by the computing system over the PCIe interface and handle the NVMe storage transactions for storage of data on the associated one or more storage drives.

A method of operating a data storage system, the method comprising:

• in a plurality of storage drives, storing data and retrieving the data stored on associated storage media responsive to storage operations received over a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) interface;
• in one or more processors communicatively coupled to the plurality of storage drives over a PCIe fabric comprised of one or more PCIe switches, sharing a PCIe address space associated with the PCIe fabric among the one or more processors, with each of the one or more processors allocated to at least a corresponding portion of the PCIe address space;
• in the one or more processors, processing received ones of the storage operations against allocation information related to the PCIe address space to determine one or more target processors to handle the received ones of the storage operations, and transferring the received ones of the storage operations for handling by the one or more target processors;
• in at least one of the one or more processors, presenting an associated one or more storage drives as at least one NVM Express (NVMe) virtual logical unit number (VLUN) over a PCIe interface that communicatively couples the at least one of the one or more processors and a computing system external to the data storage system;
• and
• in the at least one of the one or more processors receiving NVMe storage transactions transferred by the computing system over the PCIe interface and handling the NVMe storage transactions for storage of data on the associated one or more storage drives.

A modular data storage system, comprising:

• a plurality of storage modules each comprising a plurality of solid-state drives and configured to communicate over a switched Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) fabric;
• a plurality of processing modules each comprising one or more processors configured to share a PCIe address space associated with the switched PCIe fabric, and manage storage operations for a designated subset of the plurality of storage modules over the switched PCIe fabric based at least on allocation of the one or more processors among the PCIe address space;
• a plurality of network interfaces configured to communicate with the processing modules over the switched PCIe fabric;
• one or more PCIe switches configured to establish the switched PCIe fabric over a plurality of PCIe links to interconnect at least the storage modules to the processing modules and interconnect at least the processing modules to the network interfaces;
• the one or more processors configured to process received ones of the storage operations against the allocation to determine one or more target processors to handle the received ones of the storage operations, and transfer the received ones of the storage operations for handling by the one or more target processors;
• at least one of the one or more processors configured to present an associated one or more storage drives as at least one NVM Express (NVMe) virtual logical unit number (VLUN) over a PCIe interface that communicatively couples the at least one of the one or more processors and a computing system external to the data storage system;
• and
• the at least one of the one or more processors configured to receive NVMe storage transactions transferred by the computing system over the PCIe interface and handle the NVMe storage transactions for storage of data on the associated one or more storage drives.