Systems and methods for auto-detection and auto-configuration of uplinks and server interfaces for storage solutions
AssigneeDell Products L.P.
InventorsRamesh Kumar Subbiah, Vibin Varghese
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Abstract
Presented are efficient systems and methods for automatically detecting and configuring network connections in Fibre Channel (FC) and similar networks. In various embodiments, this is accomplished by using an I/O module (IOM)'s fabric login (FLOGI) response or FLOGI request to identify the type of an uplink interface as either FC Gateway or FC Direct Attach, determining whether server interfaces coupled to the TOM support FCoE, and then, automatically configuring server interfaces based on the identified type of uplink interface.
Claims20
A computer-implemented method for automatically detecting and configuring connections in a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)-based communications network, the method comprising:
- given a virtual fabric (vfabric) comprising one or more I/O modules (IOMs), in which each of the one or more IOMs has been assigned an FCoE Virtual LAN (VLAN) identifier, at least one of the one or more IOMs performing steps comprising:
- responsive to obtaining information that an uplink interface of a IOM of the one or more IOMs is available, sending a fabric login (FLOGI) via the uplink interface that is available;
- in response to receiving at the uplink interface of the IOM a fabric login (FLOGI) response, identifying the uplink interface as a Fibre Channel (FC) Gateway type interface and causing the uplink interface to be added to a first uplink group and marked as an FC gateway interface;
- in response to receiving at the uplink interface a FLOGI request, identifying the uplink interface as an FC Direct Attach type interface and causing the uplink interface to be added to a second uplink group and marked as an FC direct attach interface;
- determining whether a server interface coupled to the TOM support FCoE;
- and
- configuring the server interface based on the type of uplink interface identified.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium or media comprising one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by at least one processor, causes steps to be performed comprising:
- given a virtual fabric (vfabric) comprising one or more I/O modules (IOMs), in which each of the one or more IOMs has been assigned a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) Virtual LAN (VLAN) identifier, for at least one of the one or more IOMs:
- responsive to obtaining information that an uplink interface of the IOM is available, sending a fabric login (FLOGI) via the uplink interface that is available;
- in response to receiving at the uplink interface of the IOM a fabric login (FLOGI) response, identifying the uplink interface as a Fibre Channel (FC) Gateway type interface and causing the uplink interface to be added to a first uplink group and marked as FC gateway interface;
- in response to receiving at the uplink interface a FLOGI request, identifying the uplink interface as an FC Direct Attach type interface and causing the uplink interface to be added to a second uplink group and marked as FC direct attach interface;
- determining whether a server interface coupled to the TOM support FCoE;
- and
- based on the type of uplink interface identified, configuring the server interface.
A Fibre Channel (FC) system for automatically detecting and configuring connections in a FCoE-based communications network, the system comprising:
- an I/O module (IOM), the IOM being part of a virtual fabric (vfabric);
- a processor coupled to the IOM;
- one or more server interfaces coupled to the IOM;
- a model system management (MSM) coupled to the IOM and the one or more server interfaces;
- and
- a non-transitory computer-readable medium or media comprising instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause steps to be performed comprising:
- responsive to obtaining information that an uplink interface of the IOM is available, sending a fabric login (FLOGI) via the uplink interface that is available;
- in response to receiving at the uplink interface of the IOM a fabric login (FLOGI) response, identifying the uplink interface as an FC Gateway type interface and causing the uplink interface to be added to a first uplink group and marked as an FC gateway interface;
- in response to receiving at the uplink interface of the IOM a FLOGI request, identifying the uplink interface as an FC Direct Attach type interface and causing the uplink interface to be added to a second uplink group and marked as an FC direct attach interface;
- and
- for each uplink interface in which neither a FLOGI response nor a FLOGI request was received:
- initiating a link reset on the uplink interface that has not received either the FLOGI response or the FLOGI request;
- and
- in response to a timeout condition being met or a link reset being received, resuming with the step of sending a FLOGI via the uplink interface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.