Fibre channel protocol exchange handling

A system, comprising:

• a host bus adapter (HBA);
• a memory module having a portion thereof allocated as a driver memory for the HBA;
• a processor that is operatively coupled to the memory module and HBA, the processor being configured to perform the operations of:
• obtaining an indication of a pool of exchange numbers, the indication of the pool of exchange numbers being obtained from the HBA, the pool of exchange numbers including a plurality of exchange numbers, each of the exchange numbers being a unique identifier that is used by the HBA to track data exchanges between the HBA and external computing devices;
• pre-mapping each of a plurality of first slots in the driver memory to the pool of exchange numbers, wherein pre-mapping each of the plurality of first slots includes updating a first data structure to map each of the plurality of first slots to a respective one of the exchange numbers in the pool, the pre-mapping being performed after the indication of the pool of exchange numbers is obtained;
• and
• using the plurality of first slots to execute one or more exchanges that involve the HBA, the exchanges being initiated after the pre-mapping is performed,
• wherein executing any given one of the exchanges includes assigning, to the given exchange, one of the exchange numbers in the pool and using one of the plurality of first slots that is pre-mapped to the assigned exchange number to store driver-side metadata for the given exchange,
• wherein the processor is configured to restrict use of each of the plurality of first slots to storing only driver-side metadata associated with exchanges which are assigned the exchange number that is pre-mapped to the first slot.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing one or more processor-executable instructions which, when executed by a processor of a computing device, cause the processor to perform the operations of:

• obtaining an indication of a pool of exchange numbers, the indication of the pool of exchange numbers being obtained from a host bus adapter (HBA) of the computing device, the pool of exchange numbers including a plurality of exchange numbers, each of the exchange numbers being a unique identifier that is used by the HBA to track data exchanges between the HBA and external computing devices;
• pre-mapping each of a plurality of first slots in a driver memory of the computing device to the pool of exchange numbers, wherein pre-mapping each of the plurality of first slots includes updating a first data structure to map each of the plurality of first slots to a respective one of the exchange numbers in the pool, the pre-mapping being performed after the indication of the pool of exchange numbers is obtained;
• and
• using the plurality of first slots to execute one or more exchanges that involve the HBA, the exchanges being initiated after the pre-mapping is performed,
• wherein executing any given one of the exchanges includes assigning, to the given exchange, one of the exchange numbers in the pool and using one of the plurality of first slots that is pre-mapped to the assigned exchange number to store driver-side metadata for the given exchange,
• wherein the processor is configured to restrict use of each of the plurality of first slots to storing only driver-side metadata associated with exchanges which are assigned the exchange number that is pre-mapped to the first slot.