System and method of implementing disk ownership in networked storage
AssigneeNetApp, Inc.
InventorsSusan M. Coatney, Alan L. Rowe, Radek Aster, Joydeep Sen Sarma
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Abstract
A system and method for disk ownership in a network storage system. Each disk has two ownership attributes set to show that a particular file server owns the disk. In a preferred embodiment the first ownership attribute is the serial number of the file server being written to a specific location on each disk and the second ownership attribute is setting a SCSI-3 persistent reservation. In a system utilizing this disk ownership method, multiple file servers can read data from a given disk, but only the file server that owns a particular disk can write data to the disk.
Claims27
A method for a network device to claim ownership of a disk in a network storage system comprising the steps of:
- setting a first ownership attribute on the disk to a state of ownership by network device;
- and
- setting a second ownership attribute on the disk to a state of ownership by network device.
A method of claiming ownership of a disk by a network device in a network storage system comprising the steps of:
- writing ownership information to a predetermined area of the disk;
- and
- setting a small computer system interface level 3 persistent reservation tag to a state of network device ownership.
A network storage system comprising:
- a plurality of network devices;
- one or more switches, each network device connected to at least one of the one or more switch;
- and
- a plurality of disks having a first ownership attribute and a second ownership attribute, each disk connected to at least one of the plurality of switches.
A network storage system comprising:
- one or more switches;
- a plurality of disks;
- and
- a plurality of network devices, each of the network devices including means for claiming ownership of one of the plurality of disks in the network storage system.
A network storage system comprising:
- one or more switches interconnected to form a switching fabric;
- a plurality of disks, each of the disks connected to at least one of the switches;
- and
- one or more network devices, interconnected with the switching fabric, each of the network devices being adapted to own a predetermined set of disks of the plurality of disks.
A computer-readable medium, including program instructions executing on network device, for performing the steps of:
- writing ownership information to a predetermined area of a disk;
- and
- setting a small computer system interface level 3 persistent reservation tag to a state of network device ownership.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.