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US 2003/0195956 A1Published application
System and method for allocating unique zone membership
AssigneeMaXXan Systems, Inc.
InventorsWalter Bramhall, Ruotao Huang
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AssigneeMaXXan Systems, Inc.
InventorsWalter Bramhall, Ruotao Huang
Estimating the term…
The present disclosure describes a method and apparatus for ensuring the unique zoning membership representation in a network environment. In one aspect, the members of a container may be evaluated to determine whether any are subordinate to or children of a target member of the same container. The subordinate or child members may be removed from the container's configuration. Generally following the removal of any subordinate or child members of the target member, a determination may be made as to whether the target member is a child of or subordinate to any container members remaining in the container's configuration. If the target member is determined to be subordinate to or a child of a remaining container member, the target member may be removed from the container's configuration. Consequently, redundant member entries, unintentional communication paths and the complexities associated with creating a zoning configuration may be avoided.
A method for allocating unique container membership comprising:
A method for promoting container members within a container configuration comprising:
A method for representing members in a container configuration comprising:
A computing device comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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Digital input from, or digital output to, record carriers , e.g. RAID, emulated record carriers or networked record carriers: interfaces specially…
Securing storage systems: in relation to access
Configuration or reconfiguration of storage systems: permissions
Adopting a particular infrastructure: distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
Term end not estimated
1. Field of the Invention
The present application is related to computer networks. More specifically, the present application is related to a system and method for ensuring inadvertent device duplication in the zones or alias groups of network zoning configurations.
2. Description of the Related Art
A more complete understanding of the present disclosure and advantages thereof may be acquired by referring to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an arrangement of nodes, zones, and other items in a switch fabric, according to the teachings of the present invention.
FIG. 1a is a block diagram illustrating an alternate arrangement of nodes, node zones, and other items in a switch fabric, according to the teachings of the present invention.
The present invention may be susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms. Specific embodiments of the present invention are shown by way of example in the drawings and are described herein in detail. It should be understood, however, that the description set forth herein of specific embodiments is not intended to limit the present invention to the particular forms disclosed. Rather, all modifications, alternatives, and equivalents falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims are also covered by the claims.
The present invention is directed to a storage network device that performs a multiplicity of functions and has a multiplicity of port types to allow it to connect to a variety of network types (e.g., Fibre Channel, Gigabit Ethernet, etc.). A primary function of the invention is to act as a storage network switch wherein frames are switched from port to port. However, because of its architecture, the present invention has the ability to perform many additional functions that take advantage of its high performance, highly scalable, and highly programmable infrastructure. The method of the present invention includes a method for implementing a zoning functionality that supports the client specification of a zone or alias group member in a number of situations.
There are two main types of zoning for purposes of the present invention: switch port-based zoning and device-based zoning. Switch port-based zoning includes a method for configuring switch ports to make up one or more zones. Zone enforcement is applied regardless of what device is connected to the port. Switch port-based zoning generally allows or disallows routing between specific switch ports depending on whether or not the ports are configured into the same zone. Switch ports generally can be configured into a zone regardless of whether or not a device is connected to the port.