Failsafe operation of storage area network
AssigneeSilicon Graphics, Inc.
InventorsKenneth S. Beck, Mark J. Goodwin
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A cluster of computer system nodes share direct read/write access to storage devices via a storage area network connected to the nodes by switches, such as Fibre Channel switches. When a node fails to respond to other members of a cluster, the node is prevented from accessing storage devices shared by the nodes in the cluster by disabling port(s) on the switches connected to the failed node. The ports to be disabled are identified in a cluster configuration database that is updated as each node joins the cluster. Commands to disable port(s) of a switch may be transmitted to the switch in a telnet session from the node maintaining the cluster configuration database.
Claims18
A method of controlling access to storage devices connected to a cluster of computer system nodes via at least one switch for shared access, comprising:
- preventing at least one node not communicating with other nodes in the cluster from inputting from and outputting to the storage devices through at least one switch connected to the at least one node.
A method as recited in claim 5, wherein said maintaining comprises:
- obtaining from the at least one switch port addresses for each port of the at least one switch and identifiers of host bus adapters connected thereto;
- and
- obtaining from the nodes in the cluster the identifiers of the host bus adapters in each node connected to the at least one switch.
A data processing cluster, comprising:
- a storage area network including at least one switch having ports connected to a plurality of storage devices;
- and
- computer system nodes, coupled to the at least one switch, including at least one server node programmed to prevent at least one node not communicating with other nodes in the cluster from inputting from and outputting to the storage devices through at least one switch connected to the at least one node.
At least one computer readable medium storing at least one program embodying a method of controlling access to storage devices connected to a cluster of computer system nodes via at least one switch for shared access, said method comprising:
- preventing at least one node not communicating with other nodes in the cluster from inputting from and outputting to the storage devices through at least one switch connected to the at least one node.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.