Method and system for configuring RAID subsystems with block I/O commands and block I/O path

A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium including control logic stored therein for communicating with a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) subsystem comprising:

• first control logic means for reading user data from and writing user data to the RAID subsystem via an input/output (I/O) path;
• second control logic means for reading configuration information from and writing configuration information to the RAID subsystem via the I/O path;
• wherein the I/O path comprises one or more programs configured to interface with the RAID subsystem.

The computer program product of claim 24, wherein the means for executing a configuration read command comprises:

• means for obtaining from the RAID subsystem an application identification (ID) to be associated with the configuration read command.

A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium including control logic stored therein for controlling a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) subsystem comprising:

• first control logic means for processing user data access commands received via an input/output (I/O) path;
• second control logic means for processing configuration commands received via the I/O path;
• wherein the I/O path comprises one or more programs configured to interface between the RAID subsystem and a user application that generates the user data access commands and a configuration application that generates the configuration commands.

The computer program product of claim 33, wherein the means for processing configuration read commands further comprises:

• means for locking and unlocking data structures in the RAID subsystem associated with a configuration read command claim 38. A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium including control logic stored therein for communicating with a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) subsystem comprising:
• first control logic means for reading user data from and writing user data to the RAID subsystem via a software interface to the RAID subsystem.
• second control logic means for reading configuration information from and writing configuration information to the RAID subsystem via the same software interface to the RAID subsystem.