Method and apparatus for network direct attached storage
OwnerHan-gyoo Kim, Han Liminventors
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Abstract
An apparatus and method for providing a storage medium accessible across a network to a host. The storage medium's operation is generally controlled by a network disk controller. The network disk controller may receive a packet from a remote host, decapsulate the packet, and act on the packet to either transmit data from a storage medium or write data to a storage medium. Generally, the network disk controller does not execute any file system. Rather, the file system for communication between the host and controller is executed by the host. The performance of the network disk controller generally matches that of a local (i.e., non-network) disk controller in terms of data access and writing.
Claims20
A network-accessible storage medium system, comprising:
- a network storage medium controller;
- and
- a storage medium operatively connected to the network storage medium controller;
- wherein
- neither the network storage medium controller nor the storage medium executes a network file system.
A method for accessing a storage medium across a network, comprising:
- receiving a packet from a network;
- decapsulating the packet into a header and a payload;
- determining, from the header, a protocol associated with the payload;
- determining whether the payload is associated with a non-network storage medium access command;
- and
- in the event the payload is associated with a local storage medium access command, executing the non-network storage medium access command.
A method for retransmitting a packet, comprising:
- saving a last-executed command in a memory;
- determining a packet is lost during a transmission;
- in response to determining the packet is lost, queuing the last-executed command;
- and
- re-executing the last-executed command.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.