Storage network that includes an arbiter for managing access to storage resources
AssigneeDell Products L.P.
InventorsJacob Cherian, Rohit Chawla
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Abstract
A cluster network is disclosed that includes a set of nodes coupled to a storage enclosure. The storage enclosure includes an arbiter for managing contention for ownership of the storage drives of the storage enclosure. The arbiter receives ownership commands and arbitrates the ownership of the storage drives on the basis of the commands and the current ownership settings of the affected storage drives. The arbiter is coupled to the SAS expander or multiplexer in the storage enclosure that routes communications to each of the storage drives of the storage enclosure.
Claims21
A cluster network, comprising:
- a plurality of nodes, wherein each node includes a storage controller operable to transmit data access commands to a storage enclosure of the cluster network, and wherein each node is operable to initiate ownership commands concerning the ownership of the storage drives of the storage enclosure;
- and
- a storage enclosure, comprising:
- a plurality of storage drives;
- and
- an arbiter operable to set the ownership status of each of the storage drives by the nodes on the basis of ownership commands initiated at each of the nodes of the cluster network.
The cluster network of claim 8, wherein the arbiter is operable to access a table that identifies, for each storage drive of the storage enclosure, whether each respective storage drive is owned by a node of the cluster network.
A storage enclosure, comprising:
- an input port operable to receive communications from a plurality of nodes of a computer network;
- an arbiter coupled to the input port of the storage enclosure;
- an expander coupled to the input port;
- and
- a set of storage drives;
- wherein the arbiter establishes the ownership condition of each of the storage drives on the basis of ownership commands received from the nodes of the computer network.
A method for managing the ownership of logical units within the storage enclosure of a storage network, comprising:
- initiating a logical unit ownership commands at a node of the storage network;
- receiving the logical unit ownership command at an arbiter associated with a storage enclosure of the storage network, wherein the logical unit ownership command initiated at the node is a SCSI command and wherein the command received at the arbiter is translated for execution by the arbiter;
- accessing a table reflecting the ownership status of the logical units of the storage enclosure;
- executing the logical unit ownership command at the arbiter on the basis of the content of the table;
- transmitting to the node issuing the command a communication concerning the result of the initiated logical unit ownership command.
A method for handling ownership requests for logical units of a cluster network, comprising:
- initiating an ownership command at a first server node of the cluster network to establish ownership of the first server node over a logical unit of the cluster network, wherein the ownership command is initiated according to a SCSI command protocol;
- translating the ownership command to a command recognizable by an arbiter associated with the logical units of the cluster network;
- receiving the translated ownership command at the arbiter;
- determining if the logical unit that is the subject of the ownership command is owned by another node of the cluster network;
- and
- assigning ownership of the logical unit that is the subject of the ownership command to the first server node if it is determined that the logical unit is not owned by another node of the cluster network.
A method for handling ownership requests for logical units of a cluster network, comprising:
- initiating an ownership command at a first server node of the cluster network to release ownership of a logical unit from a first server node of the cluster network, wherein the ownership command is initiated according to a SCSI command protocol;
- translating the ownership command to a command recognizable by an arbiter associated with the logical units of the cluster network;
- receiving the translated ownership command at the arbiter;
- determining if the logical unit that is the subject of the ownership command is owned by another node of the cluster network;
- and
- resetting the ownership status of the logical unit to indicate that the cluster unit is not owned if it is determined that the logical unit is not owned by another server node of the cluster network.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.