US 2006/0242312 A1 · Tunneling SATA targets through fibre channel

Abstract

A system for enabling SATA drives to be utilized in FC SANs is disclosed To send SATA FISs to a SATA drive over a FC SAN, a host sends SCSI commands encapsulated in FC frames over a standard FC link to a Fibre Channel Attached SATA Tunneling (FAST) RAID controller, where the SCSI commands are de-encapsulated from the FC frames and translated to SATA FISs. The SATA FISs are thereafter encapsulated into FC frames. The IOC that performs these functions is referred to as a FAST IOC. The SATA-encapsulated FC frames are sent to multiple disk drive enclosures over another standard FC link. The FC frames are de-encapsulated by FAST switches in disk drive enclosures to retrieve the SATA FISs, and the SATA FISs are sent to the SATA drives over a SATA connection.

Claims52

Dependent claims

A method for enabling Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) disk drives to be utilized in Fibre Channel (FC) Storage Area Networks (SANs), comprising:

at an initiator side of a FC link, translating Small Computer System Interconnect (SCSI) commands to SATA Frame Information Structures (FISs) and encapsulating the SATA FISs into FC frames for commands being sent to the SATA disk drives, and de-encapsulating the SATA FISs from the FC frames and translating the SATA FISs to SCSI commands for commands being received from the SATA disk drives;
communicating the FC frames over the FC link;
and
at a target side of the FC link, de-encapsulating the FC frames to retrieve the SATA FISs and sending the SATA FISs to the SATA disk drives for commands being sent to the SATA disk drives, and receiving the SATA FISs from the SATA disk drives and encapsulating the SATA FISs into FC frames for commands being sent from the SATA disk drives.

1 more element

A method for managing an exchange between a Fibre Channel (FC) Attached Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) Tunneling (FAST) initiator and a FAST target, comprising:

transmitting an unsolicited control frame from the FAST initiator to the FAST target containing an Originator eXchange IDentifier (OXID) of the FAST initiator in the header of the unsolicited control frame for creating an outbound exchange for frames sent from the FAST initiator to the FAST target;
transmitting a solicited control frame from the FAST target to the FAST initiator for setting up an inbound exchange having a different OXID and creating a different path for the FAST target to use in communicating with the FAST initiator;
wherein a payload field of the solicited control frame contains the OXID supplied by the FAST initiator to link the outbound and inbound exchanges.

A system for enabling Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) disk drives to be utilized in Fibre Channel (FC) Storage Area Networks (SANs), comprising:

a FC link;
an initiator coupled to the FC link for translating Small Computer System Interconnect (SCSI) commands to SATA Frame Information Structures (FISs) and encapsulating the SATA FISs into FC frames when sending commands to the SATA disk drives over the FC link, and for de-encapsulating the SATA FISs from the FC frames and translating the SATA FISs to SCSI commands when receiving commands from the SATA disk drives;
and
a target coupled to the FC link for de-encapsulating the FC frames to retrieve the SATA FISs and sending the SATA FISs to the SATA disk drives when receiving commands from the initiator, and receiving the SATA FISs from the SATA disk drives and encapsulating the SATA FISs into FC frames when sending commands to the initiator.

1 more element

A method for assisting in utilizing a Fibre Channel (FC) Attached Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) Tunneling (FAST) initiator to discover a target, comprising:

transmitting an N_Port LOGIn (PLOGI) accept frame from the target to the FAST initiator for communicating basic capabilities of the target and identifying the target as one with which the FAST initiator can communicate;
in response to a FC PRocess LogIn (PRLI) frame from the FAST initiator, if the target is a FAST target, transmitting a FC PRLI reject frame from the target to the FAST initiator for indicating to the FAST initiator that the target is not a target;
and
in response to a FAST PRLI frame from the FAST initiator, if the target is a FAST target, transmitting a FAST PRLI accept frame from the target to the FAST initiator for indicating to the FAST initiator that the target is a FAST target.

1 more element

A method for assisting in managing an exchange between a Fibre Channel (FC) Attached Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) Tunneling (FAST) initiator and a FAST target, comprising:

in response to an unsolicited control frame from the FAST initiator to the FAST target containing an Originator eXchange IDentifier (OXID) of the FAST initiator in the header of the unsolicited control frame, transmitting a solicited control frame from the FAST target to the FAST initiator for setting up an inbound exchange having a different OXID and creating a different path for the FAST target to use in communicating with the FAST initiator.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Tunneling SATA targets through fibre channel

Life of this patent

Tunneling SATA targets through fibre channel

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims52