System and method for authenticating a storage device for use with driver software in a storage network

Abstract

A method and system authenticates a storage device or storage router for use with driver software. The driver software may be permitted to be used with particular storage devices including storage routers and may be prohibited from being used with other storage devices or routers. In some cases, this may allow a vendor to restrict the use of its driver software, or at least certain functionality, to use with the vendor's storage devices or storage routers. A proof of purchase request is sent by a client device to a server over an IP network to authenticate the storage device or router (e.g., a server). The request may include a random number and one or more identifiers. The identifiers may include a server identifier, a software driver identifier and/or a client device identifier. The driver software may permit storage related communications with the server when a hash received from the server matches a hash internally generated by the software driver.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.