Method and apparatus for storage-service-provider-aware storage system

A storage system comprising:

• a storage controller in communication with another storage system, said other storage system including a plurality of storage devices, said storage devices providing a physical storage capacity;
• and
• a virtual volume configured on said storage controller, said virtual volume mapping to the physical storage capacity maintained on the other storage system, said virtual volume being presented as a storage resource by the storage controller,
• wherein the storage controller is configured to receive an I/O (input/output) command in a block-based protocol specifying a logical block address (LBA), and
• wherein the storage controller is configured to correlate the LBA with a file name of a file stored on said physical storage capacity and forward the file name to the other storage system for processing.

A NAS (Network Attached Storage) system comprising:

• a NAS head;
• a storage system in communication with said NAS head, said storage system including a storage controller and one or more storage devices;
• and
• a virtual volume configured on said NAS head, said virtual volume mapping to a physical storage capacity maintained at a remote location by a provider of storage capacity, said virtual volume being presented as a storage resource by the NAS head,
• wherein the NAS head is configured to receive an I/O (input/output) command in a file-based protocol and translate the I/O command to a block-based command specifying a logical block address (LBA), and
• wherein the NAS head is configured to correlate the LBA with a file name of a file stored by said provider of storage capacity and forward the file name to the provider of storage capacity for processing.

A storage system comprising:

• a storage controller in communication with another storage system, said other storage system including a plurality of storage devices, said storage devices providing a physical storage capacity;
• and
• a virtual volume configured on said storage controller, said virtual volume mapping to the physical storage capacity maintained on the other storage system, said virtual volume being presented as a storage resource by the storage controller,
• wherein the storage controller is configured to receive an I/O (input/output) command from a host computer or NAS head in a protocol specifying a first logical block address (LBA) and a first logical unit number (LUN),
• wherein the storage controller is configured to translate the I/O command to one of:
• NFS/CIFS (Network File System/Common Internet File System), referencing a file stored on the other storage system, or
• iSCSI (Internet SCSI), referencing a LBA and a LUN on the other storage system, and
• forward the translated I/O command to the other storage system for processing.

A storage system comprising:

• a NAS head in communication with another storage system, said other storage system including a plurality of storage devices, said storage devices providing a physical storage capacity;
• and
• a virtual volume configured on said NAS head, said virtual volume mapping to the physical storage capacity maintained on the other storage system, said virtual volume being used to present a file system by the NAS head,
• wherein the NAS head is configured to receive an I/O (input/output) command from a host computer or NAS client in a protocol specifying a first file name stored in the virtual volume,
• wherein the NAS head is configured to translate the I/O command to one of:
• NFS/CIFS (Network File System/Common Internet File System), referencing a file stored at the other storage system, or
• iSCSI (Internet SCSI), referencing a LBA and LUN at the other storage system, and
• forward the translated I/O command to the other storage system for processing.