Increased Fabric Scalability by Designating Switch Types

Abstract

The scale of the fabric being decoupled from the scale capabilities of each switch. Only the directly attached node devices are included in the name server database of a particular switch. Only needed connections, such as those from hosts to disks, i.e., initiators to targets, are generally maintained in the routing database. When a switch is connected to the network it is configured as either a server, storage or core switch, defining the routing entries that are necessary. This configuration addresses the various change notifications that must be provided from the switch. In host to host communications, disk to tape device communications in a backup, or disk to disk communications in a data migration, there must be transfers between like type devices, i.e. between two communications devices connected to server switches or connected to storage switches. These cases are preferably developed based on the zoning information.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.