Hierarchical storage management from a mirrored file system on a storage network segmented by a bridge

An apparatus comprising:

• a primary memory which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FCAL) node;
• a mirrored memory which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop node;
• a backup/archival storage device;
• a primary FCAL local area network which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop coupled to said primary memory;
• a secondary FCAL local area network which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop coupled to said mirrored memory and said backup/archival storage device;
• a bridge means which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop node capable of bridging FCAL loop tenancies between said primary and secondary FCAL local area networks, and specifically for selectively coupling said primary FCAL local area network to said secondary FCAL local area network when open (OPN) primitives arrive from one Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop which are addressed to a node on the other Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop, and wherein said bridge means includes means to resolve conflicting OPN situations;
• a transaction processor coupled by said primary FCAL local area network to said bridge means and said primary memory and programmed to carry out read and write transactions with said primary memory over said primary FCAL local area network and, for every write transaction to said primary memory, programmed to carry out another write transaction of the same data to said mirrored memory via said bridge means and said secondary FCAL local area network if said secondary FCAL local area network is available, and, if not available, to try the write transaction one or more times again later until the write transaction to said mirrored memory is completed;
• a backup and hierarchical storage management processor coupled to said backup/archival storage device and said mirrored memory and said bridge means via said secondary FCAL local area network, and programmed to carry out read and write transactions between said mirrored memory and said backup/archival storage device via said secondary FCAL local area network without involving said primary FCAL local area network because of the presence of said bridge means.

An apparatus comprising:

• a primary memory which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FCAL) Node;
• a mirrored memory which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop Node;
• a backup/archival storage device which is a node for a SCSI bus;
• a primary local area network (LAN) which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop and is coupled to said primary memory:
• a secondary local area network which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop and is coupled to said mirrored memory;
• said SCSI bus coupled to said backup/archival storage device;
• an FCAL bridge selectively coupling said primary and secondary FCAL local area networks as one larger FCAL LAN when an npan (OPN) primitive arrives from one FCAL LAN which is addressed to a node on said other FCAL LAN or vice versa, and which includes one or more state machines structured, or microprocessors programmed, to implement necessary switching rules to perform bridging and to resolve conflicting OPN situations;
• a backup and hierarchical storage management processor coupled to said FCAL bridge via said secondary local area network, and coupled to said backup/archival storage device via said SCSI bus and coupled to said mirrored memory via said secondary local area network, and including a computer or microprocessor programmed to carry out backup and/or hierarchical storage management read and write transactions between said mirrored memory and said backup/archival storage device via said secondary FCAL local area network and said SCSI bus without involving said primary FCAL local area network such that said primary memory is free to carry out read and write transactions during said backup and/or hierarchical storage management operations by virtue of said primary FCAL local area network being isolated by said FCAL bridge from loop tenancies on said secondary FCAL local area network necessary to carry out said backup and/or hierarchical storage management functions;
• a transaction processor which is an FCAL node coupled by said primary FCAL local area network to said primary memory and coupled to said backup and hierarchical storage management processor and said mirrored memory via said FCAL bridge and said secondary FCAL local area network, and programmed to carry out read and write transactions with said primary memory over said primary FCAL local area network and, for every write transaction to said primary memory, said transaction processor is programmed to carry out a mirrored write transaction of the same data to said mirrored memory by sending the same data written on said primary memory to said backup and hierarchical storage management processor via said FCAL bridge and said secondary FCAL local area network if said secondary FCAL local area network is available, and, if not available, to try the write transaction one or more times again later until the write transaction to said mirrored memory is completed;
• and
• wherein said backup and heirarchical storage management processor is programmed to receive data transmissions of said mirrored write transactions and write said data to said mirrored memory via said secondary FCAL local area network.

An apparatus comprising:

• a Transaction Server computer, said Transaction Server computer being a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop node;
• a first array of one or more disk drives or other storage media, said first array being a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop node;
• a first Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop coupling said Transaction Server computer to said one or more disk drives;
• a backup server computer, said backup server computer being a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop node;
• a second array of one or more disk drives or other storage media which mirror the storage capacity of said first array of one or more disk drives or other storage media, said second array being a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop node;
• a second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop coupling said backup server computer to said second array of one or more disk drives or other storage media;
• a Bridge compatible with the Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop protocol which couples said first Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop to said second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop, said Bridge including means for receiving open (OPN) primitives originating from a node on said first Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop and forwarding said OPN primitive onto said second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop if the destination address of said OPN primitive is a node on said second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop but not otherwise, and for receiving OPN primitives originating from said node on said second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop and forwarding said OPN primitive onto said first Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop if the destination address of said OPN primitive is said node on said first Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop but not otherwise.

An apparatus comprising:

• first and second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loops;
• a first array of disk drives coupled as a node on said first Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop;
• a second array of disk drives coupled as a node on said second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop;
• a first transaction processing means for performing read transactions with said first array of disk drives via said first Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop, and for performing write transactions with said first and second arrays of disk drives via said first and second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loops;
• bridge means coupled to said first and second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loops for selectively coupling said first and second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loops together as one bigger Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop when said first transaction processing means is performing a write transaction with said second array of disk drives but for isolating said first and second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loops at other times, said bridge means including means for resolving conflicting open (OPN) situations;
• and
• further comprising storage management means coupled to said second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop for performing hierarchical storage management functions and data backup transactions with said second array of disk drives using only said second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop during intervals when said first transaction processing means is not performing write transactions with said second array of disk drives.

A method of reading and writing data, comprising:

• writing data to and reading data from a first memory using a first Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FCAL) local area network (LAN), a transaction processor coupled to said first Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop local area network and one or more workstations coupled to said transaction processor;
• whenever data is written to said first memory using said first Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop local area network, writing the same data to a second memory located on a second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop local area network using a bridge which has multiple ports coupled to said first and second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop local area networks and which is capable of learning node addresses from watching flow of Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop primitives arriving at said ports of said bridge coupled to said first and second Fibre Channel primitives arriving at said ports coupled to said first and second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop local area networks and which is capable of performing switching to selectively couple said first Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop local area network to said second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop local area network when an open (OPN) primitive arrives from a source node on either of said first or second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop local area networks with a destination address which indicates destination node is on the other Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop local area network, and said bridge being capable of resolving conflicting OPN situations and preemptively closing losing source node;
• and
• performing backup write transactions between said second memory and a third memory using said second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop local area network while isolating said second Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop local area network from said first Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop local area network using said bridge.

An apparatus comprising:

• a primary memory which is a node on a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop;
• a mirrored memory which is a node on a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop;
• a backup/archival storage device;
• a primary local area network which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop and which is coupled to said primary memory;
• a secondary local area network which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop and which is coupled to said mirrored memory;
• a bus coupled to said backup/archival storage device;
• third local area network which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop;
• backup and heirarchical storage management processor which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop node and which is coupled to said third local area network, and is also coupled to said backup/archival storage device via said bus and coupled to said mirrored memory via said secondary local area network, and programmed to carry out read and write transactions between said mirrored memory and said backup/archival storage device via said secondary local area network and said bus without involving said primary local area network;
• a transaction processor which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop node which is coupled to said primary memory via said primary local area network and coupled to said backup and heirarchical storage management processor via said third local area network, and programmed to carry out read and write transactions with said primary memory over said primary local area network and, for every write transaction to said primary memory, said transaction processor is programmed to carry out a mirrored write transaction of the same data to said mirrored memory by sending the same data written on said primary memory to said backup and hierarchical storage management processor via said third local area memory via means for carrying Fibre Channel Arbitrated bridging functions to learn node addresses by watching FCAL primitive traffic on said primary and secondary local area networks and to transmit OPNs and RRDYs and other primitives between said primary and secondary local area networks when the source and destination nodes are on different local area networks, and to resolve conflicting OPN situations;
• and
• wherein said backup and heirarchical storage management processor is programmed to receive data transmissions of said mirrored write transactions and write said data to said mirrored memory via said secondary local area network.

An apparatus comprising:

• a primary memory which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop node (FCAL);
• mirrored memory which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop node;
• backup/archival storage device;
• primary FCAL local area network coupled to said primary memory which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop;
• a secondary FCAL local area network coupled to said mirrored memory which is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop;
• bus coupled to said backup/archival storage device;
• transaction processor which has first and second FCAL interface circuits which are Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop nodes and which are coupled, respectively, by said primary FCAL local area network to said primary memory, and via said secondary FCAL local area network to said mirrored memory, and having a first bus interface circuit capable of understanding protocol used on said bus coupled to said backup/archival storage device, said transaction processor programmed to carry out read and write transactions with said primary memory over said primary FCAL local area network and, for every write transaction to said primary memory, said transaction processor being programmed to carry out a mirrored write transaction of the same data to said mirrored memory by sending the same data written on said primary memory to said mirrored memory via said secondary FCAL local area network via a bridging function implemented by the program of said transaction processor, said bridging function controlling said transaction processor to recognize OPN primitives arriving from said primary FCAL local area network directed to a node on said secondary FCAL local area network and connect said primary and secondary FCAL local area networks together as one bigger FCAL local area network for a duration of any loop tenancy started by said OPN primitives, said bridging function also programmed to control said transaction processor to resolve conflicting OPN situations, said transaction processor further programmed to carry out read and write transactions of backup and hierarchical storage management functions between said mirrored memory and said backup/archival storage device using said secondary local area network and said bus without involving said primary local area network.