Method and apparatus for multiple disk drive access in a multi-processor/multi-disk drive system

For use in a computer system having a first plurality of processors and a second plurality of mass storage devices, an interprocessor bus interconnecting the processors, and a plurality of adapters connected from the interprocessor bus for providing communication between the processors and the mass storage devices, an operating system with a device driver stack, and a binding utility for communicating with the processors and the adapters to generate pairings between the processors and the adapters wherein each processor/adapter pairing is an association of a processor with an adapter, an improved mechanism for providing access between the processors and the mass storage devices, comprising:

• a switch connected between the adapters and the mass storage devices for connecting each adapter to each mass storage device,
• a binding mapper communicating with the binding utility at each binding of the adapters and the processors for,
• at each binding of a processor/adapter pair,
• enumerates the connected mass storage devices with which the processor of the processor/adapter pair is to communicate and determining, for each such mass storage device, a mass storage identifier by which the processor identifies the mass storage device, and
• an address mapper incorporated into the operating system device driver stack for constructing and storing an address map, wherein
• the address map contains a processor set for each mass storage device wherein
• each processor set includes an address map entry for each processor in the system, wherein
• each processor set is indexed by a processor number and contains the mass storage device identifier corresponding to an optimal path of access to the corresponding mass storage device, and
• the address mapper is responsive to a request for access to a mass storage device by a processor, wherein the request includes a processor name, by providing the corresponding address map entry from the processor set corresponding to the requesting processor, wherein
• the requesting processor completes the access to the mass storage device by directing the request through the adapter paired with the processor as determined by the returned address map entry.