Peer controller management in a dual controller fibre channel storage enclosure
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Company
InventorsTimothy M. Anderson, William G. Hooper, III, James Lawrence White
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and system for facilitating reliable and fault-tolerant operation of a multi-peripheral-device enclosure for use in high-availability computer systems by redundant interconnection of redundant processors within the multi-peripheral-device enclosure. The redundant interconnection removes a potential single point of failure, and allows the redundant processors to share in control of other components within the multi-peripheral-device enclosure. The multi-peripheral-device enclosure can recover from failure of all but one of the redundant processors, as well as failure in all but one of the redundant busses used to interconnect the two processors.
Claims20
A highly available, fault-tolerant multi-device enclosure that contains multiple devices and that is interconnected via an external communications medium to a host computer and, optionally, with other devices and multi-device enclosures, the highly available, fault-tolerant multi-device enclosure comprising:
- a number of data exchange devices;
- an internal communications medium that interconnects the number of data exchange devices;
- a number of connectors that connect the multi-device enclosure to the external communications medium;
- a number of bypass circuits that can be controlled to isolate data exchange devices from, and connect devices to, the internal communications medium;
- a number of bypass circuits that can be controlled to isolate connectors from, and connect connectors to, the external communications medium;
- and
- a number of intercommunicating processors.
A method for providing highly available access to data exchange devices within a multi-device enclosure and for providing control of the multi-device enclosure to a host computer, the method comprising:
- providing a number of external communications media to interconnect the host computer with the multi-device enclosure, so that, if one external communications medium fails, a second external communications medium can be used by the host computer to communicate with data exchange devices within a multi-device enclosure;
- providing a number of internal communications media to interconnect the data exchanging devices within the multi-device enclosure, so that, if one internal communications medium fails, a second internal communications medium can be used to interconnect the data exchange devices within a multi-device enclosure;
- providing redundant enclosure services devices and sensors within the multi-device enclosure, so that if one enclosure services device or sensor fails, a second enclosure services device or sensor is available;
- providing a number or processors within the multi-device enclosure so that, if one processor fails, a second processor is available to run routines that monitor the multi-device enclosure, isolate malfunctioning data exchange devices, and that communicate with the host computer;
- and
- interconnecting the number or processors with a number of inter-processor communications media so that if one inter-processor communications medium fails, a second inter-processor communications medium is available for inter-processor communications.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.