Fault tolerant data storage systems and methods of operating a fault tolerant data storage system

A method of operating a fault tolerant data storage system comprising:

• providing a fault tolerant data storage system including a plurality of components configured to process transactions;
• providing the transactions for communication to respective components;
• detecting error conditions within the transactions;
• preventing entry of transactions which individually include an error condition into respective components responsive to the detecting;
• and
• wherein the preventing entry comprises preventing entry of subsequent transactions received from one of the components responsive to the detecting comprising detecting one of the error conditions within one of the transactions received from the one component.

A method of operating a fault tolerant data storage system comprising:

• providing a fault tolerant data storage system including a plurality of coupled components configured to process transactions;
• communicating transactions intermediate coupled components;
• detecting an error condition within one of the transactions;
• isolating the component which outputted the transaction including the error condition responsive to the detecting;
• and
• wherein the providing comprises providing a RAID fault tolerant data storage system.

A fault tolerant data storage system comprising:

• a plurality of coupled components individually including:
• an interface adapted to couple with a data connection and to selectively receive a plurality of transactions from the data connection;
• transaction processing circuitry coupled with the interface and configured to process transactions received from the interface;
• analysis circuitry configured to detect error conditions within the transactions and to prevent entry of transactions individually including an error condition into the respective component responsive to the detection;
• wherein the analysis circuitry is configured to disable the interface responsive to the detection of the error condition;
• and
• wherein the disabled interface comprises an initial interface, and further comprising an other interface configured to receive transactions within the respective component after disablement of the initial interface.

A method of operating a fault tolerant data storage system comprising:

• providing a fault tolerant data storage system including a plurality of coupled components configured to process transactions;
• communicating transactions intermediate coupled components;
• detecting an error condition within one of the transactions;
• isolating the component which outputted the transaction including the error condition responsive to the detecting;
• and
• wherein the isolating comprises preventing reception of transactions from the isolated component within an other of the components.

A method of operating a fault tolerant data storage system comprising:

• providing a fault tolerant data storage system including a plurality of coupled components configured to process transactions;
• communicating transactions intermediate coupled components;
• detecting an error condition within one of the transactions;
• isolating the component which outputted the transaction including the error condition responsive to the detecting;
• and
• preventing entry of transactions from the isolated component and not having error conditions into an other of the components after the isolating.