Technique to provide automatic failover for channel-based communications

A method comprising:

• establishing a channel over a channel based network between a local node and a remote node through a first physical port at the local node and through a first fabric, the channel being assigned to a local virtual port;
• providing a virtual to physical port map;
• detecting a fabric or port failure;
• identifying a new fabric and a new local physical port that is connected to the new fabric;
• and reprogramming the virtual to physical port map to reassign the virtual port to the new local physical port.

A method comprising:

• establishing a plurality of channels or connections over a channel based network from a first group of physical ports over a first fabric, the first group of physical ports being mapped to a group of virtual ports;
• detecting a failure of the first fabric;
• identifying a second fabric and a second group of physical ports connected thereto;
• and remapping the group of virtual ports to the second group of physical ports to failover onto the second fabric.

An apparatus comprising a storage readable media having instructions stored thereon, the instructions resulting in the following when executed by a machine:

• establishing a channel or connection over a channel based network from a first physical port over a first fabric, the first physical port being mapped to a first virtual port;
• detecting a failure;
• identifying a second fabric and a second physical port connected thereto;
• and remapping the virtual port to the second physical port.

A node comprising:

• a plurality of physical ports;
• a network interface to establish a connection over a channel based network to a second node via a first physical port;
• a virtual-to-physical port map to maintain a map or correspondence between the first physical port to a first virtual port, the context of the connection defined in part by the first virtual port;
• and a port mapper coupled to the virtual-to-physical port map to re-map the first virtual port to a second physical port if a failure is detected.

A first node comprising:

• a plurality of physical ports and a plurality of virtual ports;
• a network interface having a first physical port coupled to a first fabric and a second physical port coupled to a second fabric;
• a virtual-to-physical port map to maintain a map or correspondence between physical ports and virtual ports;
• a port mapper to update the virtual to physical port map to map a new physical port to a virtual port;
• the network interface to establish a connection over a channel based network over the first fabric and first physical port to a second node, the first virtual port being mapped to the first physical port in the port map, the connection being defined at least in part by the first virtual port;
• and the port mapper to update the virtual to physical port map to map the first virtual port to the second physical port to provide the connection over the second port and second fabric in the event of a failure or problem with either the first physical port or the first fabric.

A system comprising:

• a first node comprising:
• a plurality of physical ports and a plurality of virtual ports;
• a network interface having a first physical port coupled to a first fabric and a second physical port coupled to a second fabric;
• a virtual-to-physical port map to maintain a map or correspondence between physical ports and virtual ports;
• a port mapper to update the virtual to physical port map to map a new physical port to a virtual port in the event of a failure;
• a first fabric coupled to the first physical port of the first node;
• a second node coupled to the second physical port of the second node;
• the network interface to establish a connection over a channel based network with a second node over the first fabric and first physical port, the first virtual port being mapped to the first physical port in the port map, the connection being defined at least in part by the first virtual port;
• and the port mapper updating the virtual to physical port map to map the first virtual port to the second physical port in the event that a failure in either the first physical port or the first fabric is detected.