Switch assisted frame aliasing for storage virtualization

A packet switched or frame switched network, comprising:

• one or more client devices;
• one or more storage devices;
• a storage manager having circuitry configured to receive read or write transaction requests and redirect at least some of said read and write transaction requests by issuing redirection commands which will cause relabeling of data and transfer ready frames so that they are routed between said client device which issued said request and the storage device so as to bypass said storage manager, wherein said redirection circuitry is configured to receive status packets or frames and issuing purge commands which function to cause purging of old address and new address data of redirected read or write transactions that have been completed;
• one or more switches, each of the switches further comprising:
• a shared lookup table;
• and
• a shared redirection interface circuit,
• wherein said shared redirection circuitry configured to determine if the packet or frame is of a type which is to be relabeled and redirected, and, if the packet or frame is of a type to be relabeled and redirected, substituting the corresponding new address data from said look up table, and forwarding said packet or frame to routing circuitry.

A packet switched or frame switched network, comprising:

• one or more client devices;
• one or more storage devices;
• a storage manager having redirection circuitry configured to receive transaction requests from said one or more client devices and redirect at least some of said transaction requests issued by said client devices by issuing redirection commands which will cause relabeling of data and transfer ready frames so that they are routed between said client device to a storage device so as to bypass said storage manager, wherein said redirection circuitry is also configured for sending a corresponding request to a storage device for every received request from a client device to start the transaction, said redirection circuitry also configured to receive status packets or frames indicating particular transactions that have been redirected have been completed and for issuing purge commands which function to cause purging of old address and new address data of redirected transactions that have been completed;
• one or more switches having routing circuitry and further comprising at least one port,
• and wherein the at least one port is configured to receive one or more redirection commands containing old address data and new address data and store said old address data and new address data to purge old and new address data pertaining to redirected transactions that have been completed, wherein
• each said switch contains redirection circuitry configured to determine if the packet or frame is of a type which is to be relabelled and redirected, and, if the packet or frame is of a type to be relabelled and redirected, then comparing the old address data therein to the old address data and if there is a match to any of the old address data entries, substituting the corresponding new address data for said old address data in said packet or frame header and passing said packet or frame to said routing circuitry for forwarding to the destination identified in said new address data.

A storage manager for a packet or frame switched network including one or more client devices and one or more storage devices and a switch, said storage manager comprising:

• means for receiving transaction requests from said one or more client devices and mapping the destination address data designated in each said transaction request to a storage device, and, for each said transaction request, sending a corresponding request to said storage device identified in said destination address to start a transaction;
• and
• means for using redirection criteria to decide which requests from said client devices to redirect, and for sending redirection commands to said switch for the requests to be redirected, and to have the header information thereof altered so that they are routed by said switch to bypass said storage manager;
• and
• means for receiving status frames or packets and for issuing purge commands to said switch when said status frames or packets indicate a read or write transaction which has been redirected has been completed, said purge commands for causing said switch to purge old address data and new address data identified in said purge commands of redirection commands previously issued for transactions that have been completed.

A packet or frame switched network including one or more client devices and one or more storage devices each of which is coupled to a packet or frame switch comprising:

• a switch comprising:
• one or more ports in said switch, redirection circuitry configured to store the redirection address data containing old address data and new address data contained therein in a look up table, said redirection circuitry also structured to determine if incoming packets or frames are data or transfer ready type frames or packets and, if so, to substitute the new address data from the entry which includes old address data that matched the address data in the incoming packet or frame and pass the packet or frame to routing circuitry;
• and
• a storage manager comprising one or more port adapter circuits, configured to receive requests from said one or more client devices and if the transaction is larger than a redirection size criteria, sending one or more redirection commands to said switch for storage in at least one look up table maintained therein, and to purge the old and new address data from said look up table for transactions that have been completed.

A packet or frame switched network including one or more client devices and one or more storage devices, each of which is coupled to a packet or frame switch, comprising:

• a switch having routing circuitry therein and further comprising:
• shared redirection circuitry;
• a shared look up table;
• one or more ports in said switch which are configured to receive relabelling, redirection and purge commands and to forward them to said shared redirection circuitry for storage in said shared look up table and structured to forward data and transfer ready frames to said shared redirection circuitry;
• and
• a storage manager including cache memory and circuitry configured to receive requests from said one or more client devices and to redirect a particular request based upon redirection criteria and if said request is to be redirected, sending one or more redirection commands to said switch for storage in said shared look up table wherein said redirection command will relabel said packet or frame with new address data and forward said packet or frame to said routing circuitry such that said packet or frame gets routed so as to bypass said storage manager, and sending purge commands to said switch to purge the old and new address data from said shared look up table for read and write transactions that have been completed.

A packet or frame switched network including one or more client devices and one or more storage devices, comprising:

• a data path coupled to said client devices and said storage devices;
• a storage manager coupled to said data path;
• a switch having routing circuitry and including:
• redirection circuitry configured to receive relabelling and redirection commands from the storage manager and to store the redirection address data containing old address data and new address data contained therein in at least one look up table and to receive incoming data and transfer ready packets or frames and and, if there is a match to any of the old address data in said look up table and the type information matches the types of packets or frames that are to be redirected, substituting at least the new address data from said look up table from the entry and pass the packet or frame to said conventional routing circuitry and performing conventional processing to route all other packets or frames to said conventional routing circuitry;
• and
• wherein said storage manager includes:
• means for receiving requests from any of said one or more client devices identifying specific data, and if said transaction is to be redirected, analyzing said requests to determine how many blocks of data are to be read or written, and, if the number of blocks is greater than a threshold, mapping the requested blocks to a storage device which stores the requested data and sending one or more redirection commands to said switch for storage in said at least one look up table maintained therein, said redirection commands causes said packet or frame to be routed by said conventional routing circuitry so as to bypass said storage manager and sending purge commands to said switch to purge the old and new address data from said at least one look up table for transactions that have been completed.

A process of redirecting selected types of data frames or packets which are part of a read transaction between a client computer and a storage device in a packet or frame switched network including a storage manager, one or more client computers, one or more storage devices and a packet or frame switch, comprising the steps:

• 1) receiving at said storage manager from a client computer one or more read requests;
• 2) receiving at said packet or frame switch from said storage manager at least one redirection command to redirect selected types of data frames or packets which are part of a read transaction to be redirected and storing said redirection commands;
• 3) responding to said read requests at said one or more storage devices which received said one or more read requests by transmitting frames or packets addressed to said storage manager via said switch, said frames or packets containing the requested data;
• and
• 4) changing the header of the frames or packets of said packets or frames to be redirected so as to reroute them through said switch to one or more client devices so as to bypass said storage manager and relabelling the headers of said frames or packets to be rerouted.

A process of redirecting data frames or packets in a packet or frame switched network comprising the steps:

• receiving a write request;
• receiving at least two redirection commands to redirect the data and transfer ready frames or packets of said write request and storing said redirection commands;
• and
• intercepting transfer ready frames or packets of data responding to write request, and, if a redirection command is stored for a write transaction which said transfer ready frames or packets are a part of, changing the header of the transfer ready frames or packets of said write transaction to be redirected and routing transfer ready frames or packets so as to reroute them through said switch;
• receiving one or more frames or packets of write data and changing the header of the write data frames or packets of said write transaction to be redirected and routing said write data frames or packets so as to bypass said storage manager;
• and
• continuing the process of re-routing said transfer ready and write data frames until the entire write transaction is completed.

A process of redirecting data frames or packets in a packet or frame switched network, said process carried out in a switch and comprising the steps:

• receiving at least one redirection command to redirect the data and transfer ready frames or packets originated by a client device and storing said redirection commands;
• and
• intercepting write data and transfer ready frames or packets and, changing the header of the write data and transfer ready frames or packets so as to reroute them through said switch so as to bypass said storage manager to have the originator exchange ID originally assigned by said client to the write transaction;
• and
• transmitting said write data and transfer ready frames or packets to said client or a storage device.

A system comprising:

• at least one data paths;
• at least one client devices coupled to said data path;
• at least one storage devices coupled to said data path;
• one or more switch means coupled said data path receiving redirection commands and storing the redirection commands and for using information in said redirection commands to rewrite headers in said packets or frames to be redirected so as to cause said packets or frames to be rerouted to pass between a client device and a storage device bypassing a storage manager and for using the data in said purge command to purge from said one or more lookup tables redirection commands for read and/or write transactions that have been completed;
• and
• storage manager means for receiving requests from said one or more client devices and for determining whether to redirect predetermined type of packets or frames in transactions, and if a transaction initiated by a request is to be redirected, sending to said switch means said one or more redirection commands to cause predetermined types of packets or frames of said transactions to be redirected so as to bypass said storage manager means and sending said purge commands to said switch means to cause it to purge the redirection commands of completed transactions.