US 7,120,742 B2 · Storage system having a plurality of interfaces

Abstract

A hybrid-type storage system having both SAN and NAS interfaces can be implemented by simple hardware capable of carrying out a SAN function independently of a NAS function and a NAS load. To be more specific, a controller of the storage system comprises a NAS controller for accepting an I/O command issued for a file unit and a SAN controller for accepting an I/O command issued for a block unit. The NAS controller converts an I/O command issued for a file unit into an I/O command issued for a block unit, and transfers the I/O command issued for a block unit to the SAN controller. The SAN controller makes an access to data stored in a disk apparatus in accordance with an I/O command received from the SAN or from the NAS controller as a command issued for a block unit. The NAS and SAN controllers are capable of operating independently of each other.

Claims22

Dependent claims

A storage system comprising:

a disk array including a plurality of disks;
and
a controller coupled to the plurality of disks;
wherein:
the controller comprises a NAS processor, a SAN processor coupled to the NAS processor and a memory coupled to the NAS processor and SAN processor;
the NAS processor is configured to convert a file I/O command received from a NAS client computer into a block I/O command and transfer the block I/O command to the SAN processor;
the SAN processor is configured to access data stored in the plurality of disks according to a block I/O command received from a SAN client computer or the NAS processor;
and
the memory stores a command conversion program executed by the NAS processor to convert the file I/O command into the block I/O command, a disk-array control program executed by the SAN processor to access data stored in the plurality of disks according to the block I/O command and a NAS controller management program executed by the SAN processor to control the NAS processor.

6 more elements

A method of operating a storage system, having a disk array including a plurality of disks and a controller coupled to the plurality of disks,

wherein the controller comprises a NAS processor, a SAN processor coupled to the NAS processor and a memory coupled to the NAS processor and SAN processor, the method comprising:
converting by the NAS processor a file I/O command received from a NAS client computer into a block I/O command and transferring the block I/O command to the SAN processor;
accessing by the SAN processor data stored in the plurality of disks according to a block I/O command received from a SAN client computer or the NAS processor;
and
storing in the memory a command conversion program executed by the NAS processor to convert the file I/O command into the block I/O command, a disk-array control program executed by the SAN processor to access data stored in the plurality of disks according to the block I/O command and a NAS controller management program executed by the SAN processor to control the NAS processor.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Storage system having a plurality of interfaces

Life of this patent

Storage system having a plurality of interfaces

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims22