Method and apparatus for relating device name to physical location of device on a network

A method for operating a data storage system having at least one enclosure that comprises a plurality of disk drives coupled through a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop network to an enclosure controller and a controller external to the enclosure, individual ones of the disk drives occupying an individual one of a plurality of enclosure slots, comprising:

• storing a map accessible to the external controller, the map comprising information for associating each disk drive with an identification of the enclosure slot occupied by the disk drive;
• and
• responsive to an occurrence of a failure of a disk drive, transmitting a command from the external controller to the enclosure controller, the command identifying a disk drive to be bypassed and comprising the identification of the enclosure slot occupied by the disk drive to be bypassed, where storing the map comprises first:
• coupling a disk drive output pin via at least one individual wire to a visual indicator and to an input of the enclosure controller, wherein the disk drive output pin drives the visual indicator, wherein the at least one individual wire is independent of the Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop network;
• responsive to an initialization procedure, pulsing the disk drive status output pin of each disk drive for transmitting data to the enclosure controller in a bit serial format, the data comprising a disk drive name;
• reporting each disk drive name and the identification of the slot occupied by the disk drive from the enclosure controller to the external controller;
• and
• building the map so as to comprise the reported identification of the enclosure slot occupied by each disk drive.