Universal multi-path driver for storage systems including an external boot device with failover and failback capabilities

An article of manufacture comprising:

• a machine-accessible storage medium including data that, when accessed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:
• monitoring via a universal multipath driver (UMD) a first path to one of a plurality of virtual device objects, the virtual device objects being created by the UMD and corresponding to a plurality of functional device objects, the functional device objects being created by a plurality of lower level drivers and corresponding to a plurality of real physical devices having M device types including an external boot device, the UMD being a functional driver of each of the functional device objects, the lower level drivers controlling the real physical devices;
• detecting via the UMD a failure of the first path to a first virtual device object corresponding to a first real physical device;
• and
• performing via the UMD one of failover and failback for the first real physical device.

A system comprising:

• a processor;
• a plurality of devices having M device types coupled to the processor via a plurality of adapters;
• and
• a memory coupled to the processor, the memory containing program code that, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to:
• monitor via a universal multipath driver (UMD) a first path to one of a plurality of virtual device objects, the virtual device objects being created by the UMD and corresponding to a plurality of functional device objects, the functional device objects being created by a plurality of lower level drivers and corresponding to a plurality of real physical devices having M device types including an external boot device, the UMD being a functional driver of each of the functional device objects, the lower level drivers controlling the real physical devices;
• detect via the UMD a failure of the first path to a first virtual device object corresponding to a first real physical device;
• and
• perform via the UMD one of failover and failback for the first real physical device.