US 7,411,958 B2Granted

Method and system for transferring data directly between storage devices in a storage area network

AssigneeQLOGIC, Corporation

InventorsFrank R. Dropps, Kevin M. Wurzer

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

A method and system for performing a copy operation between storage devices coupled to a Fiber Channel switch element is provided. The Fiber Channel switch element receives a user command to copy data from a source storage device to a destination storage device and controls the copying operation. The Fiber Channel switch acts as a SCSI initiator and initiates a write operation for the destination storage device and initiates a read operation for the source storage device; and uses an alias cache for intercepting messages between the destination and source storage devices. A RX_ID mapping cache is used to substitute a RX_ID so that that a Fiber Channel write target appears to the source storage device as the destination storage device, and to the destination storage device a Fiber Channel read target appears to be the source storage device.

Claims28

Dependent claims

A method for copying data stored at a source storage device to a destination storage device, the source storage device and the destination storage device being operationally coupled to a Fibre Channel switch, comprising:

receiving a copy command via a user interface to copy information from the source storage device to the destination storage device, wherein the Fibre Channel switch receives the copying command;
the Fibre Channel switch logging into the source storage device and the destination storage device, instead of the source storage device and the destination storage device logging into the Fibre Channel switch;
initiating a write operation with the destination target storage device, wherein the Fibre Channel switch (a) initiates the write operation by sending a write command to the destination storage device;
(b) sets a source address of the source storage device from where data is to be copied making it appear to the destination storage device as if the source storage device initiated the write operation;
and (c) assigns an originator exchange identification field (OX_ID) for an exchange;
receiving a response from the destination storage device;
wherein the response includes a destination identifier (D_ID) for the source storage device and the destination storage device sets a responder identification field (RX_ID) for the exchange;
routing the response received from the destination storage device to a switch processor for the Fibre Channel switch, instead of directly sending the response to the source storage device;
initiating a read command with the source storage device, wherein the Fibre Channel switch initiates the read command by setting the destination storage device address as a source address for the read command making it appear to the source storage device that the destination storage device initiated the read command;
routing data directly from the source storage device to the destination source device;
and
substituting a RX_ID in the response received from the destination storage device with a RX_ID received from the source storage device so that the destination storage device receives an expected RX_ID.

9 more elements

A method for copying data during a copying operation from a source storage device to a destination storage device, where the source storage device and the destination storage device are operationally coupled to a Fibre Channel switch, comprising:

receiving a user command to copy the data from the source storage device to the destination storage device, wherein the Fibre Channel switch (a) receives the user command;
(b) initiates a write operation with the destination storage device and a read operation with the source storage device to copy data from the source storage device to the destination storage device;
(c) intercepts messages received from both the source storage device and the destination storage device;
(d) substitutes a responder identification field (RX13 ID) value received from the destination storage device with a RX_ID value received from the source storage device so that the destination storage device receives an expected RX_ID;
and (e) controls the copying operation such that the Fibre Channel switch appears to the source storage device as the destination storage device, and to the destination storage device the Fibre Channel switch appears to be the source storage device.

2 more elements

A storage area network having at least a host computing system, a source storage device and a destination storage device operationally coupled to each other, comprising:

a Fibre Channel switch that receives a user command to copy the data from the source storage device to the destination storage device, wherein the Fibre Channel switch (a) receives the user command;
(b) initiates a write operation with the destination storage device and a read operation with the source storage device to copy data from the source storage device to the destination storage device;
(c) intercepts messages received from both the source storage device and the destination storage device;
(d) substitutes a responder identification field (RX_ID) value received from the destination storage device with a RX_ID value received from the source storage device so that the destination storage device receives an expected RX_ID;
and (e) controls the copying operation such that the Fibre Channel switch appears to the source storage device as the destination storage device, and to the destination storage device the Fibre Channel switch appears to be the source storage device.

2 more elements

A Fibre Channel switch operationally coupled to a host system, a source storage device and a destination storage device, comprising:

a switch software module for the Fibre Channel switch that receives a user command for a copying operation to copy data from the source storage device to the destination storage device, wherein after receiving the user command, the Fibre Channel switch (a) initiates a write operation with the destination storage device and a read operation with the source storage device to copy data from the source storage device to the destination storage device;
(b) intercepts messages received from both the source storage device and the destination storage device;
(c) substitutes a responder identification field (RX_ID) value received from the destination storage device with a RX_ID value received from the source storage device so that the destination storage device receives an expected RX_ID;
(d) controls the copying operation such that the Fibre Channel switch appears to the source storage device as the destination storage device, and to the destination storage device the Fibre Channel switch appears to be the source storage device.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 10/956,717Filed 1 Oct 2004
Published: US 2006/0072580 A16 Apr 2006
Granted: 12 Aug 2008
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification10 codes

G06F 3/0659
Vertical data movement, i.e. input-output transfer; data movement between one or more hosts and one or more storage devices: command handling…
G06F 3/0605
Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management: by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
G06F 3/065
Horizontal data movement in storage systems, i.e. moving data in between storage devices or systems: replication mechanisms
G06F 3/0683
In-line storage system: plurality of storage devices

Family

US 2006/0072580 A1Pre-grant publication · published 6 Apr 2006
US 7,411,958 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

Timeline

Citations

Open elsewhere

Building an agent or pulling many patents? Use the API or MCP server instead of scraping pages. Get an API key