US 7,743,178 B2 · Method and apparatus for SATA tunneling over fibre channel

Abstract

A system for enabling SATA drives to be utilized in FC SANs is disclosed. To send data to a SATA drive over a FC SAN, a host sends SCSI commands encapsulated in FC frames over a standard FC link to a Fibre Channel Attached SATA Tunneling (FAST) RAID controller, where the SCSI commands are de-encapsulated from the FC frames and translated to SATA FISs. The SATA FISs are thereafter encapsulated into FC frames. The IOC that performs these functions is referred to as a FAST IOC. The SATA-encapsulated FC frames are sent to multiple disk drive enclosures over another standard FC link. The FC frames are de-encapsulated by FAST switches in disk drive enclosures to retrieve the SATA FISs, and the SATA FISs are sent to the SATA drives over a SATA connection.

Claims17

Dependent claims

In a multi-protocol Input/Output Controller (IOC) couplable to a host processor over a custom interface and couplable to Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) devices and Fibre Channel (FC) devices over a FC link, one or more IOC processors programmed for assisting in enabling the SATA devices to be utilized in a FC Storage Area Network (SAN) by performing the steps of:

receiving Small Computer System Interconnect (SCSI) commands from the custom interface when the SCSI commands are to be sent out over the FC link;
translating the SCSI commands into SATA command sets including SATA Frame Information Structures (FISs);
encapsulating the SATA Frame Information Structures (FISs) into FC frames to be sent out over the FC link to the SATA devices, wherein the SATA FISs are de-encapsulated from the FC frames at a switch associated with the SATA devices;
and
for all FC frames received from the FC link, distinguishing the FC frames that contain SCSI commands from the FC frames that encapsulate SATA FISs, performing low-level FC protocol handling for the FC frames detected to be encapsulating SCSI commands, and performing dual-exchange connection management and frame processing for the FC frames detected to be encapsulating SATA FISs, wherein the SATA FISs are de-encapsulated from the FC frames with SATA FISs encapsulated therein.

2 more elements

One or more storage media including a computer program which, when executed by one or more Input/Output Controller (IOC) processors in a multi-protocol IOC couplable to a host processor over a custom interface and couplable to Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) devices and Fibre Channel (FC) devices over a FC link, assists in enabling the SATA devices to be utilized in a FC Storage Area Network (SAN) by causing the one or more IOC processors to perform the steps of:

receiving Small Computer System Interconnect (SCSI) commands from the custom interface when the SCSI commands are to be sent out over the FC link;
translating the SCSI commands into SATA command sets including SATA Frame Information Structures (FISs);
encapsulating the SATA Frame Information Structures (FISs) into FC frames to be sent out over the FC link to the SATA devices, wherein the SATA FISs are de-encapsulated from the FC frames at a switch associated with the SATA devices;
and
for all FC frames received from the FC link, distinguishing the FC frames that contain SCSI commands from the FC frames that encapsulate SATA FISs, performing low-level FC protocol handling for the FC frames detected to be encapsulating SCSI commands, and performing dual-exchange connection management and frame processing for the FC frames detected to be encapsulating SATA FISs, wherein the SATA FISs are de-encapsulated from the FC frames with SATA FISs encapsulated therein.

2 more elements

In a multi-protocol Input/Output Controller (IOC) couplable to a host processor over a custom interface and couplable to Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) devices and Fibre Channel (FC) devices over a FC link, a method for assisting in enabling SATA devices to be utilized in a FC Storage Area Network (SAN), comprising:

receiving Small Computer System Interconnect (SCSI) commands from the custom interface when the SCSI commands are to be sent out over the FC link;
translating the SCSI commands into SATA command sets including SATA Frame Information Structures (FISs);
encapsulating the SATA Frame Information Structures (FISs) into FC frames to be sent out over the FC link to the SATA devices, wherein the SATA FISs are de-encapsulated from the FC frames at a switch associated with the SATA devices;
and
for all FC frames received from the FC link, distinguishing the FC frames that contain SCSI commands from the FC frames that encapsulate SATA FISs, performing low-level FC protocol handling for the FC frames detected to be encapsulating SCSI commands, and performing dual-exchange connection management and frame processing for the FC frames detected to be encapsulating SATA FISs, wherein the SATA FISs are de-encapsulated from the FC frames with SATA FISs encapsulated therein.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Method and apparatus for SATA tunneling over fibre channel

Life of this patent

Method and apparatus for SATA tunneling over fibre channel

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims17