Method and architecture to associate enclosure service data...

Details Method and architecture to associate enclosure service data... Method and architecture to associate enclosure service data...

2000-08-24

2004-11-16

Gaffin, Jeffrey (Department: 2182)

Electrical computers and digital data processing systems: input/

Input/output data processing

Input/output addressing

C710S002000, C710S003000, C710S004000, C710S008000, C710S009000, C710S031000, C711S004000, C711S114000, C711S173000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06820139

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method and/or architecture for associating devices on a loop generally and, more particularly, to a method and/or architecture for associating SCSI enclosure service (SES) data with physical devices on a fibre channel loop with soft addresses.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In a fibre channel (FC) environment with soft addressing, correlation of the physical tray/slot location of a drive to a device discovered on the loop can be difficult. The difficulties can occur for redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID) algorithms that can result in data integrity issues. For example, if a particular drive fails, a controller turns on a fault LED to indicate to the user which drive has failed. Turning on the correct LED is critical, since the fault LED indicates which drive to replace. To turn on the fault LED in the external drive enclosure (i.e., tray), SCSI enclosure service (SES) commands are used. Thus, a correct mapping to the SES drive slot and the FC device is required.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention concerns an apparatus comprising one or more drive portions and a controller. The one or more drive portions may each comprise one or more drives. The controller may be configured to correctly map correlating addresses to the one or more drives.
The objects, features and advantages of the present invention include providing a method and/or architecture for (i) associating device (e.g., small computer system interface (SCSI)) enclosure service (SES) data with physical devices on a fibre channel loop; (ii) associating (or mapping) an enclosure service monitor (ESM) and/or a number of drives with soft addresses; and/or (iii) associating (or mapping) soft addresses that may correctly match tray and/or slot locations of a drive to a device.


REFERENCES:
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patent: 5537663 (1996-07-01), Belmont et al.
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patent: 5812753 (1998-09-01), Chiariotti
patent: 5835965 (1998-11-01), Taylor et al.
patent: 6025840 (2000-02-01), Taylor
patent: 6058464 (2000-05-01), Taylor
patent: 6089453 (2000-07-01), Kayser et al.
patent: 2002/0002661 (2002-01-01), Blumenau et al.

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