Method to support general enclosure wiring when associating...

Electrical computers and digital data processing systems: input/ – Input/output data processing – Peripheral configuration

Reexamination Certificate

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

C710S010000, C710S015000, C710S016000, C710S017000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06829657

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to a method and/or architecture for supporting general enclosure wiring when associating devices on a loop generally, and more particularly, a method and/or architecture for supporting general enclosure wiring when associating SCSI enclosure service (SES) data with physical devices on a fibre channel loop.
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 fibre channel device is required.
In a development of an algorithm for correct mapping of devices, specific knowledge of the internal wiring of a particular drive may not be required. This may be beneficial as it may allow multiple drive trays from multiple vendors to be accommodated. However, utilizing broad assumptions in the development of the algorithm for correct mapping of devices may not support all types of internal wiring. Consequently, a system and method of supporting general enclosure wiring when associating data with physical devices is required.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention directed to a system and method for supporting general enclosure wiring when associating data with physical devices. In one embodiment of the invention, a method and system of the present invention may be capable of supporting general enclosure wiring when associating SES data with physical devices on a fibre channel loop with soft addresses.
The present invention concerns an apparatus comprising one or more enclosures and a controller. The one or more enclosures may include one or more drives. The controller may be configured to correctly map correlating addresses to the one or more drives.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention claimed. The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate an embodiment of the invention and together with the general description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5805924 (1998-09-01), Stoevhase
patent: 5944798 (1999-08-01), McCarty et al.
patent: 5954796 (1999-09-01), McCarty et al.
patent: 6044411 (2000-03-01), Berglund et al.
patent: 6055228 (2000-04-01), DeKoning et al.
patent: 6105103 (2000-08-01), Courtright, II et al.
patent: 6167463 (2000-12-01), Arp et al.

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for the USA inventors and patents. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Method to support general enclosure wiring when associating... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Method to support general enclosure wiring when associating..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Method to support general enclosure wiring when associating... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3324104

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.