Static information storage and retrieval – Hardware for storage elements
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-24
2001-08-28
Phan, Trong (Department: 2818)
Static information storage and retrieval
Hardware for storage elements
Reexamination Certificate
active
06282112
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The field of the invention is the mass storage of information fully or partially shared by several data processing machines.
A network storage system comprises several storage subsystems accessible by means of a network constituted by fabrics and loops. A storage subsystem comprises storage units constituted by recordable media such as magnetic tapes, magnetic disks or rewritable optical disks.
Each storage unit is identified by a logical unit number (LUN) in order to allow the machines connected to the network to access the storage units. To access a storage unit, a machine sends a message addressed with the logical unit number to an input/output coupler connected to the network. The network routes the message to an input/output coupler of the storage subsystem containing the storage unit identified by the logical unit number.
The network storage system provides flexibility and economy in the daily management by system administrators. However, it has the drawback of making visible, to any machine connected to the network, the storage units used by the other machines. This results in problems in protecting the data from human or hardware errors such as, for example, an accidental erasure.
One possible solution is to verify, in each storage subsystem, the access rights to its storage units of the machines connected to the network. However, this requires at least a double checking of the access rights, both in the storage subsystems and in each machine, in order to prevent unsuccessful access attempts. Moreover, a standard business storage subsystem does not necessarily have the functionalities for performing access controls.
Another solution consists of configuring a machine so that its operating system knows only the logical unit numbers that identify the storage units that this machine is authorized to access. This requires providing the capability to reconfigure the machine without shutting it down when wishing to add a resource such as an additional storage unit. When all the storage units of a storage subsystem are unknown to the machine, the machine has no access path to this storage subsystem through the network. This makes it difficult to make available to the machine a storage unit belonging to a storage subsystem unknown to the machine.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In order to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, the invention proposes an object corresponding to a machine that comprises at least one local coupler for exchanging data with storage subsystems of a network storage system, each storage subsystem comprising at least one storage unit identifiable by means of a logical unit number, the object corresponding to the machine comprising an object corresponding to the local coupler of the machine, characterized in that the object corresponding to the local coupler comprises an object corresponding to a remote coupler of one of the storage subsystems and in that the object corresponding to the local coupler comprises a method for obtaining the object corresponding to the remote coupler, a list of objects each corresponding to a logical unit number identifying a storage unit of the storage subsystem accessible through the local coupler.
Thus, even if the list of objects, each corresponding to a logical unit number identifying a storage unit of the storage subsystem accessible through the local coupler, is empty, the object corresponding to the remote coupler allows the object corresponding to the local coupler to obtain, by means of said method, an object corresponding to a logical unit number identifying a storage unit to be added to this list.
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Chalard Jean-François
Couvée Philippe
Bull S.A.
Kondracki Edward J.
Miles & Stockbridge P.C.
Phan Trong
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