165 results about "Serial Attached SCSI" patented technology

A method and apparatus are provided for implementing connection management in SAS expander devices. SAS expanders are commonly used within a SAS network topology to allow multiple disk drives to connect to multiple host devices. The method and apparatus provides arbitration of connection requests to be setup or removed among multiple end devices and expander devices so as to increase system performance and reduce hardware cost in a standard compliant manner.

A system and method for performing zoning of devices, such as Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) devices, for example, in a storage area network (SAN) in which all host systems of the SAN are automatically mapped to all of the storage systems is provided. Mechanisms for automatically mapping backend storage enclosures to appropriate storage system controllers on the SAN are provided. The zoning is automatically performed based on whether ports / phys are coupled to host systems, storage systems, and whether there are storage system controllers associated with the storage systems. Based on the automatic zoning, mapping of the storage devices of the storage systems to the host systems may be automatically performed via zone permission tables. By automating the zoning, users that do not necessarily have a detailed knowledge of the storage device communication protocol or SANs may configure the SAN even if it utilizes a complex and large architecture.

A network-attached system, device, and method supports storage devices having a plurality of storage device types, such as Fibre Channel storage devices, ATA storage devices, serial attached SCSI storage devices, serial ATA storage devices, and solid stage storage devices. Each storage device having a different storage device type is associated with a set of management rules. The management rules may includes rules for such things as identifying the dedicated storage device, configuring the dedicated storage device, sending disk protocol messages to the dedicated storage device, handling disk protocol message received from the dedicated storage device, and handling error and exception conditions.

This invention discloses a storage visualization subsystem and system with host-side redundancy via SAS connectivity. The I / O interconnect interface between the storage visualization controller and the host is a serial-attached SCSI (SAS) interface. At least one SAS expander is inserted on the I / O interconnect path of the host side to provide the function of device expansion. Or, a built-in virtual SAS expander is disposed inside the storage virtualization controller to provide multiple virtual IDs for each SAS port. When one controller in the storage virtualization controller pair malfunctions or fails, the invention provides solutions in accord with different embodiments so that the surviving controller can inherit the ID of the failed one. Thus, the host can keep functioning normally as it is not aware of any change in the device status.

An SAS RAID adapter comprises an input-output processor (IOP) and at least two SAS input-output controllers (IOCs). Wherein SAS links coupled to each of the IOCs form “virtual ports” in order to increase performance and maintain availability. The virtual ports across the at least two IOCs have wide port SAS link capability so as to provide performance enhancements similar to a standard SAS wide port. Even if a single IOC failure occurs, downshifting to N / 2 links is provided with degraded aggregated bandwidth (data throughput) instead of a failover and / or system shutdown.

A method and apparatus are provided for implementing resilient connectivity in a Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) domain. A first edge expander is connected to a first port of a plurality of SAS devices for enabling communications between each of the plurality of SAS devices through the first edge expander. A second edge expander is connected to a second port of the plurality of SAS devices for enabling communications between each of the plurality of SAS devices through the second edge expander. A subtractive routing port of each of the first edge expander and the second edge expander is connected together for enabling communications between each of the plurality of SAS devices via the first ports and the second ports of the plurality of SAS devices.

A system and method creates and maintains a serial attached SCSI (SAS) logical communication channel among a plurality of storage systems. The storage systems utilize a SAS expander to form a SAS domain comprising a plurality of storage systems and / or storage devices. A target mode module and a logical channel protocol module executing on each storage system enable storage system to storage system messaging via the SAS domain.

The present invention relates to a method for implementing an address mapping scheme within a serial attached SCSI enabled storage area network environment comprising respectively assigning a world wide name of each device comprised within a storage area network to a plurality of switch ports that are comprised within a serial attached SCSI (SAS) switch that is comprised within the storage area network, and assigning each port comprised within the SAS switch to a zone grouping. Further, the respective world wide names of each device that each world wide name will have the right to access is determined, and thereafter a SAS zone permissions table is built comprising the world wide names of each device that each world wide names has the right to access. The world wide names, the SAS switch port assignments, and the SAS zone permission tables are saved to a file or database.

There is provided a SAS grid storage system and a method of operating thereof. The system comprises a) a storage control grid comprising a plurality of interconnected data servers operable in accordance with at least one SAS protocol and b) a plurality of disk units adapted to store data at respective ranges of logical block addresses (LBAs), said addresses constituting an entire address space. Each disk unit comprises at least one input / output (IO) module comprising at least one internal SAS expander configured as a target with regard to the storage control grid. The plurality of disk units is operatively connected to the storage control grid in a manner enabling to each data server comprised in the storage control grid an access to each disk unit among the plurality of disk units. The method of operating the grid storage system comprises: a) assigning each LBA to a primary data server configured to have a primary responsibility for permanent storing of data and / or metadata related to the desired LBA, a secondary data server configured to take over the responsibility for said permanent storing in an event of a failure of the primary data server, and, optionally, to auxiliary secondary data server configured to take over the responsibility for said permanent storing in an event of a failure of the secondary data server; b) responsive to an I / O requests directed to a certain LBA, temporarily storing the data and metadata with respect to desired LBA in the primary data server; c) sending copies of said data / metadata from the primary data server to respective secondary data servers for temporarily storing; and d) sending permissions from the primary data server to the secondary data servers to delete the copy of data / metadata upon successful permanent storing said data / metadata.

According to various illustrative embodiments of the present invention, a method to encapsulate a simple network management protocol (SNMP) over a serial attached small computer system interface (SCSI) system (SAS) for network management operations to manage external storage subsystems includes encapsulating a simple network management protocol (SNMP) message having a simple network management protocol (SNMP) header and a protocol data unit (PDU) in a serial management protocol (SMP) frame for the serial attached small computer system interface (SCSI) system (SAS). The method also includes facilitating the at least one network management operation to manage the at least one external storage subsystem in-band over the serial attached small computer system interface (SCSI) system (SAS) using the simple network management protocol (SNMP) message having the simple network management protocol (SNMP) header and the protocol data unit (PDU) encapsulated in the serial management protocol (SMP) frame for the serial attached small computer system interface (SCSI) system (SAS).

An information handling system includes a storage enclosure operable to communicate with a storage initiator. The storage enclosure includes a first controller corresponding to a first storage domain for enabling access between the storage initiator and a plurality of storage targets using a storage protocol. A second controller of the system, corresponding to a second storage domain, is operable to enable access between the storage initiator and the plurality of storage targets. A second storage enclosure subsystem is part of the second controller and a second configurable extra-protocol interconnection between the second storage enclosure subsystem and the first controller enables the second storage enclosure subsystem to function as a storage enclosure subsystem for the first controller.

A system and computer program product for performing zoning of devices, such as Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) devices, for example, in a storage area network (SAN) in which all host systems of the SAN are automatically mapped to all of the storage systems are provided. Mechanisms for automatically mapping backend storage enclosures to appropriate storage system controllers on the SAN are provided. The zoning is automatically performed based on whether ports / phys are coupled to host systems, storage systems, and whether there are storage system controllers associated with the storage systems. Based on the automatic zoning, mapping of the storage devices of the storage systems to the host systems may be automatically performed via zone permission tables. By automating the zoning, users that do not necessarily have a detailed knowledge of the storage device communication protocol or SANs may configure the SAN even if it utilizes a complex and large architecture.

A computer chassis is provided that may accommodate direct access storage device cages for various form factors. A 3.5-inch direct access storage device (DASD) cage may support 3.5-inch serial attached SCSI (SAS) direct access storage devices. The 3.5-inch SAS DASD cage includes a DASD backplane with a main connector and eight SAS drive connectors. A SFF direct access storage device cage may support SFF SAS direct access storage devices. The SFF SAS DASD cage may include a DASD backplane with a main connector and two port expanders. The port expanders may support up to twelve SAS DASD with redundant SAS channel wiring and one external 4-channel SAS port.

A method and apparatus are provided for implementing connection management in SAS expander devices. SAS expanders are commonly used within a SAS network topology to allow multiple disk drives to connect to multiple host devices. The method and apparatus provides arbitration of connection requests to be setup or removed among multiple end devices and expander devices so as to increase system performance and reduce hardware cost in a standard compliant manner.

Structure is disclosed for a non-blocking SAS architecture utilizing virtual connections between SAS devices. One embodiment comprises a SAS expander. The SAS expander comprises a plurality of physical links (PHYs) and a Virtual Connection Manager (VCM) coupled with the plurality of PHYs. The VCM exchanges information over a plurality of concurrently established virtual pathways between a first PHY of the plurality of PHYs and a second PHY of the plurality of PHYs.

A high speed, high reliability connector that may be employed with standard Serial ATA (SATA) or Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) compliant receptacle connectors. The present invention reduces impedance discontinuity by reducing the interconnection length and cross-planar transit found in typical SATA and SAS compliant connectors.

The invention belongs to the field of server design and particularly discloses an I2C (Inter-Integrated Circuit) interface-based method for realizing the NVME SSD (Non-Volatile Memory Express Solid State Disk) lighting through a CPLD (Complex Programmable Logic Device). According to the I2C interface-based method for realizing the NVME SSD lighting through the CPLD, an I2C of a CPU (Central Processing Unit) is connected to the CPLD to decode the information sent by the CPU and carry out an indicator lamp function on the working condition of NVME SSD; the working condition of the NVME SSD can be effectively and intuitively seen like an ordinary SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) or SAS (Serial Attached SCSI (Small Computer System Interface)) hard disk, the working condition of the NVME SSD can be intuitively judged by seeing a condition indicating lamp on a user interface through naked eyes, which is very intuitive, convenient and fast; moreover, by adopting the scheme of the CPLD, the follow-up maintenance is easier, and if an additional function needs to be increased, only CPLD FW(Firm Ware) needs to be changed; and the method has the advantages of being low in specific cost, strong in practicality, convenient to maintain and flexible to debug.

A method and associated apparatus is provided for operating an electronic device in accordance with a wired endian format. More specifically, the wired endian format requires multi-byte values be maintained in transmit order. The wired endian format is defined to allow for interfacing with both a big endian format and a little endian format. Thus, a device operating in accordance with the wired endian format is able to interface with both a device operating in accordance with the big endian format (e.g., a Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) device) and a device operating in accordance with the little endian format (e.g., a Serial ATA (SATA) device). Furthermore, since the device operating in accordance with wired endian format implements circuitry compliant with the wired endian format, duplication of circuitry to define separate data paths for interfacing with the big endian and little endian formats, respectively, is avoided.

The invention provides a hard disk backboard and a hard disk storage system. The hard disk backboard comprises a first connector, a second connector and a multiplexer, wherein the first connector is connected with the second connector and the multiplexer respectively; the second connector is connected with the multiplexer. The first connector allocates a PCIE (peripheral component interface express) bus from a central processing unit to the second connector; the second connector is connected with the first connector through the PCIE bus and is connected with a hard disk through a hard disk interface. The PCIE bus output by the central processing unit is connected to the hard disk backboard, and a connecting mode of a PCIE SSD (solid state drive) interface is improved on the basis of the traditional hard disk backboard, so that the hard disk backboard can support the traditional hard disk with an SAS (serial attached SCSI) interface and can be compatible with the novel hard disk with the PCIE interface, the form of the hard disk storage system better accords with the form of the traditional hard disk, and space occupation of the PCIE SSD interface in the hard disk storage system is reduced.

A network topology and bridge device is disclosed for a Serial Attached SCSI storage network. The bridge devices is coupled between each Serial ATA drive of the network and the remainder of the elements of the storage network and translates storage transactions between the Serial ATA drive and the remainder of the Serial Attached SCSI storage network.

Embodiments of the invention include a method, apparatus and system for managing SAS zoning, using connector grouping. A connector grouping management application is configured to allow connectors on the edge of the ZPSDS to be grouped into defined zones. The defined zones are used to create a minimal number of zone groups and to configure the respective permissions of the zone groups. The connector grouping application then compares all existing zone groups for phys common to more than one zone group. The connector grouping application removes all phys common to more than one zone group from the respective zone groups and moves the common phys to a new zone group. The zone groups are processed in this manner until no zone groups have common phys. Once all zone groups have been processed accordingly, information associated with the resulting zone groups and their respective permissions are transferred to the zone manager.

Mechanisms for performing zoning of devices, such as Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) devices, for example, in a storage area network (SAN) in which all host systems of the SAN are automatically mapped to all of the storage systems are provided. Mechanisms for automatically mapping backend storage enclosures to appropriate storage system controllers on the SAN are provided. The zoning is automatically performed based on whether ports / phys are coupled to host systems, storage systems, and whether there are storage system controllers associated with the storage systems. Based on the automatic zoning, mapping of the storage devices of the storage systems to the host systems may be automatically performed via zone permission tables. By automating the zoning, users that do not necessarily have a detailed knowledge of the storage device communication protocol or SANs may configure the SAN even if it utilizes a complex and large architecture.

Several methods and a system to implement data compression inline with an eight byte data path are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method includes acquiring a data from a host. In addition, the method includes applying an eight byte data path to the data. The method also includes compressing the data inline. The method may further include writing the data in a memory through a memory controller using a RAID engine. The method may also include manipulating the data through the RAID engine. In addition, the method may include reading the data through a Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) core. The method may further include writing the data to a non-volatile storage. The method may include applying a compression technique based on a data history. The method may also include maintaining a consistent order of a sequence of the data during a data compression operation and a decompression operation.

A method and apparatus are provided for implementing resilient connectivity in a Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) domain. A first edge expander is connected to a first port of a plurality of SAS devices for enabling communications between each of the plurality of SAS devices through the first edge expander. A second edge expander is connected to a second port of the plurality of SAS devices for enabling communications between each of the plurality of SAS devices through the second edge expander. A subtractive routing port of each of the first edge expander and the second edge expander is connected together for enabling communications between each of the plurality of SAS devices via the first ports and the second ports of the plurality of SAS devices.

An out-of-band to optical conversion component is provided that uses a transmit disable signal and a receive loss of signal (LOS) signal built into optical small form-factor pluggable transceiver and cable to pass the out-of-band protocol between serial attached SCSI enclosures. The transmit disable signal, when asserted, turns off the optical output, while the receive LOS signal detects the loss of signal. The out-of-band to optical conversion component sits in line on the serial attached SCSI data traffic and strips off the out-of-band signals from the serial attached SCSI expander so that only data flows over the optical cable. The out-of-band to optical conversion component sends the out-of-band signals to the other enclosure using the transmit disable pin on the small form-factor pluggable transceiver and cable. The other enclosure receives the message on the receive LOS signal and transmit it back onto the serial attached SCSI receive data pair.

The invention provides updating device and updating method of magnetic disk firmware. The updating device of the magnetic disk firmware comprises an SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) expander and a nonvolatile memory, wherein the SAS expander comprises an expander connecting router and an embedded microprocessor, the expander connecting router is used for connecting an SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) magnetic disk and an SAS magnetic disk, the embedded microprocessor is electrically coupled with the expander connecting router, and an SATA host controller driving program and an SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) starter driving program are loaded in the embedded microprocessor; and the nonvolatile memory is electrically coupled to the embedded microprocessor and used for storing the magnetic disk firmware to be updated, the SATA host controller driving program or the SCSI starter driving program is selectively called by the magnetic disk firmware through the embedded microprocessor and sent to a specific magnetic disk for firmware updating through the expander connecting router. The invention can improve the updating efficiency when carrying out firmware updating of the magnetic disk.

The invention provides a method and a device for regulating a boot sequence of an SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) card hard disk. The method comprises the following steps: determining a headmost SAS card hard disk which is started in advance; determining all SAS card hard disks, and obtaining the SASIndex of all SAS card hard disks; traversing all pieces of BootOption, and determining the BootOption corresponding to each SASIndex; according to the SAS card hard disk corresponding to each SASIndex and the BootOption corresponding to each SASIndex, determining the BootOption corresponding to each SAS card hard disk; and according to the determined headmost SAS card hard disk, determining the value of Priority in the BootOption corresponding to all SAS card hard disks. The method and the device for regulating the boot sequence of the SAS card hard disk can regulate the boot sequence of the SAS card hard disks.

Disclosed are methods for exposing multiple interfaces of a communications fabric (Ethernet, FibreChannel, Serial-Attached-SCSI, Infiniband, etc.) of a virtual machine and automatically mapping those interfaces onto separate physical interfaces. Such an approach may preserve the simple management experience of a single connection point into the virtual machine while allowing the OS and application within the virtual machine to supply information necessary to efficiently use the multiply underlying physical links.