TRANSPORT AGNOSTIC OF SCSI I/O(SMALL COMPUTER SYSTEM INTERFACE INPUT OUTPUT) REFERRALS, PARTICULARLY FOR PROVIDING COMMUNICATION BETWEEN A BLOCK STORAGE CLUSTER AND AN INITIATOR

摘要

PURPOSE: Transport agnostic of SCSI I/O(Small Computer System Interface Input Output) referrals is provided to implement multi-pathing with SCSI input/output referrals between an initiator system and a block storage cluster over a network implemented from multiple transport protocols.;CONSTITUTION: A storage area network(110) may be implemented from any network media and transport protocol that allows port level addressing for example, Fibre Channel, EtherNet, InfiniBand, and SAS(Serial Attached SCSI). Media transport layer protocols may handle all routing of protocol packets from end-point to end-point ports across network fabric. Without loss of generality, the network may be implemented as a single fabric or multiple redundant fabrics. The storage area network may be a single network implemented from a single network media and transport protocol or multiple networks implemented from a combination of multiple network media and transport protocols. Preferably, network ports on the application system(s)/server(s)(102) are able to physically reach network ports on the storage system(s)(106,108).;COPYRIGHT KIPO 2010