US20050203989A1 - High speed information processing and mass storage system and method, particularly for information and application servers - Google Patents

High speed information processing and mass storage system and method, particularly for information and application servers Download PDF

Info

Publication number
US20050203989A1
US20050203989A1 US11/125,568 US12556805A US2005203989A1 US 20050203989 A1 US20050203989 A1 US 20050203989A1 US 12556805 A US12556805 A US 12556805A US 2005203989 A1 US2005203989 A1 US 2005203989A1
Authority
US
United States
Prior art keywords
mass storage
storage device
network
server system
controller
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Abandoned
Application number
US11/125,568
Inventor
Richard Dellacona
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Individual
Original Assignee
Individual
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Individual filed Critical Individual
Priority to US11/125,568 priority Critical patent/US20050203989A1/en
Publication of US20050203989A1 publication Critical patent/US20050203989A1/en
Abandoned legal-status Critical Current

Links

Images

Classifications

    • GPHYSICS
    • G06COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06FELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F3/00Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computer; Output arrangements for transferring data from processing unit to output unit, e.g. interface arrangements
    • G06F3/06Digital input from, or digital output to, record carriers, e.g. RAID, emulated record carriers or networked record carriers
    • GPHYSICS
    • G06COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06FELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F3/00Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computer; Output arrangements for transferring data from processing unit to output unit, e.g. interface arrangements
    • G06F3/06Digital input from, or digital output to, record carriers, e.g. RAID, emulated record carriers or networked record carriers
    • G06F3/0601Interfaces specially adapted for storage systems
    • G06F3/0602Interfaces specially adapted for storage systems specifically adapted to achieve a particular effect
    • G06F3/061Improving I/O performance
    • G06F3/0613Improving I/O performance in relation to throughput
    • GPHYSICS
    • G06COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06FELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F3/00Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computer; Output arrangements for transferring data from processing unit to output unit, e.g. interface arrangements
    • G06F3/06Digital input from, or digital output to, record carriers, e.g. RAID, emulated record carriers or networked record carriers
    • G06F3/0601Interfaces specially adapted for storage systems
    • G06F3/0628Interfaces specially adapted for storage systems making use of a particular technique
    • G06F3/0629Configuration or reconfiguration of storage systems
    • G06F3/0635Configuration or reconfiguration of storage systems by changing the path, e.g. traffic rerouting, path reconfiguration
    • GPHYSICS
    • G06COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06FELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F3/00Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computer; Output arrangements for transferring data from processing unit to output unit, e.g. interface arrangements
    • G06F3/06Digital input from, or digital output to, record carriers, e.g. RAID, emulated record carriers or networked record carriers
    • G06F3/0601Interfaces specially adapted for storage systems
    • G06F3/0668Interfaces specially adapted for storage systems adopting a particular infrastructure
    • G06F3/0671In-line storage system
    • G06F3/0683Plurality of storage devices
    • G06F3/0689Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD
    • GPHYSICS
    • G06COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06FELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F11/00Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring
    • G06F11/07Responding to the occurrence of a fault, e.g. fault tolerance
    • G06F11/16Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware
    • G06F11/20Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements
    • G06F11/2002Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements where interconnections or communication control functionality are redundant
    • G06F11/2007Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements where interconnections or communication control functionality are redundant using redundant communication media
    • GPHYSICS
    • G06COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06FELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F11/00Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring
    • G06F11/07Responding to the occurrence of a fault, e.g. fault tolerance
    • G06F11/16Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware
    • G06F11/20Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements
    • G06F11/2002Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements where interconnections or communication control functionality are redundant
    • G06F11/2007Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements where interconnections or communication control functionality are redundant using redundant communication media
    • G06F11/201Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements where interconnections or communication control functionality are redundant using redundant communication media between storage system components

Definitions

  • This invention relates to a high speed, microcomputer based, Fibre Channel compatible and fault tolerant information processing and mass storage system especially suited for information servers and application servers.
  • the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for information processing and storage involving a unique and extremely versatile system architecture, including a dual loop arbitrated, Fibre Channel capable, multiple-fault tolerant, hot-swappable mass storage disk array and including a method and apparatus for providing an enterprise wide information or application server system using such disk array.
  • the present invention further addresses some of the problems discussed in the referenced Dellacona applications, as well as others.
  • the present invention further addresses the problem of scalability and customization in information processing and storage systems for different applications.
  • Yet other applications may require storage expansion for existing information processing systems.
  • This invention provides an architecture which will readily accommodate such needs.
  • mass storage systems can create considerable heat, particularly where they are disk drive based. If the heat is not effectively removed, it can affect the reliability and life of the system. Often, it is difficult to remove the heat because of obstructions caused by the physical configuration of back planes and mid planes which act as barriers to air flow.
  • all of the disk drives of a mass storage module or array are typically plugged into connectors on the face of a backplane or mid plane that extends across the entire module. Whether enclosed in a cabinet or other enclosure or rack mounted without an enclosure, air flow through the module is inhibited by this type of structural arrangement, and excessive heating can occur, particularly in the vicinity of the disk drives.
  • the present invention obviates one or more of the foregoing problems and/or shortcomings of the prior art through the provision of an information processing and mass storage method and system, including a unique mass storage array, particularly suited for information servers or application servers, with a novel system architecture which permits the addition or replacement of storage devices without interrupting or seriously degrading the operation of the system and which is highly fault-tolerant and reliable.
  • the invention obviates one or more of the foregoing problems by providing a novel physical layout that permits the effective removal of heat from a system module containing heat creating components.
  • Certain information server configurations in accordance with the invention include one or more computers, each computer connected to communicate through a Fibre Channel controller with a mass storage array comprising a plurality of bypass circuit boards, at least some of which are connected to an information storage device.
  • the controller provides a dual loop communications channel comprising two complete communication paths to each of bypass circuit boards and associated storage devices.
  • the controller provides a single loop which traverses the bypass circuit boards and any associated storage devices twice.
  • the Fibre Channel controller connected to each computer communicates with the mass storage array through a Fibre Channel controller bypass card.
  • the computer is preferably a suitable conventional single board computer.
  • the controller preferably is a conventional arbitrated dual channel Fibre Channel system through which the computer communicates with each of the storage device bypass circuit boards and the module bypass circuit board.
  • the bypass circuit boards may be any suitable circuits which form a continuous loop for the Fiber Channel controller regardless of whether a disk drive is plugged into the drive bypass circuit board. The loop continues through other modules when they are connected to the module bypass circuit thereby readily permitting expansion while maintaining a unitary information processing and mass storage system.
  • a high speed information processing and mass storage system includes two modules, each including a plurality of disk drives in a hot-swappable, disk drive array.
  • Each disk drive array is connected to a module bypass circuit which includes an optical input/output connector, preferably an optoelectronic transceiver.
  • the optical input/output connectors of the modules are connected by a fiber optic transmission medium such that signals are communicated between the modules in the form of light.
  • a high speed information processing and/or mass storage system with disk drives for information storage includes at least one module with a plurality of drive bypass circuit boards, each including a drive bypass circuit board connector. At least one opening is provided between connectors to permit the flow of air between the connectors.
  • Each drive bypass circuit board is a relatively flat circuit board with connectors on different edges of the board, wherein one of the connectors is the connector which receives the disk drive and the other connector connects to said drive bypass circuit board connector.
  • the connectors, bypass circuit boards and drives are arranged such that when they are connected there is a path for air flow from outside the module alongside each bypass circuit board and its associated disk drive for cooling purposes without any backplane obstruction.
  • at least one fan is mounted to force air from outside said enclosure through the spaces between said bypass boards and drives, preferably through the openings between the drive bypass circuit board connectors.
  • the present invention provides a novel high speed information processing and/or mass storage system particularly suitable for information and application servers.
  • the system is scalable, fault tolerant, and reliable both because of its novel system architecture and its physical layout.
  • FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram generally illustrating an information or application server system according to the present invention using a high speed mass storage system of the invention
  • FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2 C are diagrammatic representations illustrating various system configurations for different applications wherein different ratios of processing and storage are required;
  • FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram illustrating a mass storage module of FIG. 1 in greater detail
  • FIG. 4A is a functional block diagram illustrating the dual loop communication path from the Fibre Channel controller of FIG. 3 connected so as to provide one logical Fibre Channel communication path traversing each of the storage device bypass circuit boards twice;
  • FIG. 4B is a functional block diagram illustrating the dual loop communication path from the Fibre Channel controller of FIG. 3 connected so as to provide two logical Fibre Channel communication paths traversing each of the storage device bypass circuit boards once, thereby being independently available to communicate with each of the storage devices;
  • FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram illustrating an information or application server system according to the present invention wherein two or more servers are connected to a mass storage array which may include one or more mass storage modules;
  • FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a web server application configured in accordance with the architecture of the present invention
  • FIG. 7 is a functional block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a basic video streaming application configured in accordance with the architecture of the present invention.
  • FIG. 8 is a functional block diagram illustrating another embodiment of a video streaming application configured in accordance with the architecture of the present invention and including a duplicated index server;
  • FIG. 9 is a functional block diagram illustrating another embodiment of a video streaming application configured in accordance with the architecture of the present invention and including a distributed index server;
  • FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a storage device bypass circuit board according to the present invention.
  • FIG. 11 is a functional block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a chassis bypass circuit board according to the present invention.
  • FIGS. 12A and 12B are diagrammatic representations of the physical layout of a drive bypass circuit board and disk drive illustrating the preferred connector arrangement according to the present invention.
  • FIGS. 13A and 13B are diagrammatic representations of a connector arrangement for connecting a single board computer (SBC) to various input/out devices according to the present invention.
  • SBC single board computer
  • FIG. 14 is a diagrammatic representation of the disk array controller subsystem of the information server system of the invention.
  • the server designated generally by the reference numeral 100 , includes a computer 102 , a controller 104 , preferably a Fibre Channel controller, and a communications interface or access card 106 .
  • the server 100 communicates via the Fibre Channel controller 104 with a mass storage array 200 which includes one or more mass storage modules 202 A . . . 202 n .
  • the computer 102 may also communicate with a suitable diagnostic computer 110 as is described in the aforementioned Dellacona applications.
  • the computer 102 preferably comprises single board high speed computer running a computer industry standard operating system software program such as, for example, Windows NT available from Microsoft Corporation.
  • a computer industry standard operating system software program such as, for example, Windows NT available from Microsoft Corporation.
  • An operating system like Windows NT may be stripped down to remove those elements of the program which are not needed, if desired to preserve memory or to increase operating speed.
  • Suitable conventional drivers of the type used for similar applications may be provided as necessary to support the particular architecture being implemented.
  • the computer may include a display such as a touch screen display, and various storage and peripheral devices (not shown) as required.
  • the single board computer can include any of a wide number of suitable devices including, but not limited to, the Compact PCI CPU Board with Pentium Processor, Model No. ZT 5510, available from Ziatech Corporation. Modifications to enhance performance of the ZT 5510 can include an onboard 40 MB flash memory card for permanent storage of the non-reconfigurable portions of the Windows NT operating system software and an onboard, removable, PCMCIA 40 Mb flash memory card, “D2 FlashDisk” available from Sandisk Corporation for read/writeable storage of the reconfigurable portions of the Windows NT software.
  • the Fibre Channel controller 104 may be any suitable design according to the Fibre Channel Consortium created as a separate board or incorporated into the single board computer design.
  • the communications interface or access card 106 may be any suitable device made in accordance with well known T-1 communications architecture, and/or architecture adapted for compatibility with other network and telecommunications architectures, protocols and topologies including, but not limited to, T-3, DS-3, OC-3 C, OC-12C, OC-192C, FDDI, SONET, SCSI, TCP/IP, HiPPI and ATM.
  • the computers 102 and 110 may be networked together and with other computers through appropriate ethernet cards or other suitable networking techniques.
  • FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2 C illustrate generally three types of system configurations which can be addressed in accordance with the architecture of the present invention.
  • Each Figure is diagrammatically illustrative of a chassis 300 with a power supply section 302 and a diagnostics section 304 .
  • the chassis includes a processing section 306 such one or more of the servers 100 of FIG. 1 , and/or a storage section 308 such as one or more of the mass storage modules 202 of FIG. 1 .
  • the size of the processing and storage sections can be readily configured for a particular application.
  • FIG. 2A illustrates an arrangement for a high volume server such as an application server, a movie server (e.g., for video streaming to multiple users) or communications in conjunction with a carrier-class switch.
  • the processing section 306 includes ten slots, each preferably representing a single board computer.
  • the storage section 308 has only five storage slots, each representing a high speed, high capacity storage device such as a disk drive.
  • FIG. 2B illustrates an arrangement which might be suitable for a webserver or web-hosting.
  • the processing section 306 comprises two slots of the chassis whereas the storage section 308 comprises fifteen slots.
  • FIG. 2C illustrates a chassis arrangement suitable primarily for storage expansion. Here, there is no processing section and the chassis is devoted to storage.
  • FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of the mass storage array 200 of FIG. 1 in greater detail as it could be configured with a single computer server 100 and one or more mass storage modules 202 .
  • the mass storage array 200 includes one or more modules 202 A, 202 B . . . 202 n , each of which is preferably identical architecturally, although they may contain different numbers of storage devices and different types of storage devices.
  • Each module 202 includes bypass circuit boards 210 A, 210 B . . . 210 n and at least some storage devices 212 A, 212 B . . . 212 n connected to the boards 210 .
  • each storage device is preferably provided with an associated read/write switch 214 A, 214 B . . . 214 n , respectively.
  • Each module 202 has a module or chassis bypass circuit board 216 in the communication path of the Fibre Channel controller 104 .
  • the chassis bypass circuit board 216 of module 202 A is provided with an optical input/output connector 218 for outputting electrical signals from the module 202 A as light signals and for inputting light signals into the module 202 A as electrical signals.
  • the modules 202 B . . . 202 n have chassis bypass circuit boards 216 with associated input/output connectors 218 (not shown).
  • the input/output connector 218 of the chassis bypass circuit board of module 202 A is adapted to be connected via a light transmission medium such as optical fibers 220 to the optical input/output connector 218 (not shown) of the chassis bypass circuit board of module 202 B.
  • the controller 104 preferably is a conventional Fibre Channel Controller (FCC) which operates on a Fibre Channel protocol, and preferably is an arbitrated dual channel Fiber Channel Controller.
  • FCC Fibre Channel Controller
  • the controller 104 provides a dual channel communication path within each module 202 between the computer 102 and each of the operable storage devices 212 .
  • the bypass circuit boards 210 ensure that the communication path is complete even if a storage device 212 is inoperable (i.e., is not operable at or above some minimum level as is hereinafter described in greater detail) or has been removed from the connector on the bypass circuit board.
  • each of the storage devices 212 is preferably a high speed, high capacity, conventionally available disk drive which is removably connected to its associated bypass circuit board 210 .
  • the disk drive plugs into a connector on the bypass circuit board 210 so that it can be readily removed and replaced or so that drives may be added to empty bypass circuit board positions, as needed to expand the storage capacity of the module.
  • Each bypass circuit board 210 includes circuits which connect the controller 104 to the disk drive 212 when the disk drive is plugged in and is conveying to the bypass circuit board that it is operable at a certain minimum level.
  • bypass circuit board 210 connects the controller 104 directly to the next bypass circuit board, bypassing the disk drive 212 , when the disk drive is not plugged in or is not operating at or above the minimum level.
  • Any suitable, conventional disk drive of the type that runs self-diagnostics and provides a fault/no fault output signal may be used for this purpose.
  • the bypass circuit board 210 A directs communications to the associated storage device 212 A and then to the next bypass circuit board 210 B when an operable storage device 212 A is connected to the bypass circuit board 210 A.
  • the storage device 212 A is inoperable, i.e. not operating at some minimum satisfactory level, or when there is no storage device connected to the bypass circuit board 210 A, e.g., if the storage device is removed for replacement, the dual channel communication path proceeds through the bypass circuit board 210 A without interruption, i.e., bypasses the storage device connector.
  • bypass circuit board to accomplish the foregoing connection and bypass functions is described hereinafter in greater detail, it will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that these functions can be accomplished in any suitable conventional manner by electronic switching circuits controlled by the fault/no fault signal from the storage device.
  • the module or chassis bypass circuit board 216 provides functions similar to the storage or drive bypass circuit boards 210 in the sense that they either route communications back to the controller directly if there is no additional module 202 B connected to the module 202 A or they route communications to the next module 202 B if one is connected and signals are being received. In the case of a single module 202 , therefore, there is a dual channel communications loop entirely within the module by which the computer 102 communicates with each of the disk drives 212 . On the other hand, by virtue of the chassis bypass circuit board 216 , the dual channel communications loop extends to each of the disk drives 212 in the next module when one is connected.
  • module bypass circuit board 216 communications from the computer 102 of module 202 A are directed by the module bypass circuit board 216 to the next module 202 B via connectors 218 and optical fibers 220 so that module 202 B is within and traversed by the dual Fibre Channel communication loop.
  • individual mass storage device modules 202 of the mass storage array 200 may be expanded internally by adding disk drives or other suitable storage devices, and bad disk drives may be replaced without affecting the operation of the rest of the module or the system it is used in.
  • This provides an extremely versatile hot swappable, hot expandable, mass storage device array.
  • an additional module may be added, again without interrupting the operation of the rest of the array or its system.
  • the Fibre Channel controller provides a dual path through each module of the mass storage array 200 .
  • the system can be configured so that the dual path is a single path which traverses the mass storage array twice or two independent paths as is illustrated in FIGS. 4A and 4B .
  • the Fibre Channel controller (FCC) 104 includes two output paths A and B. Each path traverses the mass storage module 202 as illustrated, communicating with each of the present and operable storage devices 212 and returning to the FCC.
  • the A path returning to the FCC is looped back to the B output path. Accordingly, a single continuous path traverses the mass storage module twice.
  • the A return path is not looped back to the B output path. Accordingly, two paths traverse the mass storage module and can be used independently. This latter embodiment provides a second path in the event that one path fails.
  • FIGS. 4A and 4B embodiments provide redundancy and fault tolerance.
  • the FIG. 4A embodiment is somewhat simpler to implement because only one set of chips is necessary to provide the single Fibre Channel capability required for the single loop. Still, if one of the loops is broken or encounters some other fault, that loop can be bypassed within the controller, and the other loop is still available.
  • the FIG. 4B embodiment may be more complex and expensive to implement, it provides two independently addressable loops for fault tolerance and redundancy, but also provides significantly greater communications bandwidth.
  • FIG. 5 illustrates a further configuration which is made possible by the system architecture of the present invention.
  • two servers are connected to a mass storage array, a first module of which is illustrated.
  • the servers 100 A and 100 B are connected to Fibre Channel bypass boards 222 A and 222 B, respectively.
  • the operation of the computers 102 A and 102 B may be sensed by the Fibre Channel bypass boards, for example by sensing signal flow as with the chassis bypass board, so that the computers 102 A and 102 B can operate together or, in the case of a fault, separately.
  • each server may have flash memory, and in the embodiment of FIG. 5 , each computer 102 A and 102 B has its own flash memory with its operating system stored therein. In this fashion, the computers can boot independently from its associated flash memory rather than from the shared memory or other disk arrangement.
  • FIG. 5 provides two servers and thus increased processing power.
  • one server provides backup to the other in the event of failure, thereby providing increased fault tolerance and reliability.
  • the architecture of FIG. 5 permits the two servers to communicate with each other at Fibre Channel speeds, higher than could, be achieved with 100BaseT LAN, using IP protocol.
  • FIG. 6 illustrates one configuration wherein two servers A and B are connected in a suitable local area network (LAN) configuration with access to the internet.
  • Server A has its own mass storage array 200 as does server B.
  • LAN local area network
  • FIG. 6 embodiment illustrates communication over a LAN which typically may be a 100BaseT LAN, it will be appreciated that this may be a Fibre Channel LAN if rates in the gigabit range are desired. These features and advantages may be the ideal choice for critical processing applications such as web servers.
  • FIG. 7 illustrates another configuration particularly useful for video streaming applications.
  • the diagnostics computer 110 also has indexing functions for controlling access to content servers 1 , 2 and 3 .
  • the content servers 100 provide access to video stored in their associated storage arrays 200 .
  • Alternatives, also particularly suitable for video streaming applications, are shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 .
  • duplicated index servers separate from the diagnostics computer are provided with their own storage arrays.
  • the functions of the index servers are distributed among the content servers so that there are multiple index/content servers 1 - 5 .
  • FIG. 8 approach uses an architecture where the index server or servers coordinate content streaming from the content servers whereas in FIG. 9 the index and content server functionality is distributed across all servers, providing extensive scalability.
  • FIGS. 10 and 11 are functional block diagrams which generally illustrate the storage and chassis bypass circuit boards 210 and 216 , respectively, in greater detail.
  • the storage bypass circuit board 210 includes a bypass board backplane connector 230 arranged to plug into a connector on the backplane generally indicated at 232 .
  • the A and B signal paths coming from a previous bypass circuit or directly from the Fibre Channel controller are connected through the backplane to the bypass board via the backplane connector 230 .
  • the A and B signal paths emerge from the bypass board 210 via the bypass board backplane connector 230 .
  • the A signal path from the backplane connector 230 is connected to a suitable conventional electronic switch 234 .
  • the B signal path from the backplane connector 230 likewise is connected to an electronic switch 236 .
  • the A and B signal paths from electronic switches 234 and 236 are connected to a bypass board storage card or drive connector 238 where they are routed to the storage device (e.g., a disk drive) 212 .
  • the return A signal path from the bypass board drive connector 238 is connected to the switch 234 , and the return B signal path from the connector 238 is connected to switch 236 .
  • a fault signal produced by the storage device to indicate its presence and its level of operability as was described above is applied to each of the electronic switches 234 and 236 to control the switching thereof.
  • the A and B return paths from the switches 234 and 236 are connected to the bypass board backplane connector 230 where they are routed through the backplane 232 to the next bypass circuit board or to the Fibre Channel controller.
  • the A signal path enters the bypass circuit board and is connected to the switch 234 . If the fault signal is not present (i.e., there is no fault and the signal is in a low or negative signal state) indicating that the storage device is not present or is inoperable, the switch 234 returns the A signal path to the bypass board backplane connector 230 thus bypassing the storage device 212 .
  • the B signal path similarly is looped back to the backplane connector 230 by the electronic switch 236 if the fault signal is low.
  • the A and B signal paths are routed through the switches 234 and 236 to the storage device and then back through the switches when the fault signal is high or positive indicating the storage device is present and operable.
  • the chassis bypass circuit board is essentially the same as the storage bypass circuit board except the selection made by the electronic switches 234 and 236 is between acting as a bypass or connecting the A and B to the I/O connector 238 .
  • the I/O connector is preferably a conventional optical fiber transceiver for use in bi-directional communication applications over multimode optical fiber, particularly in multimode or single mode Fibre Channel applications.
  • the transceiver may be a model MLC-25-6-X-T optical fibre channel small factor (SFF) transceiver available from Methode Electronics, Inc. of Chicago, Ill.
  • SFF optical fibre channel small factor
  • Such transceivers include a light transmitter and receiver as well as a standard receptacle for receiving an industry standard optical fiber connector.
  • the transceiver provides a signal detect output (the fault signal in FIG. 11 ) which indicates whether or not the transceiver is receiving a light signal. If it is not, the fault signal causes the electronic switches 234 A and 236 A to loop the A and B paths back to the chassis bypass board connector 230 A. If, on the other hand, the fault signal indicates that a light signal is being received by the transceiver 218 , the electrical signals on the A and B paths are passed through the switches 234 A and 236 A to the transceiver 218 where they are converted to light signals and transmitted over the optical fibers forming the A and B paths to the next chassis.
  • the fault signal indicates that a light signal is being received by the transceiver 218 .
  • light signals returned from the next chassis on the A and B paths are converted back to electrical signals by the transceiver 218 and returned along the A and B paths through the switches 234 A and 236 A to the connector 230 A and onto the next bypass circuit or the Fibre Channel controller.
  • each of the modules 202 of a mass storage device array such as the one shown in FIG. 3 is enclosed in a housing or, if mounted in a rack, may be surrounded by other structures and/or other circuit boards.
  • the server components such as the computers 102 and 110 , the touch screen display 112 , the Fibre Channel controller, and other system components such as communication access cards, ethernet cards, LAN components and the like may also be mounted within the same housing or on the same rack. Heating may therefore be a problem, particularly where the storage devices used in the modules are disk drives driven by motors.
  • the preferred embodiment of the present invention as illustrated in FIGS. 12A and 12B includes a physical structure and arrangement of the various bypass circuit boards and storage devices that accommodates the circulation of cooling air throughout the module with minimal obstruction.
  • each of the drive bypass circuit boards 210 is a relatively thin circuit board.
  • the circuit board is, however, unlike typical circuit boards built to receive a disk drive or other mass storage device.
  • the connector or plug which receives the plug-in disk drive typically is positioned so that the disk drive extends perpendicular to the plane of the board.
  • the bypass circuits and/or the communications paths between them on a backplane or midplane circuit board which extends across the module in a fashion similar to a computer motherboard which extends across the computer chassis and has connectors to receive various plug-in cards or boards. That arrangement creates an obstruction which makes it more difficult to effectively cool heat producing storage devices such as disk drives.
  • the present invention does not use either a circuit board midplane or a backplane structure.
  • the connector on the drive bypass board which receives the disk drive e.g., the connector 238 in FIG. 10
  • the drive bypass circuit board itself is not plugged into a backplane circuit board.
  • a connector is provided on the edge of the board, preferably opposite the disk drive connector as illustrated at 239 in FIG. 10 , and that connector plugs into an individual connector which is mounted on a frame or other structural member of the chassis and which is wired or otherwise connected to similar connectors for the other disk bypass circuit boards.
  • FIG. 12A shows a side view of the disk drive 212 plugged into the drive bypass circuit board 210 via connector 238 , with the drive bypass circuit board plugged into connector 240 suitably mounted on structural members 242 of the chassis or rack containing the mass storage module and/or server and its associated components.
  • FIG. 12B is an end view illustrating several bypass circuit boards 210 plugged into the connectors 240 which are in turn connected by screws or other suitable means to the structural members 242 . Since there is no backplane which would normally make the connections between adjacent components, electrical or light connections generally indicated at 246 are suitably provided between the connectors 240 to provide the communications required, as illustrated, for example, in FIGS. 3 and 5 .
  • each connector 240 there is a space 244 through which air can readily be drawn or forced by a fan or other air circulation means as is necessary. Even if the structural members are part of a housing that surrounds the components, screening or other suitable openings can be provided so that the areas 244 permit sufficient air flow. It can also be seen that because the disk drive is plugged into the bypass circuit board so that their planes are parallel and not perpendicular, there is no obstruction of air flow.
  • connection arrangement is particularly suited for field service of the unit and is readily upgradeable. Connectors can be readily replaced in the field without the need to change a complete backplane or midplane board, and in some instances repairs of this sort can be carried out with little or no down time.
  • the illustrated connection arrangement permits expansion without the limitations encountered when using a backplane or midplane with a fixed number of expansion slots and without the other physical and electrical limitations encountered with backplanes or midplanes.
  • a single board computer of the type previously described in connection with the description of the server 100 may connect to the communications card 106 through a mini compactPCI (CPCI) backplane.
  • the single board computer SBC may incorporate the Fibre Channel controller FCC.
  • the SBC may connect to an input/output unit I/O at the left rear connector of the CPCI backplane.
  • the I/O may include the FCC functions.
  • the disk array controller subsystem 330 further incorporates a high speed chip set, such as the ISP2100 Intelligent Fibre Channel Processor available from Qlogic Corp., which includes a reduced instruction set chip (“RISC”) processor 335 , a compact PCI interface 340 , and a Fibre Channel capable, arbitrated dual loop direct disk access protocol interface 350 for maximum communications bandwidth and redundancy.
  • This controller 330 communicates data stored on the disk array or to be stored thereon through the communications interface subsystem 310 between the disk array 200 and the outside world.
  • the controller 330 is fully Fibre Channel compliant and is capable of controlling up to 126 disk storage devices in the disk array 200 .
  • the controller 330 is adapted to configure the disk array 200 for fault tolerant, data redundancy protocols including, but not limited to, RAID 0, 1, 3, 5, 10 (1 & 0) and the new XOR RAID configuration.

Abstract

A high speed, microcomputer based, Fibre Channel compatible and fault tolerant information processing and mass storage system especially suited for information servers and application servers. A unique and extremely versatile system architecture, including a dual loop arbitrated, Fibre Channel capable, multiple-fault tolerant, hot swappable mass storage disk array, permits combinations of servers and mass storage arrays which can be tailored for a wide variety of applications and which can be configured with emphasis on the system characteristics such as redundancy, speed, processing capability, storage capability, and the like, as desired. A unique backplane and/or midplane arrangement for connecting the system components allows for easy and, in most cases, on-line field upgrading and/or service and at the same time provides for the very effective cooling of components, particularly those such as disk drives which tend to produce a lot of heat.

Description

    RELATED APPLICATIONS
  • This application is a divisional of Ser. No. 09/592,572, filed Jun. 12, 2000, and is related to Ser. No. 11/051,852, filed Feb. 4, 2005. This application is related to Patent Application No. PCT/US99/05231 of Richard Dellacona filed Mar. 10, 1999, Ser. No. 09/623,322, now Pat. No. 6,799,224, which is based upon Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/077,643, filed Mar. 10, 1998, and to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/071,282 of Richard Dellacona filed May 1, 1998, now Pat. No. 6,260,155, all of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
  • BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
  • 1. Field of the Invention
  • This invention relates to a high speed, microcomputer based, Fibre Channel compatible and fault tolerant information processing and mass storage system especially suited for information servers and application servers. In particular, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for information processing and storage involving a unique and extremely versatile system architecture, including a dual loop arbitrated, Fibre Channel capable, multiple-fault tolerant, hot-swappable mass storage disk array and including a method and apparatus for providing an enterprise wide information or application server system using such disk array.
  • 2. State of the Art
  • Efforts have been made in the past to provide a mass storage file server capable of delivering information throughout an enterprise with high speed data throughput, scalable data storage capability in a convenient, easily configurable enclosure using well known, industry standard operating software and hardware. However, such systems have typically experienced many shortcomings and problems associated with equipment incompatibility as well as with the inability of presently available computer and communications hardware to sustain performance and service failure of component devices. Such shortcomings have included the lack of capability to add storage devices to accommodate increased storage requirements or to replace failed storage devices without the need to completely power down the information server. Some of the compatibility problems have involved, for example, bottlenecks in sharing information among the equipment components of various vendors. The above-referenced Dellacona patent applications address some of these problems and others, and provide unique solutions which are described and claimed therein.
  • The present invention further addresses some of the problems discussed in the referenced Dellacona applications, as well as others. For example, the present invention further addresses the problem of scalability and customization in information processing and storage systems for different applications. In some applications, there may be a greater need for processing capability rather than storage capacity, while other applications may require just the opposite. Yet other applications may require storage expansion for existing information processing systems. This invention provides an architecture which will readily accommodate such needs.
  • In addition, mass storage systems can create considerable heat, particularly where they are disk drive based. If the heat is not effectively removed, it can affect the reliability and life of the system. Often, it is difficult to remove the heat because of obstructions caused by the physical configuration of back planes and mid planes which act as barriers to air flow. Typically, for example, all of the disk drives of a mass storage module or array are typically plugged into connectors on the face of a backplane or mid plane that extends across the entire module. Whether enclosed in a cabinet or other enclosure or rack mounted without an enclosure, air flow through the module is inhibited by this type of structural arrangement, and excessive heating can occur, particularly in the vicinity of the disk drives.
  • Also, it is desirable to be able to hot swap individual disk drives of a mass storage module to accommodate the need for more storage capacity, but the system storage requirements may outgrow the capacity of the module and it may also be desirable to have the capability of adding modules without powering down the system. Of course, this capability must be provided without disturbing the operation of the existing module and with a minimum of signal degradation as modules are added.
  • SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
  • The present invention obviates one or more of the foregoing problems and/or shortcomings of the prior art through the provision of an information processing and mass storage method and system, including a unique mass storage array, particularly suited for information servers or application servers, with a novel system architecture which permits the addition or replacement of storage devices without interrupting or seriously degrading the operation of the system and which is highly fault-tolerant and reliable. In addition, the invention obviates one or more of the foregoing problems by providing a novel physical layout that permits the effective removal of heat from a system module containing heat creating components.
  • In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, an information processing and mass storage system adapted to be readily expandable to increase its storage capacity while the system is in operation comprises at least one module containing (a) at least one computer, (b) a plurality of plug-in storage devices such as disk drives for storing information, (c) a storage device bypass circuit board associated with each storage device, with each storage device being plugged into a connector on the bypass circuit board, (d) a module bypass circuit board including an optical input/output connector for outputting electrical signals from the module as light signals and for inputting light signals into the module as electrical signals and (e) a controller connecting the computer with each of the storage devices through its associated storage device bypass circuit board and through the module bypass circuit board.
  • Certain information server configurations in accordance with the invention include one or more computers, each computer connected to communicate through a Fibre Channel controller with a mass storage array comprising a plurality of bypass circuit boards, at least some of which are connected to an information storage device. In one embodiment, the controller provides a dual loop communications channel comprising two complete communication paths to each of bypass circuit boards and associated storage devices. In another embodiment, the controller provides a single loop which traverses the bypass circuit boards and any associated storage devices twice. In one configuration with two or more computers, the Fibre Channel controller connected to each computer communicates with the mass storage array through a Fibre Channel controller bypass card.
  • In a preferred embodiment the computer is preferably a suitable conventional single board computer. The controller preferably is a conventional arbitrated dual channel Fibre Channel system through which the computer communicates with each of the storage device bypass circuit boards and the module bypass circuit board. The bypass circuit boards may be any suitable circuits which form a continuous loop for the Fiber Channel controller regardless of whether a disk drive is plugged into the drive bypass circuit board. The loop continues through other modules when they are connected to the module bypass circuit thereby readily permitting expansion while maintaining a unitary information processing and mass storage system.
  • In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, a high speed information processing and mass storage system includes two modules, each including a plurality of disk drives in a hot-swappable, disk drive array. Each disk drive array is connected to a module bypass circuit which includes an optical input/output connector, preferably an optoelectronic transceiver. The optical input/output connectors of the modules are connected by a fiber optic transmission medium such that signals are communicated between the modules in the form of light. With this configuration, modules may be added to increase storage capacity without interrupting the operation of each other and without serious signal degradation.
  • In accordance with yet another embodiment of the present invention, a high speed information processing and/or mass storage system with disk drives for information storage includes at least one module with a plurality of drive bypass circuit boards, each including a drive bypass circuit board connector. At least one opening is provided between connectors to permit the flow of air between the connectors. Each drive bypass circuit board is a relatively flat circuit board with connectors on different edges of the board, wherein one of the connectors is the connector which receives the disk drive and the other connector connects to said drive bypass circuit board connector. The connectors, bypass circuit boards and drives are arranged such that when they are connected there is a path for air flow from outside the module alongside each bypass circuit board and its associated disk drive for cooling purposes without any backplane obstruction. Where the mass storage system is housed in an enclosure, at least one fan is mounted to force air from outside said enclosure through the spaces between said bypass boards and drives, preferably through the openings between the drive bypass circuit board connectors.
  • It will be appreciated that the present invention provides a novel high speed information processing and/or mass storage system particularly suitable for information and application servers. The system is scalable, fault tolerant, and reliable both because of its novel system architecture and its physical layout. Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of exemplary and preferred embodiments when read in conjunction with the drawings which illustrate, by way of example, the principles of the invention.
  • BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
  • FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram generally illustrating an information or application server system according to the present invention using a high speed mass storage system of the invention;
  • FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C are diagrammatic representations illustrating various system configurations for different applications wherein different ratios of processing and storage are required;
  • FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram illustrating a mass storage module of FIG. 1 in greater detail;
  • FIG. 4A is a functional block diagram illustrating the dual loop communication path from the Fibre Channel controller of FIG. 3 connected so as to provide one logical Fibre Channel communication path traversing each of the storage device bypass circuit boards twice;
  • FIG. 4B is a functional block diagram illustrating the dual loop communication path from the Fibre Channel controller of FIG. 3 connected so as to provide two logical Fibre Channel communication paths traversing each of the storage device bypass circuit boards once, thereby being independently available to communicate with each of the storage devices;
  • FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram illustrating an information or application server system according to the present invention wherein two or more servers are connected to a mass storage array which may include one or more mass storage modules;
  • FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a web server application configured in accordance with the architecture of the present invention;
  • FIG. 7 is a functional block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a basic video streaming application configured in accordance with the architecture of the present invention;
  • FIG. 8 is a functional block diagram illustrating another embodiment of a video streaming application configured in accordance with the architecture of the present invention and including a duplicated index server;
  • FIG. 9 is a functional block diagram illustrating another embodiment of a video streaming application configured in accordance with the architecture of the present invention and including a distributed index server;
  • FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a storage device bypass circuit board according to the present invention;
  • FIG. 11 is a functional block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a chassis bypass circuit board according to the present invention;
  • FIGS. 12A and 12B are diagrammatic representations of the physical layout of a drive bypass circuit board and disk drive illustrating the preferred connector arrangement according to the present invention; and
  • FIGS. 13A and 13B are diagrammatic representations of a connector arrangement for connecting a single board computer (SBC) to various input/out devices according to the present invention.
  • FIG. 14 is a diagrammatic representation of the disk array controller subsystem of the information server system of the invention.
  • DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
  • One embodiment of an information or application server system in accordance with the present invention using the high speed information processing and mass storage system of the invention is illustrated in FIG. 1. Referring to FIG. 1, the server, designated generally by the reference numeral 100, includes a computer 102, a controller 104, preferably a Fibre Channel controller, and a communications interface or access card 106. The server 100 communicates via the Fibre Channel controller 104 with a mass storage array 200 which includes one or more mass storage modules 202A . . . 202 n. As illustrated, the computer 102 may also communicate with a suitable diagnostic computer 110 as is described in the aforementioned Dellacona applications.
  • The computer 102 preferably comprises single board high speed computer running a computer industry standard operating system software program such as, for example, Windows NT available from Microsoft Corporation. An operating system like Windows NT may be stripped down to remove those elements of the program which are not needed, if desired to preserve memory or to increase operating speed. Suitable conventional drivers of the type used for similar applications may be provided as necessary to support the particular architecture being implemented.
  • The computer may include a display such as a touch screen display, and various storage and peripheral devices (not shown) as required. The single board computer can include any of a wide number of suitable devices including, but not limited to, the Compact PCI CPU Board with Pentium Processor, Model No. ZT 5510, available from Ziatech Corporation. Modifications to enhance performance of the ZT 5510 can include an onboard 40 MB flash memory card for permanent storage of the non-reconfigurable portions of the Windows NT operating system software and an onboard, removable, PCMCIA 40 Mb flash memory card, “D2 FlashDisk” available from Sandisk Corporation for read/writeable storage of the reconfigurable portions of the Windows NT software.
  • The Fibre Channel controller 104 may be any suitable design according to the Fibre Channel Consortium created as a separate board or incorporated into the single board computer design. The communications interface or access card 106 may be any suitable device made in accordance with well known T-1 communications architecture, and/or architecture adapted for compatibility with other network and telecommunications architectures, protocols and topologies including, but not limited to, T-3, DS-3, OC-3 C, OC-12C, OC-192C, FDDI, SONET, SCSI, TCP/IP, HiPPI and ATM. In addition, the computers 102 and 110 may be networked together and with other computers through appropriate ethernet cards or other suitable networking techniques. The respective manufacturer, Fibre Channel Consortium and 120 Special Interest Group reference design data sheets and materials describing the detailed operating capabilities and specifications of each of the foregoing components are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. Also, further information concerning possible subsystems and connection protocols for the server are described in the referenced Dellacona applications.
  • FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C illustrate generally three types of system configurations which can be addressed in accordance with the architecture of the present invention. Each Figure is diagrammatically illustrative of a chassis 300 with a power supply section 302 and a diagnostics section 304. In addition, the chassis includes a processing section 306 such one or more of the servers 100 of FIG. 1, and/or a storage section 308 such as one or more of the mass storage modules 202 of FIG. 1. The size of the processing and storage sections can be readily configured for a particular application.
  • For example, FIG. 2A illustrates an arrangement for a high volume server such as an application server, a movie server (e.g., for video streaming to multiple users) or communications in conjunction with a carrier-class switch. It can be seen that the processing section 306 includes ten slots, each preferably representing a single board computer. In contrast, the storage section 308 has only five storage slots, each representing a high speed, high capacity storage device such as a disk drive. Thus, the processing function is stressed over the storage function. On the other hand, FIG. 2B illustrates an arrangement which might be suitable for a webserver or web-hosting. Here, the processing section 306 comprises two slots of the chassis whereas the storage section 308 comprises fifteen slots. FIG. 2C illustrates a chassis arrangement suitable primarily for storage expansion. Here, there is no processing section and the chassis is devoted to storage.
  • FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of the mass storage array 200 of FIG. 1 in greater detail as it could be configured with a single computer server 100 and one or more mass storage modules 202. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 3, the mass storage array 200 includes one or more modules 202A, 202B . . . 202 n, each of which is preferably identical architecturally, although they may contain different numbers of storage devices and different types of storage devices. Each module 202 includes bypass circuit boards 210A, 210B . . . 210 n and at least some storage devices 212A, 212B . . . 212 n connected to the boards 210. In addition, each storage device is preferably provided with an associated read/ write switch 214A, 214B . . . 214 n, respectively.
  • Each module 202 has a module or chassis bypass circuit board 216 in the communication path of the Fibre Channel controller 104. The chassis bypass circuit board 216 of module 202A is provided with an optical input/output connector 218 for outputting electrical signals from the module 202A as light signals and for inputting light signals into the module 202A as electrical signals. Likewise, the modules 202B . . . 202 n have chassis bypass circuit boards 216 with associated input/output connectors 218 (not shown). As illustrated, the input/output connector 218 of the chassis bypass circuit board of module 202A is adapted to be connected via a light transmission medium such as optical fibers 220 to the optical input/output connector 218 (not shown) of the chassis bypass circuit board of module 202B.
  • As was previously noted, the controller 104 preferably is a conventional Fibre Channel Controller (FCC) which operates on a Fibre Channel protocol, and preferably is an arbitrated dual channel Fiber Channel Controller. The controller 104 provides a dual channel communication path within each module 202 between the computer 102 and each of the operable storage devices 212. As is described hereinafter in greater detail, the bypass circuit boards 210 ensure that the communication path is complete even if a storage device 212 is inoperable (i.e., is not operable at or above some minimum level as is hereinafter described in greater detail) or has been removed from the connector on the bypass circuit board.
  • In that regard, each of the storage devices 212 is preferably a high speed, high capacity, conventionally available disk drive which is removably connected to its associated bypass circuit board 210. Preferably, the disk drive plugs into a connector on the bypass circuit board 210 so that it can be readily removed and replaced or so that drives may be added to empty bypass circuit board positions, as needed to expand the storage capacity of the module. Each bypass circuit board 210 includes circuits which connect the controller 104 to the disk drive 212 when the disk drive is plugged in and is conveying to the bypass circuit board that it is operable at a certain minimum level. On the other hand, the bypass circuit board 210 connects the controller 104 directly to the next bypass circuit board, bypassing the disk drive 212, when the disk drive is not plugged in or is not operating at or above the minimum level. Any suitable, conventional disk drive of the type that runs self-diagnostics and provides a fault/no fault output signal may be used for this purpose.
  • With further reference to FIG. 3, by way of example, the bypass circuit board 210A directs communications to the associated storage device 212A and then to the next bypass circuit board 210B when an operable storage device 212A is connected to the bypass circuit board 210A. When the storage device 212A is inoperable, i.e. not operating at some minimum satisfactory level, or when there is no storage device connected to the bypass circuit board 210A, e.g., if the storage device is removed for replacement, the dual channel communication path proceeds through the bypass circuit board 210A without interruption, i.e., bypasses the storage device connector. While one embodiment of a bypass circuit board to accomplish the foregoing connection and bypass functions is described hereinafter in greater detail, it will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that these functions can be accomplished in any suitable conventional manner by electronic switching circuits controlled by the fault/no fault signal from the storage device.
  • With continued reference to FIG. 3, the module or chassis bypass circuit board 216 provides functions similar to the storage or drive bypass circuit boards 210 in the sense that they either route communications back to the controller directly if there is no additional module 202B connected to the module 202A or they route communications to the next module 202B if one is connected and signals are being received. In the case of a single module 202, therefore, there is a dual channel communications loop entirely within the module by which the computer 102 communicates with each of the disk drives 212. On the other hand, by virtue of the chassis bypass circuit board 216, the dual channel communications loop extends to each of the disk drives 212 in the next module when one is connected. Specifically, if there is an additional module 202B connected to module 202A as illustrated, then communications from the computer 102 of module 202A are directed by the module bypass circuit board 216 to the next module 202B via connectors 218 and optical fibers 220 so that module 202B is within and traversed by the dual Fibre Channel communication loop.
  • It will be appreciated that with the above described architecture, individual mass storage device modules 202 of the mass storage array 200 may be expanded internally by adding disk drives or other suitable storage devices, and bad disk drives may be replaced without affecting the operation of the rest of the module or the system it is used in. This provides an extremely versatile hot swappable, hot expandable, mass storage device array. In addition, when the demands of the system exceed the capacity of a single module, an additional module may be added, again without interrupting the operation of the rest of the array or its system.
  • As was explained above, the Fibre Channel controller provides a dual path through each module of the mass storage array 200. In accordance with the present invention, the system can be configured so that the dual path is a single path which traverses the mass storage array twice or two independent paths as is illustrated in FIGS. 4A and 4B.
  • Referring now to FIGS. 4A and 4B, the Fibre Channel controller (FCC) 104 includes two output paths A and B. Each path traverses the mass storage module 202 as illustrated, communicating with each of the present and operable storage devices 212 and returning to the FCC. In the FIG. 4A embodiment, the A path returning to the FCC is looped back to the B output path. Accordingly, a single continuous path traverses the mass storage module twice. In the FIG. 4B embodiment, the A return path is not looped back to the B output path. Accordingly, two paths traverse the mass storage module and can be used independently. This latter embodiment provides a second path in the event that one path fails.
  • It will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that the FIGS. 4A and 4B embodiments provide redundancy and fault tolerance. The FIG. 4A embodiment is somewhat simpler to implement because only one set of chips is necessary to provide the single Fibre Channel capability required for the single loop. Still, if one of the loops is broken or encounters some other fault, that loop can be bypassed within the controller, and the other loop is still available. Similarly, while the FIG. 4B embodiment may be more complex and expensive to implement, it provides two independently addressable loops for fault tolerance and redundancy, but also provides significantly greater communications bandwidth.
  • FIG. 5 illustrates a further configuration which is made possible by the system architecture of the present invention. In the FIG. 5 embodiment, two servers are connected to a mass storage array, a first module of which is illustrated. The servers 100A and 100B are connected to Fibre Channel bypass boards 222A and 222B, respectively. The operation of the computers 102A and 102B may be sensed by the Fibre Channel bypass boards, for example by sensing signal flow as with the chassis bypass board, so that the computers 102A and 102B can operate together or, in the case of a fault, separately. As was previously mentioned, each server may have flash memory, and in the embodiment of FIG. 5, each computer 102A and 102B has its own flash memory with its operating system stored therein. In this fashion, the computers can boot independently from its associated flash memory rather than from the shared memory or other disk arrangement.
  • It will be appreciated that the system configuration illustrated in FIG. 5 provides two servers and thus increased processing power. In addition, one server provides backup to the other in the event of failure, thereby providing increased fault tolerance and reliability. In addition, the architecture of FIG. 5 permits the two servers to communicate with each other at Fibre Channel speeds, higher than could, be achieved with 100BaseT LAN, using IP protocol.
  • It can be seen that system architecture according to the present invention lends itself to a wide variety of configurations to accommodate a variety of applications. FIG. 6 illustrates one configuration wherein two servers A and B are connected in a suitable local area network (LAN) configuration with access to the internet. Server A has its own mass storage array 200 as does server B. It will be appreciated that several servers and storage arrays can be networked in this fashion to provide a very powerful information or application server system particularly suitable for web server applications. In addition, this configuration permits full duplication of computer/mass storage systems rather than sharing a mass storage system as with the embodiment of FIG. 5. Moreover, while the FIG. 6 embodiment illustrates communication over a LAN which typically may be a 100BaseT LAN, it will be appreciated that this may be a Fibre Channel LAN if rates in the gigabit range are desired. These features and advantages may be the ideal choice for critical processing applications such as web servers.
  • FIG. 7 illustrates another configuration particularly useful for video streaming applications. In this embodiment, the diagnostics computer 110 also has indexing functions for controlling access to content servers 1, 2 and 3. The content servers 100 provide access to video stored in their associated storage arrays 200. Alternatives, also particularly suitable for video streaming applications, are shown in FIGS. 8 and 9. In the FIG. 8 embodiment duplicated index servers separate from the diagnostics computer are provided with their own storage arrays. In the illustrated embodiment there are two index servers 1 and 2 and there are three content servers 1, 2 and 3, each with an associated storage array. In the FIG. 9 embodiment, the functions of the index servers are distributed among the content servers so that there are multiple index/content servers 1-5. One skilled in the art will appreciate that the FIG. 8 approach uses an architecture where the index server or servers coordinate content streaming from the content servers whereas in FIG. 9 the index and content server functionality is distributed across all servers, providing extensive scalability.
  • FIGS. 10 and 11 are functional block diagrams which generally illustrate the storage and chassis bypass circuit boards 210 and 216, respectively, in greater detail. Referring to FIG. 10, the storage bypass circuit board 210 includes a bypass board backplane connector 230 arranged to plug into a connector on the backplane generally indicated at 232. The A and B signal paths coming from a previous bypass circuit or directly from the Fibre Channel controller are connected through the backplane to the bypass board via the backplane connector 230. Similarly, the A and B signal paths emerge from the bypass board 210 via the bypass board backplane connector 230.
  • The A signal path from the backplane connector 230 is connected to a suitable conventional electronic switch 234. The B signal path from the backplane connector 230 likewise is connected to an electronic switch 236. The A and B signal paths from electronic switches 234 and 236 are connected to a bypass board storage card or drive connector 238 where they are routed to the storage device (e.g., a disk drive) 212.
  • The return A signal path from the bypass board drive connector 238 is connected to the switch 234, and the return B signal path from the connector 238 is connected to switch 236. A fault signal produced by the storage device to indicate its presence and its level of operability as was described above is applied to each of the electronic switches 234 and 236 to control the switching thereof. The A and B return paths from the switches 234 and 236 are connected to the bypass board backplane connector 230 where they are routed through the backplane 232 to the next bypass circuit board or to the Fibre Channel controller.
  • In operation, the A signal path enters the bypass circuit board and is connected to the switch 234. If the fault signal is not present (i.e., there is no fault and the signal is in a low or negative signal state) indicating that the storage device is not present or is inoperable, the switch 234 returns the A signal path to the bypass board backplane connector 230 thus bypassing the storage device 212. The B signal path similarly is looped back to the backplane connector 230 by the electronic switch 236 if the fault signal is low. On the other hand, the A and B signal paths are routed through the switches 234 and 236 to the storage device and then back through the switches when the fault signal is high or positive indicating the storage device is present and operable.
  • Referring now to FIG. 11, the chassis bypass circuit board is essentially the same as the storage bypass circuit board except the selection made by the electronic switches 234 and 236 is between acting as a bypass or connecting the A and B to the I/O connector 238. In this regard, the I/O connector is preferably a conventional optical fiber transceiver for use in bi-directional communication applications over multimode optical fiber, particularly in multimode or single mode Fibre Channel applications. For example, the transceiver may be a model MLC-25-6-X-T optical fibre channel small factor (SFF) transceiver available from Methode Electronics, Inc. of Chicago, Ill. Such transceivers include a light transmitter and receiver as well as a standard receptacle for receiving an industry standard optical fiber connector. In addition, the transceiver provides a signal detect output (the fault signal in FIG. 11) which indicates whether or not the transceiver is receiving a light signal. If it is not, the fault signal causes the electronic switches 234A and 236A to loop the A and B paths back to the chassis bypass board connector 230A. If, on the other hand, the fault signal indicates that a light signal is being received by the transceiver 218, the electrical signals on the A and B paths are passed through the switches 234A and 236A to the transceiver 218 where they are converted to light signals and transmitted over the optical fibers forming the A and B paths to the next chassis. Similarly, light signals returned from the next chassis on the A and B paths are converted back to electrical signals by the transceiver 218 and returned along the A and B paths through the switches 234A and 236A to the connector 230A and onto the next bypass circuit or the Fibre Channel controller.
  • Typically, each of the modules 202 of a mass storage device array such as the one shown in FIG. 3 is enclosed in a housing or, if mounted in a rack, may be surrounded by other structures and/or other circuit boards. The server components such as the computers 102 and 110, the touch screen display 112, the Fibre Channel controller, and other system components such as communication access cards, ethernet cards, LAN components and the like may also be mounted within the same housing or on the same rack. Heating may therefore be a problem, particularly where the storage devices used in the modules are disk drives driven by motors. Accordingly, the preferred embodiment of the present invention as illustrated in FIGS. 12A and 12B includes a physical structure and arrangement of the various bypass circuit boards and storage devices that accommodates the circulation of cooling air throughout the module with minimal obstruction.
  • In accordance with one aspect of this physical structure of the invention, each of the drive bypass circuit boards 210 is a relatively thin circuit board. The circuit board is, however, unlike typical circuit boards built to receive a disk drive or other mass storage device. In such conventional circuit boards, the connector or plug which receives the plug-in disk drive typically is positioned so that the disk drive extends perpendicular to the plane of the board. For example, it is usual to have the bypass circuits and/or the communications paths between them on a backplane or midplane circuit board which extends across the module in a fashion similar to a computer motherboard which extends across the computer chassis and has connectors to receive various plug-in cards or boards. That arrangement creates an obstruction which makes it more difficult to effectively cool heat producing storage devices such as disk drives.
  • As, is illustrated in FIGS. 12A and 12B, the present invention does not use either a circuit board midplane or a backplane structure. Instead, the connector on the drive bypass board which receives the disk drive (e.g., the connector 238 in FIG. 10) is at the edge of the board so that the drive, when plugged in, extends parallel to the circuit board. In addition, the drive bypass circuit board itself is not plugged into a backplane circuit board. Rather, a connector is provided on the edge of the board, preferably opposite the disk drive connector as illustrated at 239 in FIG. 10, and that connector plugs into an individual connector which is mounted on a frame or other structural member of the chassis and which is wired or otherwise connected to similar connectors for the other disk bypass circuit boards.
  • FIG. 12A shows a side view of the disk drive 212 plugged into the drive bypass circuit board 210 via connector 238, with the drive bypass circuit board plugged into connector 240 suitably mounted on structural members 242 of the chassis or rack containing the mass storage module and/or server and its associated components. FIG. 12B is an end view illustrating several bypass circuit boards 210 plugged into the connectors 240 which are in turn connected by screws or other suitable means to the structural members 242. Since there is no backplane which would normally make the connections between adjacent components, electrical or light connections generally indicated at 246 are suitably provided between the connectors 240 to provide the communications required, as illustrated, for example, in FIGS. 3 and 5.
  • It can be seen that between each connector 240 there is a space 244 through which air can readily be drawn or forced by a fan or other air circulation means as is necessary. Even if the structural members are part of a housing that surrounds the components, screening or other suitable openings can be provided so that the areas 244 permit sufficient air flow. It can also be seen that because the disk drive is plugged into the bypass circuit board so that their planes are parallel and not perpendicular, there is no obstruction of air flow.
  • It will also be appreciated that this arrangement is particularly suited for field service of the unit and is readily upgradeable. Connectors can be readily replaced in the field without the need to change a complete backplane or midplane board, and in some instances repairs of this sort can be carried out with little or no down time. In addition, the illustrated connection arrangement permits expansion without the limitations encountered when using a backplane or midplane with a fixed number of expansion slots and without the other physical and electrical limitations encountered with backplanes or midplanes.
  • Similar physical arrangements may be used to connect computers to their associated components to create the desired server configuration. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 13A, a single board computer of the type previously described in connection with the description of the server 100 may connect to the communications card 106 through a mini compactPCI (CPCI) backplane. In this case, the single board computer SBC may incorporate the Fibre Channel controller FCC. Likewise, in FIG. 13B, the SBC may connect to an input/output unit I/O at the left rear connector of the CPCI backplane. In this case, the I/O may include the FCC functions. Again, it will be appreciated that the foregoing advantages are achieved with this sort of simple backplane or midplane structure which does not extend across the cabinet or rack.
  • Referring generally now to the block diagram of FIG. 14, the disk array controller subsystem 330 further incorporates a high speed chip set, such as the ISP2100 Intelligent Fibre Channel Processor available from Qlogic Corp., which includes a reduced instruction set chip (“RISC”) processor 335, a compact PCI interface 340, and a Fibre Channel capable, arbitrated dual loop direct disk access protocol interface 350 for maximum communications bandwidth and redundancy. This controller 330 communicates data stored on the disk array or to be stored thereon through the communications interface subsystem 310 between the disk array 200 and the outside world. The controller 330 is fully Fibre Channel compliant and is capable of controlling up to 126 disk storage devices in the disk array 200. The controller 330 is adapted to configure the disk array 200 for fault tolerant, data redundancy protocols including, but not limited to, RAID 0, 1, 3, 5, 10 (1 & 0) and the new XOR RAID configuration.
  • The above-described exemplary embodiments are intended to be illustrative in all, respects, rather than restrictive, of the present invention. Thus the present invention is capable of many variations in detailed implementation. that can be derived from the description contained herein by a person skilled in the art. All such variations and modifications are considered to be within the scope and spirit of the present invention as defined by the following claims.

Claims (11)

1. A method for transferring data in a network server system, the network server system being connected to a network for providing subscribers on a network with access to data from the network server system, comprising:
providing at least one mass storage device;
providing a mass storage device controller, said mass storage device controller being connected to said at least one mass storage device for controlling input and output of said at least one mass storage device;
providing a communications interface, said communications interface providing a connection to the network for receiving input signals from the network and for outputting signals from the network server system to the network, said mass storage device controller being connected to said communications interface for receiving input signals from the network and for outputting signals from said at least one mass storage device to the network;
establishing direct communication between said mass storage device controller and said communications interface; and
maintaining the direct communication between said mass storage device controller and said communications interface to provide the subscribers on the network with access to data from the network server system.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein said mass storage device controller operates with a Fibre Channel protocol.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein said mass storage device controller comprises an arbitrated loop dual channel Fibre Channel controller.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein said mass storage device controller is connected to an optical input/output connector which is connected to said at least one mass storage device, the optical input/output connector outputting electrical signals as output light signals and inputting light signals to said mass storage device controller as input electrical signals.
5. A network server system for transferring data, the network server system being connected to a network for providing subscribers on the network with access to data from the network server system, comprising:
at least one mass storage device;
a mass storage device controller, said mass storage device controller being connected to said at least one mass storage device for controlling input and output of said at least one mass storage device;
a communications interface, said communications interface providing a connection to the network for receiving input signals from the network and for outputting signals from the network server system to the network, said mass storage device controller being connected to said communications interface for receiving input signals from the network and for outputting signals from said at least one mass storage device to the network;
means for establishing direct communication between said mass storage device controller and said communications interface; and
means for maintaining the direct communication between said mass storage device controller and said communications interface to provide the subscribers on the network with access to data from the network server system.
6. The network server system of claim 5, wherein said mass storage device controller operates with a Fibre Channel protocol.
7. The network server system of claim 5, wherein said mass storage device controller comprises an arbitrated loop dual channel Fibre Channel controller.
8. The network server system of claim 5, wherein said mass storage device controller is connected to an optical input/output connector which is connected to said at least one mass storage device, the optical input/output connector outputting electrical signals as output light signals and inputting light signals to said mass storage device controller as input electrical signals.
9. A network server system, comprising:
a central processing unit;
a mass storage device;
a first controller, said first controller being connected to said mass storage device for controlling input and output of said mass storage device;
a communications interface, said communications interface providing a connection to the network for receiving input signals from the network and for outputting signals from the network server system to the network; and
a second controller communicatively coupled to the central processing unit and the first controller, the second controller communicatively coupled to said communications interface to communicate with a network, the central processing unit being operative to establish direct communication between the first and second controllers, and said first and second controllers being operative to maintain the direct communication independent of the central processing unit.
10. The network server system of claim 9, wherein the first controller communicates with the mass storage device over a high speed optical network.
11. A network server system connected to a network for providing subscribers on the network with access to data from the network server system, comprising:
a central processing unit;
a network communications interface;
a mass storage device; and
a storage device controller communicatively coupled to the network communications interface and to the mass storage device to control communications between network communications interface and the mass storage device, said central processing unit being operative to establish direct communications between the mass storage device and the network communications interface via the storage device controller to provide the subscribers on the network with access to data from the network server system.
US11/125,568 2000-06-12 2005-05-09 High speed information processing and mass storage system and method, particularly for information and application servers Abandoned US20050203989A1 (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US11/125,568 US20050203989A1 (en) 2000-06-12 2005-05-09 High speed information processing and mass storage system and method, particularly for information and application servers

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US09/592,572 US7263476B1 (en) 2000-06-12 2000-06-12 High speed information processing and mass storage system and method, particularly for information and application servers
US11/125,568 US20050203989A1 (en) 2000-06-12 2005-05-09 High speed information processing and mass storage system and method, particularly for information and application servers

Related Parent Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
US09/592,572 Division US7263476B1 (en) 2000-06-12 2000-06-12 High speed information processing and mass storage system and method, particularly for information and application servers

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
US20050203989A1 true US20050203989A1 (en) 2005-09-15

Family

ID=24371224

Family Applications (4)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
US09/592,572 Expired - Fee Related US7263476B1 (en) 2000-06-12 2000-06-12 High speed information processing and mass storage system and method, particularly for information and application servers
US11/051,852 Abandoned US20050223146A1 (en) 2000-06-12 2005-02-04 High speed information processing and mass storage system and method, particularly for information and application servers
US11/125,568 Abandoned US20050203989A1 (en) 2000-06-12 2005-05-09 High speed information processing and mass storage system and method, particularly for information and application servers
US11/780,368 Abandoned US20070266074A1 (en) 2000-06-12 2007-07-19 High speed information processing and mass storage system and method, particularly for information and application servers

Family Applications Before (2)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
US09/592,572 Expired - Fee Related US7263476B1 (en) 2000-06-12 2000-06-12 High speed information processing and mass storage system and method, particularly for information and application servers
US11/051,852 Abandoned US20050223146A1 (en) 2000-06-12 2005-02-04 High speed information processing and mass storage system and method, particularly for information and application servers

Family Applications After (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
US11/780,368 Abandoned US20070266074A1 (en) 2000-06-12 2007-07-19 High speed information processing and mass storage system and method, particularly for information and application servers

Country Status (8)

Country Link
US (4) US7263476B1 (en)
EP (1) EP1311939A2 (en)
JP (1) JP2004503858A (en)
KR (1) KR20030031495A (en)
CN (1) CN1265272C (en)
AU (2) AU6706701A (en)
CA (1) CA2416196A1 (en)
WO (1) WO2001097003A2 (en)

Cited By (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US8130925B2 (en) 2006-12-08 2012-03-06 Verint Americas, Inc. Systems and methods for recording
US8130926B2 (en) 2006-12-08 2012-03-06 Verint Americas, Inc. Systems and methods for recording data
US8280011B2 (en) 2006-12-08 2012-10-02 Verint Americas, Inc. Recording in a distributed environment

Families Citing this family (27)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US7263476B1 (en) * 2000-06-12 2007-08-28 Quad Research High speed information processing and mass storage system and method, particularly for information and application servers
GB2377140B (en) * 2001-06-29 2005-01-19 Ibm Method and apparatus for recovery from faults in a loop network
US7240154B2 (en) * 2004-06-28 2007-07-03 Emc Corporation Low cost flexible network accessed storage architecture
JP2006293863A (en) * 2005-04-13 2006-10-26 Hitachi Ltd Disk array device and control method thereof
JP2007011583A (en) * 2005-06-29 2007-01-18 Toshiba Corp Information processing apparatus, and operation control method for the apparatus
CN1329809C (en) * 2005-10-25 2007-08-01 威盛电子股份有限公司 Controller of magnetic disk array and its working method
US20080010513A1 (en) * 2006-06-27 2008-01-10 International Business Machines Corporation Controlling computer storage systems
US7661017B2 (en) * 2007-01-30 2010-02-09 International Business Machines Corporaion Diagnostic operations within a switched fibre channel arbitrated loop system
US7929865B2 (en) * 2007-07-27 2011-04-19 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. Free space WDM signal detector
CN101364213B (en) * 2007-08-06 2010-12-08 普诚科技股份有限公司 Data access system
JP5034790B2 (en) * 2007-08-31 2012-09-26 富士ゼロックス株式会社 Data processing system
US8335776B2 (en) 2008-07-02 2012-12-18 Commvault Systems, Inc. Distributed indexing system for data storage
US10236032B2 (en) * 2008-09-18 2019-03-19 Novachips Canada Inc. Mass data storage system with non-volatile memory modules
JP5171602B2 (en) * 2008-12-25 2013-03-27 京セラドキュメントソリューションズ株式会社 RAID driver, electronic device including the same, and access request arbitration method for RAID
US8301822B2 (en) * 2009-09-23 2012-10-30 Sandisk Il Ltd. Multi-protocol storage device bridge
US8164936B2 (en) * 2009-10-14 2012-04-24 Seagate Technology Llc Switched memory devices
US8358660B2 (en) * 2009-11-16 2013-01-22 Verizon Patent And Licensing Inc. Method and system for providing integrated content delivery
CN101702114A (en) * 2009-11-18 2010-05-05 成都市华为赛门铁克科技有限公司 Memory module, memory device, memory system and data-processing method
CN102624556B (en) * 2012-03-07 2015-07-08 深圳华北工控股份有限公司 Environmentally-friendly intelligent optical BYPASS system
US8720626B2 (en) * 2012-08-28 2014-05-13 Caterpillar Global Mining Llc Motor drive system
CN103793180A (en) * 2012-10-30 2014-05-14 英业达科技有限公司 Disk collocation method and server rack system
US8941348B2 (en) 2012-12-18 2015-01-27 Caterpillar Global Mining Llc Motor protection system
US10430789B1 (en) 2014-06-10 2019-10-01 Lockheed Martin Corporation System, method and computer program product for secure retail transactions (SRT)
US9419954B1 (en) 2014-06-10 2016-08-16 Lockheed Martin Corporation Storing and transmitting sensitive data
CN104461381A (en) * 2014-11-19 2015-03-25 华为技术有限公司 Memory system, memory controller and information processing method
CN106776430A (en) * 2016-12-12 2017-05-31 英业达科技有限公司 Server system
CN115562566B (en) * 2022-01-06 2024-01-26 澜起电子科技(上海)有限公司 Modular storage device

Citations (94)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4347563A (en) * 1980-06-16 1982-08-31 Forney Engineering Company Industrial control system
US4590554A (en) * 1982-11-23 1986-05-20 Parallel Computers Systems, Inc. Backup fault tolerant computer system
US4773313A (en) * 1988-01-20 1988-09-27 Bunn-O-Matic Corporation Iced tea brewer with portable server
US4819159A (en) * 1986-08-29 1989-04-04 Tolerant Systems, Inc. Distributed multiprocess transaction processing system and method
US4871324A (en) * 1987-03-20 1989-10-03 Siemens Aktiengesellschaft Backplane for supporting removable modular
US5005122A (en) * 1987-09-08 1991-04-02 Digital Equipment Corporation Arrangement with cooperating management server node and network service node
US5134619A (en) * 1990-04-06 1992-07-28 Sf2 Corporation Failure-tolerant mass storage system
US5140689A (en) * 1989-05-25 1992-08-18 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Data recovery system and method of distributed transaction processing system
US5151989A (en) * 1987-02-13 1992-09-29 International Business Machines Corporation Directory cache management in a distributed data processing system
US5155729A (en) * 1990-05-02 1992-10-13 Rolm Systems Fault recovery in systems utilizing redundant processor arrangements
US5157663A (en) * 1990-09-24 1992-10-20 Novell, Inc. Fault tolerant computer system
US5157771A (en) * 1988-06-08 1992-10-20 Bull Hn Information Systems Inc. Apparatus for hot removal from/insertion to a connection bus of a non removable media magnetic recording unit
US5185693A (en) * 1989-11-27 1993-02-09 Olin Corporation Method and apparatus for providing backup process control
US5210866A (en) * 1990-09-12 1993-05-11 Storage Technology Corporation Incremental disk backup system for a dynamically mapped data storage subsystem
US5210855A (en) * 1989-06-09 1993-05-11 International Business Machines Corporation System for computer peripheral bus for allowing hot extraction on insertion without disrupting adjacent devices
US5218697A (en) * 1990-04-18 1993-06-08 Microsoft Corporation Method and system for networking computers having varying file architectures
US5227778A (en) * 1991-04-05 1993-07-13 Digital Equipment Corporation Service name to network address translation in communications network
US5249293A (en) * 1989-06-27 1993-09-28 Digital Equipment Corporation Computer network providing transparent operation on a compute server and associated method
US5255367A (en) * 1987-09-04 1993-10-19 Digital Equipment Corporation Fault tolerant, synchronized twin computer system with error checking of I/O communication
US5277615A (en) * 1992-09-24 1994-01-11 Compaq Computer Corporation Apparatus for removably supporting a plurality of hot plug-connected hard disk drives
US5287461A (en) * 1991-10-31 1994-02-15 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Method and apparatus for remotely accessing a plurality of server consoles
US5297067A (en) * 1991-10-16 1994-03-22 Quantum Corporation Electronic hot connection of disk drive module to computer peripheral bus
US5311873A (en) * 1992-08-28 1994-05-17 Ecole Polytechnique Comparative analysis of body surface potential distribution during cardiac pacing
US5343358A (en) * 1993-04-26 1994-08-30 Ncr Corporation Apparatus for cooling electronic devices
US5343477A (en) * 1990-09-17 1994-08-30 Omron Corporation Data processing system with data transmission failure recovery measures
US5386567A (en) * 1992-01-20 1995-01-31 International Business Machines Corp. Hot removable and insertion of attachments on fully initialized computer systems
US5390326A (en) * 1993-04-30 1995-02-14 The Foxboro Company Local area network with fault detection and recovery
US5394526A (en) * 1993-02-01 1995-02-28 Lsc, Inc. Data server for transferring selected blocks of remote file to a distributed computer network involving only single data transfer operation
US5408649A (en) * 1993-04-30 1995-04-18 Quotron Systems, Inc. Distributed data access system including a plurality of database access processors with one-for-N redundancy
US5410691A (en) * 1990-05-07 1995-04-25 Next Computer, Inc. Method and apparatus for providing a network configuration database
US5412723A (en) * 1994-03-01 1995-05-02 International Business Machines Corporation Mechanism for keeping a key secret from mobile eavesdroppers
US5423042A (en) * 1992-10-23 1995-06-06 International Business Machines Corporation Remote procedure execution
US5430876A (en) * 1989-06-27 1995-07-04 Digital Equipment Corporation Remote procedure callback system and method
US5434994A (en) * 1994-05-23 1995-07-18 International Business Machines Corporation System and method for maintaining replicated data coherency in a data processing system
US5442749A (en) * 1991-08-22 1995-08-15 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Network video server system receiving requests from clients for specific formatted data through a default channel and establishing communication through separate control and data channels
US5446736A (en) * 1993-10-07 1995-08-29 Ast Research, Inc. Method and apparatus for connecting a node to a wireless network using a standard protocol
US5450578A (en) * 1993-12-23 1995-09-12 Unisys Corporation Method and apparatus for automatically routing around faults within an interconnect system
US5450583A (en) * 1991-06-20 1995-09-12 Fujitsu Limited Object-oriented language processing system
US5452448A (en) * 1992-03-16 1995-09-19 Hitachi, Ltd. Method of replicate file updating by monitoring file accesses and system therefor
US5454080A (en) * 1992-02-10 1995-09-26 International Business Machines Corporation Removable hard disk drive system with circuit for hot insertion and removal responsive to contacts of zero-insertion-force connector on the lateral side of the drive
US5455953A (en) * 1993-11-03 1995-10-03 Wang Laboratories, Inc. Authorization system for obtaining in single step both identification and access rights of client to server directly from encrypted authorization ticket
US5488716A (en) * 1991-10-28 1996-01-30 Digital Equipment Corporation Fault tolerant computer system with shadow virtual processor
US5502836A (en) * 1991-11-21 1996-03-26 Ast Research, Inc. Method for disk restriping during system operation
US5504882A (en) * 1994-06-20 1996-04-02 International Business Machines Corporation Fault tolerant data storage subsystem employing hierarchically arranged controllers
US5513314A (en) * 1995-01-27 1996-04-30 Auspex Systems, Inc. Fault tolerant NFS server system and mirroring protocol
US5517632A (en) * 1992-08-26 1996-05-14 Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha Redundant array of disks with improved storage and recovery speed
US5518418A (en) * 1994-02-14 1996-05-21 Hjs & E Engineering SCSI ID connector assembly
US5522031A (en) * 1993-06-29 1996-05-28 Digital Equipment Corporation Method and apparatus for the on-line restoration of a disk in a RAID-4 or RAID-5 array with concurrent access by applications
US5530905A (en) * 1988-05-26 1996-06-25 Digital Equipment Corporation Temporary state preservation for a distributed file service which purges virtual circuit control information after expiration of time limit of inactivity
US5537642A (en) * 1991-10-02 1996-07-16 International Business Machines Corporation Method for authenticating messages passed between tasks
US5542087A (en) * 1993-10-15 1996-07-30 Hewlett-Packard Company Linear hashing for distributed records
US5544339A (en) * 1992-01-07 1996-08-06 Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha Array of disk drives with redundant channels
US5546583A (en) * 1994-04-05 1996-08-13 International Business Machines Corporation Method and system for providing a client/server interface in a programming language
US5548711A (en) * 1993-08-26 1996-08-20 Emc Corporation Method and apparatus for fault tolerant fast writes through buffer dumping
US5548724A (en) * 1993-03-22 1996-08-20 Hitachi, Ltd. File server system and file access control method of the same
US5548712A (en) * 1995-01-19 1996-08-20 Hewlett-Packard Company Data storage system and method for managing asynchronous attachment and detachment of storage disks
US5564040A (en) * 1994-11-08 1996-10-08 International Business Machines Corporation Method and apparatus for providing a server function in a logically partitioned hardware machine
US5566297A (en) * 1994-06-16 1996-10-15 International Business Machines Corporation Non-disruptive recovery from file server failure in a highly available file system for clustered computing environments
US5592611A (en) * 1995-03-14 1997-01-07 Network Integrity, Inc. Stand-in computer server
US5600644A (en) * 1995-03-10 1997-02-04 At&T Method and apparatus for interconnecting LANs
US5602852A (en) * 1989-07-13 1997-02-11 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Data communications system using a fiber distributed data exchange interface
US5603029A (en) * 1995-06-07 1997-02-11 International Business Machines Corporation System of assigning work requests based on classifying into an eligible class where the criteria is goal oriented and capacity information is available
US5604803A (en) * 1994-06-03 1997-02-18 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Method and apparatus for secure remote authentication in a public network
US5608865A (en) * 1995-03-14 1997-03-04 Network Integrity, Inc. Stand-in Computer file server providing fast recovery from computer file server failures
US5617540A (en) * 1995-07-31 1997-04-01 At&T System for binding host name of servers and address of available server in cache within client and for clearing cache prior to client establishes connection
US5621795A (en) * 1994-12-27 1997-04-15 Pitney Bowes Inc. System and method for fault tolerant key management
US5630007A (en) * 1995-03-30 1997-05-13 Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha Client-server system with parity storage
US5642515A (en) * 1992-04-17 1997-06-24 International Business Machines Corporation Network server for local and remote resources
US5644698A (en) * 1996-05-30 1997-07-01 International Business Machines Corporation Configurable reuse delay criterion for storage volumes
US5655152A (en) * 1992-12-10 1997-08-05 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. System for allocating data output requests to output units having different output formats in accordance with data output format compatibility and priority characteristic
US5664119A (en) * 1994-07-07 1997-09-02 Dell Usa, L.P. Local proactive hot swap request/acknowledge system
US5664106A (en) * 1993-06-04 1997-09-02 Digital Equipment Corporation Phase-space surface representation of server computer performance in a computer network
US5675723A (en) * 1995-05-19 1997-10-07 Compaq Computer Corporation Multi-server fault tolerance using in-band signalling
US5680538A (en) * 1995-08-10 1997-10-21 Dell Usa, L.P. System and method for maintaining a minimum quality of service during read operations on disk arrays
US5682509A (en) * 1995-12-13 1997-10-28 Ast Research, Inc. Bus interface to a RAID architecture
US5706458A (en) * 1996-03-05 1998-01-06 Microsoft Corporation Method and system for merging menus of application programs
US5729763A (en) * 1995-08-15 1998-03-17 Emc Corporation Data storage system
US5734831A (en) * 1996-04-26 1998-03-31 Sun Microsystems, Inc. System for configuring and remotely administering a unix computer over a network
US5734898A (en) * 1994-06-24 1998-03-31 International Business Machines Corporation Client-server computer system and method for updating the client, server, and objects
US5737549A (en) * 1994-01-31 1998-04-07 Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne Method and apparatus for a parallel data storage and processing server
US5737747A (en) * 1995-10-27 1998-04-07 Emc Corporation Prefetching to service multiple video streams from an integrated cached disk array
US5740423A (en) * 1995-12-28 1998-04-14 Csg Systems, Inc. System and method for accessing distributed data on a plurality of databases
US5740371A (en) * 1995-09-30 1998-04-14 International Business Machines Corporation Load balancing of connections to parallel servers
WO1998021660A1 (en) * 1996-11-14 1998-05-22 Data General Corporation Dynamically upgradeable disk array system and method
US5784576A (en) * 1996-10-31 1998-07-21 International Business Machines Corp. Method and apparatus for adding and removing components of a data processing system without powering down
US5796580A (en) * 1993-04-13 1998-08-18 Hitachi, Ltd. Air-cooled information processing apparatus having cooling air fan, sub-fan, and plural separated cooling air flow channels
US5828475A (en) * 1995-10-25 1998-10-27 Mcdata Corporation Bypass switching and messaging mechanism for providing intermix data transfer for a fiber optic switch using a bypass bus and buffer
US5893140A (en) * 1996-08-14 1999-04-06 Emc Corporation File server having a file system cache and protocol for truly safe asynchronous writes
US6055228A (en) * 1996-12-23 2000-04-25 Lsi Logic Corporation Methods and apparatus for dynamic topology configuration in a daisy-chained communication environment
US6065087A (en) * 1998-05-21 2000-05-16 Hewlett-Packard Company Architecture for a high-performance network/bus multiplexer interconnecting a network and a bus that transport data using multiple protocols
US6112276A (en) * 1997-10-10 2000-08-29 Signatec, Inc. Modular disk memory apparatus with high transfer rate
US6240471B1 (en) * 1996-09-10 2001-05-29 The United States Of America As Represented By The Secretary Of The Air Force Data transfer interfacing
US6580531B1 (en) * 1999-12-30 2003-06-17 Sycamore Networks, Inc. Method and apparatus for in circuit biasing and testing of a modulated laser and optical receiver in a wavelength division multiplexing optical transceiver board
US6615315B1 (en) * 1999-12-29 2003-09-02 Emc Corporation Fibre channel data storage system having improved fro-end I/O adapted hub

Family Cites Families (29)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4710926A (en) 1985-12-27 1987-12-01 American Telephone And Telegraph Company, At&T Bell Laboratories Fault recovery in a distributed processing system
CA1293819C (en) * 1986-08-29 1991-12-31 Thinking Machines Corporation Very large scale computer
US5271013A (en) 1990-05-09 1993-12-14 Unisys Corporation Fault tolerant computer system
US5265098A (en) 1990-08-03 1993-11-23 International Business Machines Corporation Method and means for managing DASD array accesses when operating in degraded mode
US5414591A (en) * 1991-04-15 1995-05-09 Hitachi, Ltd. Magnetic disk storage system
US5369757A (en) 1991-06-18 1994-11-29 Digital Equipment Corporation Recovery logging in the presence of snapshot files by ordering of buffer pool flushing
US5499337A (en) * 1991-09-27 1996-03-12 Emc Corporation Storage device array architecture with solid-state redundancy unit
WO1993011480A1 (en) 1991-11-27 1993-06-10 Intergraph Corporation System and method for network license administration
US5471099A (en) 1992-11-16 1995-11-28 Hjs&E Engineering Modular enclosure apparatus
US5675579A (en) * 1992-12-17 1997-10-07 Tandem Computers Incorporated Method for verifying responses to messages using a barrier message
US5692128A (en) 1993-06-23 1997-11-25 Microtest, Inc. Computer network with reliable and efficient removable media services
US5694581A (en) 1993-09-07 1997-12-02 Industrial Technology Research Institute Concurrent disk array management system implemented with CPU executable extension
US5471634A (en) 1994-03-29 1995-11-28 The United States Of America As Represented By The Secretary Of The Navy Network file server with automatic sensing means
US5479653A (en) 1994-07-14 1995-12-26 Dellusa, L.P. Disk array apparatus and method which supports compound raid configurations and spareless hot sparing
US5475813A (en) 1994-07-18 1995-12-12 International Business Machines Corporation Routing transactions in the presence of failing servers
US5696965A (en) 1994-11-03 1997-12-09 Intel Corporation Electronic information appraisal agent
US5757642A (en) * 1995-01-20 1998-05-26 Dell Usa L.P. Multi-function server input/output subsystem and method
US5581552A (en) 1995-05-23 1996-12-03 At&T Multimedia server
US5986880A (en) * 1997-06-16 1999-11-16 Compaq Computer Corporation Electronic apparatus having I/O board with cable-free redundant adapter cards thereon
US5831525A (en) * 1997-09-18 1998-11-03 Harvey; James C. Filtered air, temperature controlled removable computer cartridge devices
US6119169A (en) * 1998-01-09 2000-09-12 International Business Machines Corporation Network system having a secondary disk drive bypass circuit activated when all primary disk drive bypass circuits are activated
US6061750A (en) * 1998-02-20 2000-05-09 International Business Machines Corporation Failover system for a DASD storage controller reconfiguring a first processor, a bridge, a second host adaptor, and a second device adaptor upon a second processor failure
US6799224B1 (en) * 1998-03-10 2004-09-28 Quad Research High speed fault tolerant mass storage network information server
AU3075899A (en) * 1998-03-10 1999-09-27 Quad Research High speed fault tolerant mass storage network information server
US6260155B1 (en) * 1998-05-01 2001-07-10 Quad Research Network information server
US6192027B1 (en) * 1998-09-04 2001-02-20 International Business Machines Corporation Apparatus, system, and method for dual-active fibre channel loop resiliency during controller failure
US6636934B1 (en) * 1999-06-30 2003-10-21 Emc Corporation Fiber channel port by-pass selector section for dual ported disk drives
US6671789B1 (en) * 2000-05-04 2003-12-30 International Business Machines Corporation Method and apparatus for determining unknown relationships between storage devices and storage device enclosures
US7263476B1 (en) * 2000-06-12 2007-08-28 Quad Research High speed information processing and mass storage system and method, particularly for information and application servers

Patent Citations (99)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4347563A (en) * 1980-06-16 1982-08-31 Forney Engineering Company Industrial control system
US4590554A (en) * 1982-11-23 1986-05-20 Parallel Computers Systems, Inc. Backup fault tolerant computer system
US4819159A (en) * 1986-08-29 1989-04-04 Tolerant Systems, Inc. Distributed multiprocess transaction processing system and method
US5151989A (en) * 1987-02-13 1992-09-29 International Business Machines Corporation Directory cache management in a distributed data processing system
US4871324A (en) * 1987-03-20 1989-10-03 Siemens Aktiengesellschaft Backplane for supporting removable modular
US5255367A (en) * 1987-09-04 1993-10-19 Digital Equipment Corporation Fault tolerant, synchronized twin computer system with error checking of I/O communication
US5005122A (en) * 1987-09-08 1991-04-02 Digital Equipment Corporation Arrangement with cooperating management server node and network service node
US4773313A (en) * 1988-01-20 1988-09-27 Bunn-O-Matic Corporation Iced tea brewer with portable server
US5530905A (en) * 1988-05-26 1996-06-25 Digital Equipment Corporation Temporary state preservation for a distributed file service which purges virtual circuit control information after expiration of time limit of inactivity
US5606719A (en) * 1988-05-26 1997-02-25 Digital Equipment Corporation Temporary state preservation for a distributed file service
US5157771A (en) * 1988-06-08 1992-10-20 Bull Hn Information Systems Inc. Apparatus for hot removal from/insertion to a connection bus of a non removable media magnetic recording unit
US5140689A (en) * 1989-05-25 1992-08-18 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Data recovery system and method of distributed transaction processing system
US5210855A (en) * 1989-06-09 1993-05-11 International Business Machines Corporation System for computer peripheral bus for allowing hot extraction on insertion without disrupting adjacent devices
US5430876A (en) * 1989-06-27 1995-07-04 Digital Equipment Corporation Remote procedure callback system and method
US5249293A (en) * 1989-06-27 1993-09-28 Digital Equipment Corporation Computer network providing transparent operation on a compute server and associated method
US5602852A (en) * 1989-07-13 1997-02-11 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Data communications system using a fiber distributed data exchange interface
US5185693A (en) * 1989-11-27 1993-02-09 Olin Corporation Method and apparatus for providing backup process control
US5134619A (en) * 1990-04-06 1992-07-28 Sf2 Corporation Failure-tolerant mass storage system
US5218697A (en) * 1990-04-18 1993-06-08 Microsoft Corporation Method and system for networking computers having varying file architectures
US5155729A (en) * 1990-05-02 1992-10-13 Rolm Systems Fault recovery in systems utilizing redundant processor arrangements
US5459863A (en) * 1990-05-07 1995-10-17 Next Computer, Inc. Method of maintaining data integrity in a network database
US5410691A (en) * 1990-05-07 1995-04-25 Next Computer, Inc. Method and apparatus for providing a network configuration database
US5210866A (en) * 1990-09-12 1993-05-11 Storage Technology Corporation Incremental disk backup system for a dynamically mapped data storage subsystem
US5343477A (en) * 1990-09-17 1994-08-30 Omron Corporation Data processing system with data transmission failure recovery measures
US5157663A (en) * 1990-09-24 1992-10-20 Novell, Inc. Fault tolerant computer system
US5227778A (en) * 1991-04-05 1993-07-13 Digital Equipment Corporation Service name to network address translation in communications network
US5450583A (en) * 1991-06-20 1995-09-12 Fujitsu Limited Object-oriented language processing system
US5442749A (en) * 1991-08-22 1995-08-15 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Network video server system receiving requests from clients for specific formatted data through a default channel and establishing communication through separate control and data channels
US5652908A (en) * 1991-10-02 1997-07-29 International Business Machines Corporation Method and apparatus for establishing communications sessions in a remote resource control environment
US5537642A (en) * 1991-10-02 1996-07-16 International Business Machines Corporation Method for authenticating messages passed between tasks
US5297067A (en) * 1991-10-16 1994-03-22 Quantum Corporation Electronic hot connection of disk drive module to computer peripheral bus
US5488716A (en) * 1991-10-28 1996-01-30 Digital Equipment Corporation Fault tolerant computer system with shadow virtual processor
US5287461A (en) * 1991-10-31 1994-02-15 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Method and apparatus for remotely accessing a plurality of server consoles
US5502836A (en) * 1991-11-21 1996-03-26 Ast Research, Inc. Method for disk restriping during system operation
US5544339A (en) * 1992-01-07 1996-08-06 Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha Array of disk drives with redundant channels
US5386567A (en) * 1992-01-20 1995-01-31 International Business Machines Corp. Hot removable and insertion of attachments on fully initialized computer systems
US5454080A (en) * 1992-02-10 1995-09-26 International Business Machines Corporation Removable hard disk drive system with circuit for hot insertion and removal responsive to contacts of zero-insertion-force connector on the lateral side of the drive
US5452448A (en) * 1992-03-16 1995-09-19 Hitachi, Ltd. Method of replicate file updating by monitoring file accesses and system therefor
US5642515A (en) * 1992-04-17 1997-06-24 International Business Machines Corporation Network server for local and remote resources
US5517632A (en) * 1992-08-26 1996-05-14 Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha Redundant array of disks with improved storage and recovery speed
US5311873A (en) * 1992-08-28 1994-05-17 Ecole Polytechnique Comparative analysis of body surface potential distribution during cardiac pacing
US5277615A (en) * 1992-09-24 1994-01-11 Compaq Computer Corporation Apparatus for removably supporting a plurality of hot plug-connected hard disk drives
US5423042A (en) * 1992-10-23 1995-06-06 International Business Machines Corporation Remote procedure execution
US5655152A (en) * 1992-12-10 1997-08-05 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. System for allocating data output requests to output units having different output formats in accordance with data output format compatibility and priority characteristic
US5394526A (en) * 1993-02-01 1995-02-28 Lsc, Inc. Data server for transferring selected blocks of remote file to a distributed computer network involving only single data transfer operation
US5548724A (en) * 1993-03-22 1996-08-20 Hitachi, Ltd. File server system and file access control method of the same
US5796580A (en) * 1993-04-13 1998-08-18 Hitachi, Ltd. Air-cooled information processing apparatus having cooling air fan, sub-fan, and plural separated cooling air flow channels
US5343358A (en) * 1993-04-26 1994-08-30 Ncr Corporation Apparatus for cooling electronic devices
US5390326A (en) * 1993-04-30 1995-02-14 The Foxboro Company Local area network with fault detection and recovery
US5408649A (en) * 1993-04-30 1995-04-18 Quotron Systems, Inc. Distributed data access system including a plurality of database access processors with one-for-N redundancy
US5664106A (en) * 1993-06-04 1997-09-02 Digital Equipment Corporation Phase-space surface representation of server computer performance in a computer network
US5732240A (en) * 1993-06-04 1998-03-24 Digital Equipment Corporation Real-time data cache size adjustment in a server computer
US5522031A (en) * 1993-06-29 1996-05-28 Digital Equipment Corporation Method and apparatus for the on-line restoration of a disk in a RAID-4 or RAID-5 array with concurrent access by applications
US5548711A (en) * 1993-08-26 1996-08-20 Emc Corporation Method and apparatus for fault tolerant fast writes through buffer dumping
US5446736A (en) * 1993-10-07 1995-08-29 Ast Research, Inc. Method and apparatus for connecting a node to a wireless network using a standard protocol
US5542087A (en) * 1993-10-15 1996-07-30 Hewlett-Packard Company Linear hashing for distributed records
US5455953A (en) * 1993-11-03 1995-10-03 Wang Laboratories, Inc. Authorization system for obtaining in single step both identification and access rights of client to server directly from encrypted authorization ticket
US5450578A (en) * 1993-12-23 1995-09-12 Unisys Corporation Method and apparatus for automatically routing around faults within an interconnect system
US5737549A (en) * 1994-01-31 1998-04-07 Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne Method and apparatus for a parallel data storage and processing server
US5518418A (en) * 1994-02-14 1996-05-21 Hjs & E Engineering SCSI ID connector assembly
US5412723A (en) * 1994-03-01 1995-05-02 International Business Machines Corporation Mechanism for keeping a key secret from mobile eavesdroppers
US5546583A (en) * 1994-04-05 1996-08-13 International Business Machines Corporation Method and system for providing a client/server interface in a programming language
US5434994A (en) * 1994-05-23 1995-07-18 International Business Machines Corporation System and method for maintaining replicated data coherency in a data processing system
US5604803A (en) * 1994-06-03 1997-02-18 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Method and apparatus for secure remote authentication in a public network
US5732137A (en) * 1994-06-03 1998-03-24 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Method and apparatus for secure remote authentication in a public network
US5566297A (en) * 1994-06-16 1996-10-15 International Business Machines Corporation Non-disruptive recovery from file server failure in a highly available file system for clustered computing environments
US5504882A (en) * 1994-06-20 1996-04-02 International Business Machines Corporation Fault tolerant data storage subsystem employing hierarchically arranged controllers
US5734898A (en) * 1994-06-24 1998-03-31 International Business Machines Corporation Client-server computer system and method for updating the client, server, and objects
US5664119A (en) * 1994-07-07 1997-09-02 Dell Usa, L.P. Local proactive hot swap request/acknowledge system
US5564040A (en) * 1994-11-08 1996-10-08 International Business Machines Corporation Method and apparatus for providing a server function in a logically partitioned hardware machine
US5621795A (en) * 1994-12-27 1997-04-15 Pitney Bowes Inc. System and method for fault tolerant key management
US5548712A (en) * 1995-01-19 1996-08-20 Hewlett-Packard Company Data storage system and method for managing asynchronous attachment and detachment of storage disks
US5513314A (en) * 1995-01-27 1996-04-30 Auspex Systems, Inc. Fault tolerant NFS server system and mirroring protocol
US5600644A (en) * 1995-03-10 1997-02-04 At&T Method and apparatus for interconnecting LANs
US5608865A (en) * 1995-03-14 1997-03-04 Network Integrity, Inc. Stand-in Computer file server providing fast recovery from computer file server failures
US5592611A (en) * 1995-03-14 1997-01-07 Network Integrity, Inc. Stand-in computer server
US5630007A (en) * 1995-03-30 1997-05-13 Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha Client-server system with parity storage
US5675723A (en) * 1995-05-19 1997-10-07 Compaq Computer Corporation Multi-server fault tolerance using in-band signalling
US5603029A (en) * 1995-06-07 1997-02-11 International Business Machines Corporation System of assigning work requests based on classifying into an eligible class where the criteria is goal oriented and capacity information is available
US5617540A (en) * 1995-07-31 1997-04-01 At&T System for binding host name of servers and address of available server in cache within client and for clearing cache prior to client establishes connection
US5680538A (en) * 1995-08-10 1997-10-21 Dell Usa, L.P. System and method for maintaining a minimum quality of service during read operations on disk arrays
US5729763A (en) * 1995-08-15 1998-03-17 Emc Corporation Data storage system
US5740371A (en) * 1995-09-30 1998-04-14 International Business Machines Corporation Load balancing of connections to parallel servers
US5828475A (en) * 1995-10-25 1998-10-27 Mcdata Corporation Bypass switching and messaging mechanism for providing intermix data transfer for a fiber optic switch using a bypass bus and buffer
US5737747A (en) * 1995-10-27 1998-04-07 Emc Corporation Prefetching to service multiple video streams from an integrated cached disk array
US5682509A (en) * 1995-12-13 1997-10-28 Ast Research, Inc. Bus interface to a RAID architecture
US5740423A (en) * 1995-12-28 1998-04-14 Csg Systems, Inc. System and method for accessing distributed data on a plurality of databases
US5706458A (en) * 1996-03-05 1998-01-06 Microsoft Corporation Method and system for merging menus of application programs
US5734831A (en) * 1996-04-26 1998-03-31 Sun Microsystems, Inc. System for configuring and remotely administering a unix computer over a network
US5644698A (en) * 1996-05-30 1997-07-01 International Business Machines Corporation Configurable reuse delay criterion for storage volumes
US5893140A (en) * 1996-08-14 1999-04-06 Emc Corporation File server having a file system cache and protocol for truly safe asynchronous writes
US6240471B1 (en) * 1996-09-10 2001-05-29 The United States Of America As Represented By The Secretary Of The Air Force Data transfer interfacing
US5784576A (en) * 1996-10-31 1998-07-21 International Business Machines Corp. Method and apparatus for adding and removing components of a data processing system without powering down
WO1998021660A1 (en) * 1996-11-14 1998-05-22 Data General Corporation Dynamically upgradeable disk array system and method
US6055228A (en) * 1996-12-23 2000-04-25 Lsi Logic Corporation Methods and apparatus for dynamic topology configuration in a daisy-chained communication environment
US6112276A (en) * 1997-10-10 2000-08-29 Signatec, Inc. Modular disk memory apparatus with high transfer rate
US6065087A (en) * 1998-05-21 2000-05-16 Hewlett-Packard Company Architecture for a high-performance network/bus multiplexer interconnecting a network and a bus that transport data using multiple protocols
US6615315B1 (en) * 1999-12-29 2003-09-02 Emc Corporation Fibre channel data storage system having improved fro-end I/O adapted hub
US6580531B1 (en) * 1999-12-30 2003-06-17 Sycamore Networks, Inc. Method and apparatus for in circuit biasing and testing of a modulated laser and optical receiver in a wavelength division multiplexing optical transceiver board

Cited By (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US8130925B2 (en) 2006-12-08 2012-03-06 Verint Americas, Inc. Systems and methods for recording
US8130926B2 (en) 2006-12-08 2012-03-06 Verint Americas, Inc. Systems and methods for recording data
US8280011B2 (en) 2006-12-08 2012-10-02 Verint Americas, Inc. Recording in a distributed environment

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
WO2001097003A2 (en) 2001-12-20
WO2001097003A3 (en) 2003-02-13
US20050223146A1 (en) 2005-10-06
CN1265272C (en) 2006-07-19
CN1589428A (en) 2005-03-02
US7263476B1 (en) 2007-08-28
EP1311939A2 (en) 2003-05-21
AU6706701A (en) 2001-12-24
US20070266074A1 (en) 2007-11-15
CA2416196A1 (en) 2001-12-10
AU2001267067B2 (en) 2006-11-02
JP2004503858A (en) 2004-02-05
KR20030031495A (en) 2003-04-21

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
US7263476B1 (en) High speed information processing and mass storage system and method, particularly for information and application servers
AU2001267067A1 (en) High speed information processing and mass storage system and method, particularly for information and application servers
US6981078B2 (en) Fiber channel architecture
US6799224B1 (en) High speed fault tolerant mass storage network information server
US5812754A (en) Raid system with fibre channel arbitrated loop
US6658504B1 (en) Storage apparatus
US6600703B1 (en) Magazine for a plurality of removable hard disk drives
US6763409B1 (en) Switch-on-the-fly GBIC disk channel adapter and disk channel system
US6628513B1 (en) Mass storage device mounting system
US20020159311A1 (en) Data storage apparatus
US7516537B1 (en) Method for converting a standalone network storage system into a disk drive storage enclosure
US20080034067A1 (en) Configurable blade enclosure
US7216195B1 (en) Architecture for managing disk drives
JP2007305150A (en) High speed fault tolerant mass storage network information server
WO2006012357A2 (en) Low cost flexible network accessed storage architecture
US7209981B1 (en) System and method for switching data storage devices and multiple processors
EP0858036A2 (en) Fibre channel attached storage architecture
US6549979B1 (en) Address mapping in mass storage device mounting system
AU2007200468A1 (en) High speed information processing and mass storage system and method, particularly for information and application servers
US7346674B1 (en) Configurable fibre channel loop system
US7539891B2 (en) Switched FC-AL fault tolerant topology
US7099980B1 (en) Data storage system having port disable mechanism
WO2008076204A2 (en) Managing system stability in a data storage system
Blunden et al. Understanding SSA Subsystems in Your Environment
GB2343313A (en) Data storage array using optical data interconnection

Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
STCB Information on status: application discontinuation

Free format text: ABANDONED -- FAILURE TO RESPOND TO AN OFFICE ACTION