System and method for host volume mapping for shared storage volumes in multi-host computing environment

Abstract

The present invention provides a structure and method for controlling access to shared storage devices, such as disk drive memory arrays, in computer systems and networks having multiple host computers (101). A method for controlling access to a hardware device (106) in a computer system having a plurality of computers and at least one hardware device (106) connected to the plurality of computers. The method includes the steps of: associating a locally unique identifier (130) with each of the plurality of computers; and defining in memory a data structure for identifying which of the computers are allowed based on the locally unique identifier accessing the device (190); and querying the data structure to determine whether a requesting one of the computers should be allowed access to the hardware device. In one embodiment, the process of defining the data structure in the memory includes: defining a host computer ID mapping data structure in the memory; defining a port mapping table data structure in the memory that includes a plurality of port mapping table entries; A host identifier list data structure is defined in the memory; a volume permission table data structure is defined in the memory; and a volume number table data structure is defined in the memory.

Description

technical field [0001] Generally, the present invention relates to computer systems and networks having two or more host computers and at least one shared data storage device. More particularly, the present invention relates to structures and methods for controlling access to shared memory in computer systems and networks having multiple host computers, particularly in storage area networks (SANs), which may contribute data to shared data storage Integrity issues. Background technique [0002] Conventional operating systems may often assume that any storage volume or device is "private" and not shared between different host computers. In a distributed computing system, such as a network server system, disk drives, storage volumes, logical volumes or other storage devices may be shared and represent common memory. When a controller responsible for controlling read, write, or other access to storage devices, such as a hard disk array controller (e.g., a RAID controller), is ...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0013] Therefore, the problem that exists is that in the conventional system 100, each host computer 101 has the right to fully access all logical volumes 100, and there is no structure or measure that can restrict access to specific logical volumes by specific hosts or host groups.

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