JPH10293633A - Computer system containing optical fiber-channel connection type storage mechanism - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a storage mechanism architecture which has the excellent performance. SOLUTION: In this system or a network, at least a server 52 is connected to at least a storage 56 via an optical fiber/channel loop 54. In such a constitution, the redundancy is secured for a connection mechanism and a high data rate is attained. Then plural operating systems are available and a system containing a hot plugging function is attained. Furthermore, many devices such as the servers 52 and storages 56 or the devices related to other systems can be connected to the loop 54. The distances among these connectable devices can be set at 10 kilometers or more. Even in such a case, the communication is possible among the devices at a high data rate with use of the loop 54.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a system or network architecture for connecting a computer system to a data storage device via a fiber optic channel connection. More specifically, the present invention relates to an arrangement of a connection mechanism for connecting one or more network servers to one or more storage devices via a network comprising an optical fiber channel arbitration loop. About.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, mass storage devices have become increasingly important in computer networks.
In fact, in a mass storage device provided in a certain type of system, its storage space is increasing without stopping because more data is stored in units of gigabytes. In today's computer networks, in addition to mass storage having sufficient storage capacity, it is easy to access data stored in the mass storage, There is also a demand for a high data rate when reading and writing data. In fact, mass storage systems are better at higher data rates and higher error-free performance.

At present, in the computer industry, the SCSI standard is widely adopted as a method for connecting a computer system and a mass storage device. The SCSI bus can communicate at a communication speed of about 20 megabytes / second. FIG. 1 shows a conventional configuration. In this configuration, a disk storage device 1 is shown.
0 and the network server 12 are connected to each other via the SCSI bus 14.

[0004]

The SCSI bus is associated with various problems and disadvantages that the computer industry is currently working on. To give an example, S
The data rate of the attachment consisting of the CSI bus is insufficient for the server. That is, the data rate of the SCSI bus is too slow to take full advantage of the communication speed and functions of the current network server, and the SCSI bus has a sufficiently large storage capacity corresponding to the current network server. Does not have the performance required to address disk storage devices with When a connection mechanism constituted by a SCSI bus is used, the interconnection mechanism in the architecture of the mass storage mechanism cannot have redundancy, so that when a failure occurs in a server or a part of the storage device, The user may not be able to access the data in the storage device.

[0005] Further, when a connection mechanism constituted by a SCSI bus is used, it is not easy to make it possible for servers of different types to share data stored in one storage device. Further, it is difficult for a system using the SCSI bus to be a system capable of hot plugging. That is, when the system is operating and data is being transferred over a network bus (SCSI bus), devices such as servers and storage units are
It is not easy to enable additional connection to the CSI bus by "plug connection". Furthermore, SCSI bus wiring cables are heavy, bulky, thick, and difficult to bend.

[0006] Therefore, in the field of mass storage devices for computer servers and computer networks, there is a desire to improve the various disadvantages of the SCSI bus described above. The fiber channel attached storage architecture according to the present invention is a conventional SCS.
It is intended to overcome the above-mentioned problems and disadvantages associated with the storage architecture using the I bus.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention is characterized in that the use of a SCSI bus is stopped and a fiber channel-attached storage architecture is adopted instead. And The optical fiber channel-attached storage mechanism architecture according to the present invention has a data read / write speed between a server and a storage device of 100 MB / sec or more (5 times the data read / write speed when using a SCSI bus).
Times or more). Also, since one server can be connected to a plurality of storage devices, the storage capacity accessible by the server increases.
In addition, since a plurality of storage devices can be connected to a plurality of servers, data can be shared among a plurality of servers forming a server cluster or a server network. The fiber optic channel attached storage architecture of the present invention further comprises a "hot
"Plugging" capability, which allows servers, storage, and other devices to be plugged into and removed from the Fiber Channel while it is running. .

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Specific embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The fiber channel attached storage architecture of the preferred embodiment of the present invention may be utilized as an integral part of a computer system to be developed in the future. Further, the use of the optical fiber channel-attached storage mechanism architecture constitutes a large-capacity data storage and retrieval mechanism having a function capable of recovering a failure and an error during transfer by providing redundancy. be able to. Further, the fiber channel attached storage architecture allows for a greater transmission distance for data transmitted over the data bus.
It also provides great flexibility in that current external storage subsystems can be easily used.

The present invention is directed to using fiber optic channels. Fiber Channel is a multi-topology physical transport channel that can be configured in a variety of topologies and functions as a common physical layer for transport according to multiple upper layer protocols such as SCSI, IP, and IPI. Is what you do. Also, by using Fiber Channel,
An arbitration loop can be constructed at low cost. Fiber optic channels are ideal for handling data transfer in large block size data blocks, such as those required in digital video systems and digital imaging systems.

[0010] The fiber optic channel has a wide bus width S
It offers significant advantages in terms of data transfer rate over the CSI bus (the data rate can be at least five times that of the SCSI bus). The use of fiber optic channels allows the construction of very high performance interconnects that can support multiple types of protocols. These advantages help reduce the cost of disk drives, server networks, workstations, and personal computers, and allow supercomputing to occur on those devices.

[0011] The fiber optic channel is relatively straightforward in construction. Fiber Channel is basically a connection mechanism that provides point-to-point (point-to-point) connections, but with an arbitration loop (logical loop) that provides multiple point-to-point connections. Thus, it is possible to cope with a plurality of nodes. In the example shown, addresses to 127 physical nodes are enabled by the protocol of the arbitration loop. Further, in this arbitration loop, communication is performed on a channel by operating each node according to an arbitration protocol without using a central exchange for establishing a communication path. That is, if a node acquires the right to perform communication, the node establishes a connection path with the correspondent node, and if the connection path is established, communication between the two party nodes is established. Be started. This communication is performed in a full-duplex system and at a data transfer rate of 1.0625 Gbit / s. All other nodes besides those two party nodes operate as repeaters. By using a connection mechanism configured as an optical fiber channel loop, the relationship between the server and the storage device becomes flexible, and
This is because a strict one-to-one direct cable relationship (required for cable routing when using a SCSI bus) is no longer necessary.

FIG. 2 shows a basic block diagram of a fiber channel attached storage architecture 50 according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. One or more servers 52 are connected to the optical fiber channel loop 54. Further, one or a plurality of storage devices 56 are connected to the optical fiber channel loop 54. Then, with the relationship mapped by the optical fiber channel loop 54,
One or more servers 52 are connected to the one or more storage devices 56.

The implementation of the fiber channel attached storage architecture shown in FIG. 2 has several advantages. First, since the number of storage devices 56 accessible from each server 52 (ie, the number of storage devices that can be connected to one slot of the server 52) increases, the number of storage devices 56 connected to the optical fiber channel loop 54 increases. Each server 52
Increases the storage capacity that can be accessed. Second
In addition, the use of the optical fiber channel loop 54 allows the storage device 56 to be shared without the restrictions associated with prior generation fiber channel loop systems, Data availability is improved. Third, according to this embodiment, "hot growth" is possible. this is,
Initially, only a small number of servers and storage devices
Configure the channel attached storage architecture,
Later, while the system is powered on and data is being transferred over the fiber channel loop 54, the storage device 56 may be inserted into the fiber channel loop 54 in a "hot-plugging" or "hot-plug" manner. method"
This means that the system can be expanded by connecting in a so-called system. If data was being transferred over the fiber channel loop 54 when the connection was made in a hot-plugging fashion, the system would perform an error recovery cycle and perform a portion of the "broken" data packet. Is corrected for data that may be Therefore, hot plugging here includes not only making a connection while the system is powered on, but also making a connection while the system is transferring data frames. .

Another advantage of the hot plugging in this embodiment is that a system capable of exchanging media can be constructed. This, for example, initially builds an architecture with a connection consisting of multi-mode fiber optics configured as fiber optic channel loops about 300-500 meters in length. And when the user wants to upgrade the network, the connection mechanism is
It may be replaced by a single-mode fiber optic connection that can transfer data as far as 10 kilometers. Further, according to the architecture according to this embodiment, those skilled in the art can easily add upgraded hardware (for example, connect by plugging in), and at that time, add software to the storage device and the server. No changes need to be made. Therefore,
The provision of the hot-plugging function makes this embodiment very flexible and easy to upgrade. Fourth Embodiment of the Fiber Channel Attached Storage Mechanism Architecture According to this Embodiment
The advantage is that the data transfer performance of the optical fiber channel is excellent, so that the speed of reading and writing data from and to the storage device is improved. For example, the data rate of a SCSI bus system (FIG. 1) is about 20 megabytes / second. A number of methods have been proposed for increasing the data transfer rate of the SCSI bus, but the transfer rate improvements achieved by these methods have been only marginal.

In contrast, the fiber optic channel loop used in this embodiment is capable of providing data rates of 100 megabytes / second or more. The improvement in data rate provided by the Fiber Channel Attached Storage Architecture according to this embodiment is a significant advance over the SCSI method. A fifth advantage is that the adoption of the present invention makes it easy to add storage devices. That is, if a person skilled in the art adopts the present invention, the primary storage device and the secondary storage device connected to the same interconnection mechanism are integrated, and the primary storage device and the secondary storage device are From a single server database or a single server cluster database, it is relatively easy to make it appear as a single large storage device.

A sixth important aspect of the fiber channel attached storage architecture according to this embodiment is:
The distance between devices connected to the optical fiber channel loop is related to the separation distance between the devices. That is, the conventional SC
In systems using the SI bus, the separation distance between any servers or storage devices must be kept within several meters due to the restrictions imposed on the SCSI bus. In contrast, fiber optic channel loops
In the case where the server and the storage device used in this embodiment are connected, the point-to-point separation distance between the two devices is about 10 when using a single mode optical fiber. It can be as long as kilometers. According to the architecture of this embodiment, the user can perform disaster recovery of data or a server or remotely create mirror data or a mirror server at such a large separation distance. In addition, for example, all of the servers and storage devices that are distributed and installed in a plurality of buildings that are separately installed in one university premises or corporate premises can be easily connected.

A seventh aspect of the fiber optic channel attached storage architecture according to this embodiment is that the cable is an optical fiber and the fiber optic channel loop protocol is not a parallel bus protocol. That a serial protocol is being used. According to this configuration, the number of data signal lines required for logical transfer of data is basically one, so that the connection cable can be made very thin as compared with the conventional SCSI bus parallel cable. The thinness of the cable is one of the important characteristics of this embodiment. In other words, if the user is a small company and uses a computer installed on a desk, the thickness of the cable is unlikely to be a problem, but on the other hand, if the user If a large company is using a large number of servers housed in a rack, a large number of cables are crowded and run vertically and horizontally in the rack, which may cause a problem. Therefore, in such a case, the advantages of the thin cable itself, the miniaturization of the connection part of the cable, and the ability to distribute (spatially) the system are significant.

An eighth preferred aspect of the fiber optic channel attached storage architecture according to this embodiment is:
The ability to combine storage devices between different types of platforms. In other words, even when a plurality of servers are used by different manufacturers, according to the architecture of the present invention, the servers, the storage devices, and the subsystems operating with different protocols can be combined into a single server. By connecting to an optical fiber channel attached storage architecture, the ability to communicate and operate efficiently can be maintained.

The present invention can be configured as still other various embodiments, and these embodiments will be described below. These embodiments include a basic configuration of an optical fiber channel-attached storage, a configuration of a shared redundant path storage, a configuration of an integrated secondary storage, a configuration of a multiple network operating system shared storage, and a heterogeneous configuration. The configuration of the storage system sharing mechanism is included. It should be noted that it is also possible to construct a configuration in which another configuration is further stacked on one configuration, or to use a combination of different configurations.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a second embodiment of the optical fiber channel-attached storage mechanism architecture according to the present invention. This second embodiment shows a basic configuration 60 of an optical fiber channel connection type storage mechanism. The only one server 62 is provided with a host bus adapter circuit 64 and is connected to a media module 66. Media module 66
Is used to connect the server 62 to the fiber optic channel loop 68. The optical fiber channel loop 68 includes a plurality of storage units (storage devices).
70 are connected, and each of the storage units (storage devices) 70 is connected to a fiber optic channel loop 68 via a media module 66.
The media module 66 includes an array controller 72
It is connected to the. The array controller 72 is designed to control various disk drives 74 housed in the storage unit 70.
According to this embodiment, the storage capacity that the server 62 can access is increased as compared with a system employing the conventional SCSI system or other conventional systems.

A preferred example of the number of disk drives 74 accommodated in the storage unit 70 is, for example, eight. The storage capacity of each disk drive 74 is, for example, 9 gigabytes. In this case, the storage capacity of one storage unit 70 is 72 gigabytes, which is eight times 9 gigabytes per disk drive. Here, the storage unit (storage device) 7 connected to the optical fiber channel loop 68
If the number of 0 is six, this optical fiber
The storage capacity available to each server 62 connected to the channel-attached storage architecture is 432 gigabytes, which is six times 72 gigabytes per storage unit. In this embodiment, the disk drive 74 housed in the storage unit 70 is a SCSI standard hard disk drive. The storage unit 7
0 may have various configurations, and the storage capacity of the storage unit 70 may be larger than that exemplified above depending on the storage device (drive) housed therein. In some cases, the capacity may be small.

The configuration of the optical fiber channel loop according to the second embodiment shown in FIG. 3 has only one bypass fiber loop hub 68, and only one server 62 is connected thereto. Have been. A preferred specific example of the host bus adapter 64 is, for example, a host bus adapter for connecting PCI to an optical fiber channel. The host bus adapter 64 can be configured as a printed circuit board that inserts into a PCI slot or EISA slot of the host server. The host bus adapter 64 performs the function of mapping from the host server's PCI bus or EISA bus to the optical fiber channel loop 68. Basically, the host bus adapter 64 performs protocol translation for adapting data received from the host server PCI bus or EISA bus to the protocol of the optical fiber channel loop 68. .

The illustrated array controller 72 provided in the storage unit 70 is an array controller for connecting an optical fiber channel to a SCSI standard device. A preferred embodiment of the array controller 72 is configured as a printed circuit board on which a microprocessor is mounted. The array controller 72 controls a storage device array including a plurality of storage devices. Note that the storage device here is
For example, there are a disk drive, a tape drive, and an optical read / write drive. Array controller 72 is programmed to provide a fault tolerance function. The media module 66
It is a media conversion device for a short wavelength optical fiber, and has a function of converting an optical fiber signal into an electric signal and a function of converting an electric signal into an optical fiber signal.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a fiber channel-attached storage architecture according to another embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment is an extension of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, and the content of the extension is that a plurality of servers are connected to one optical fiber channel loop of the storage mechanism. In the embodiment of FIG. 4, two or more servers can access the same data. Therefore, the storage mechanism in this embodiment is a shared storage mechanism. Therefore, this embodiment adopts the configuration of the shared storage mechanism. The advantage of allowing more than one server to access the same data is that it provides a fail-over protection function, which is a function of the server. This is a function that allows access to data even if one device fails.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, a plurality of servers 6
2 are respectively a host bus adapter 64 and a media bus adapter.
It is connected to a fiber channel loop 68 via a module 66. Further, the optical fiber channel loops 68 are connected to a plurality of storage units 70 via the media modules 66, respectively. The storage unit 70 includes an array controller 72, which controls the flow of data to a plurality of disk drives 74.

Referring to FIG. 4, it is shown that fiber channel loops 68 can be cascaded. A cascaded fiber optic channel loop does not necessarily need to be a separate fiber optic channel arbitration loop. The cascaded fiber channel loop adds to the original fiber channel loop, which means that more ports are available. . When cascading several fiber channel loops, a device such as a switching device may be provided, and by doing so,
The performance and manageability of these optical fiber channel loops can be improved. More specifically, the optical fiber channel loop 68 has a plurality of nodes. Here, assuming that the number of nodes provided in the optical fiber channel loop 68 is seven, six of those nodes are connected to a server, a storage device, or another peripheral device. , The remaining seventh node to a second fiber optic channel loop 68A.
It can be used to cascade connections to Further, assuming that the second optical fiber channel loop 68A also has seven nodes, the remaining six nodes of the second optical fiber channel loop 68A are replaced with other nodes. It may be used to cascade into an optical fiber channel loop or to connect to a server, storage device, or other peripheral device.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an embodiment in which a dual redundant fiber channel loop is provided to constitute a shared redundant path storage mechanism. In this configuration, for example, a second optical fiber channel arbitration loop independent (both signal and physical) from the first optical fiber channel arbitration loop forms a redundant loop. do it. Each storage unit 70 includes a second array controller 72 in addition to the first array controller 72.
A, and each server host 62 further includes a second host bus adapter 64A in addition to the first host bus adapter 64. In this embodiment, the utility is greatly enhanced by the provision of a dual fiber optic channel loop. Here, the high availability means that a user who has logged in to a certain server 62 can use that server 62, an adapter,
This means that even if a failure occurs in an I / O path, a storage unit, a power supply, a fan, a controller, or the like, data can be reliably accessed. Further, in this configuration, not only data in a plurality of storage units can be simply shared between a plurality of servers, but also the sharing can be performed with redundancy. This redundancy also means
One of the features obtained by the optical fiber channel-attached storage mechanism architecture according to the embodiment of FIG. 5 is one of the advantages.

[0028] Because the I / O path is fully redundant (ie, has two fiber optic channel loops), if one I / O path fails, the other I / O path will fail. The redundancy provided by the / O path eliminates the effects of the failure. This embodiment can be said to be an embodiment corresponding to a superset including some of the embodiments described above. The architecture of the embodiment of FIG. 5 constitutes a shared redundant path storage mechanism and provides two fully redundant I / O paths with a failover function. Also in this embodiment, the optical fiber channel loop is configured to be capable of hot plugging.
It has all the features of the architecture according to some embodiments described above.

FIG. 6 shows yet another embodiment of the fiber channel attached storage architecture according to the present invention. In this embodiment, the configuration of the integrated secondary storage mechanism is incorporated in the architecture. This figure 6
Is essentially the same as the architecture of FIG. 5 except for one difference, which differs from fiber optic channel loops 68 and 68A in that
That is, the secondary storage unit 70A is connected. The secondary storage unit 70A has a plurality of tape drives 76. These tape drives 76 can be said to be secondary storage devices for the disk drive 74.

If the secondary storage unit 70A is provided with both the disk drive 74 and the tape drive 76, the disk drive can transfer data from the tape drive at the transfer speed of the optical fiber channel formed on the optical fiber loop. The advantage of being able to transfer data directly to the drive and vice versa, eliminating the need for the host server 62 to issue extra commands, the data transfer task, and the other Applications do not compete for CPU time, memory space, or bus bandwidth.

In the preferred embodiment shown in FIG. 6, the drive provided in the primary storage device is a disk drive and the drive provided in the secondary storage device is a tape drive. As will be easily understood, the drives mounted on the storage device are not limited to these,
For example, a device such as an optical drive using a writable laser disk or a RAM memory may be used, and a CD-ROM may be used if a read-only device is sufficient. To summarize the above, this embodiment requires that a first storage device used as a primary storage device and a second storage device used as a secondary storage device for the primary storage device, ie, a backup storage device, be provided. Things.

FIG. 7 illustrates yet another embodiment of the fiber channel attached storage architecture according to the present invention. In this embodiment, different types of network operating systems are used in a plurality of servers. This embodiment provides an arrangement for multiple network operating system shared storage. For example, one server 80 uses "NT" as the network operating system and another server 82 uses "Ne"
tWare, and the third server 82 uses “Uni”
It is possible to use "x". The architecture according to this embodiment connects different types of network operating systems to the shared storage unit 70 using fiber optic channels, which is a standardized standard interconnection mechanism. Things.

FIG. 8 illustrates yet another embodiment of the fiber channel attached storage architecture according to the present invention. In this embodiment, a plurality of servers use different types of server platforms, and the server platforms include:
In the illustrated example, “Compaq Proliant (Compaq
Proliant), "HP 9000" and "IBM RS 6000". The arrangements of FIGS. 7 and 8 are particularly useful for users who must use different platforms or product lines to execute different applications.
For example, some securities finance business applications do not run on anything other than Sun Workstations (Sun's workstations). Users using such applications may have access to systems equipped with servers using "NT" as the network operating system, or Compaq.
aq) Data could not be transferred to a system equipped with a server manufactured by the company. However, according to the fiber channel-attached storage architecture of the present invention, since the fiber channel loop is used, the same database stored in the shared storage device can be stored in the Sun Workstation and the same database. Can be shared with other platforms. To summarize the above,
Here, a plurality of types of server platforms can share the same storage unit via the connection mechanism of the optical fiber channel connection storage mechanism architecture.

It should be noted that the optical fiber channel-attached storage mechanism architecture of the embodiment shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 is characterized by the features of the optical fiber channel-attached storage mechanism architecture according to some embodiments described above. It is also possible to incorporate. For example, an architecture with complete redundancy, a cascade connection of optical fiber channel loops, a connection of multiple servers, and a connection of multiple storage devices , A device having a secondary storage device, a device having a hot plugging function, and the like.

[0035]

As described above, the fiber optic channel-attached storage mechanism architecture according to the present invention uses a plurality of servers (the platforms of the same kind are the same) through the fiber optic channel loop. However, data stored in a plurality of storage devices can be shared. Further, the architecture can be provided with full redundancy, expandability, hot plugging function, and the like, and can be provided with a secondary storage mechanism. According to the fiber channel-attached storage mechanism architecture according to the present invention, various devices or devices connected to the fiber channel loop can be widely distributed and installed, and this is possible. Buses made of fiber optic channels can be as long as 10 kilometers. Further, the data rate of the interconnect consisting of fiber optic channels can be as high as 1 gigabyte / second or more. Also, the cables used are much easier to manage than when using the conventional parallel bus, and this is possible because the bus used in the architecture according to the present invention is an optical fiber. This is because it is a serial bus. Basically, by adopting the architecture according to the present invention, most modern multiple server
A high-speed mass storage system having a storage capacity large enough to cover the required storage capacity of the system is obtained.

Although some preferred embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated and described above, as will be readily understood by those skilled in the art, the principles and principles of the present invention will be understood with respect to those embodiments. Various changes may be made without departing from the concept and the scope of the invention is as set forth in the appended claims.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a conventional SCSI bus connecting one server to one storage device.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a fiber channel attached storage architecture according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a fiber channel attached storage architecture according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a fiber optic channel attached storage architecture according to a third embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a fiber optic channel attached storage architecture according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a fiber optic channel attached storage architecture according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a fiber optic channel attached storage architecture according to a sixth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a fiber optic channel attached storage architecture according to a seventh embodiment of the present invention;

[Explanation of symbols]

50 Fiber Channel Attached Storage Architecture 52, Server 54 Fiber Channel Loop 56 Storage 62 Server 64, 64A Host Bus Adapter 66 Media Module 68, 68A Fiber Channel Loop 70, 70A Storage Unit (storage device) 72, 72A Array controller 74 Disk drive 76 Tape drive

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (71) Applicant 591030868 20555 State Highway 249, Houston, Texas 77070, United States of America (72) Inventor Stephen M. Schultz, Texas, USA 77069, Houston, Cherry Hills, USA Road 6923 (72) Inventor George J. Skulhammer, Village Knoll Place, The Woodlands, 77381, Texas, United States 43 (72) Inventor Mark Jay Thompson 77379, Texas, USA, Spring, Pine Dist. Lane 8206 (72) Inventor Todd Dee Rushton, Tombor, 77375, Texas, USA , Willow Branch Lane 22518 (72) Inventor Eugene E. Freeman, Otter Pond Place, The Woodlands, 77381, Texas, USA 27 (72) Inventor Dennis Jay Alexander, 77379, Springing, Texas, USA , Mahogany Forest Drive, 18006 (72) Inventor Ryan A. Callison, 77379, Texas, United States, Springing, Pinewood Forest 17519 (72) Inventor, Thomas W. Grief, 77379, Texas, United States, Spring, Lip Ring Hollow 6502 (72) Inventor Michael El Sabotta Cedar Point Drive, Cypress, 77429, Texas, USA 13506 (72) Inventor David El Grant, Houston 77068, Texas, United States Ton, Falling Creek 14919 (72) Inventor James F. McCarty 77379, TX, USA, Wandsworth Drive 9327 (72) Inventor Randy Dee Schneider 77379, TX, USA, Spring, Tower Stone Drive 9214 (72) Inventor William Sea Galloway 14902 Mesita Drive, Houston, Texas 77083, Texas

Claims (19)

[Claims] 1. A computer system comprising: an interconnection mechanism comprising an optical fiber channel; a server connected to the optical fiber channel; and a storage device connected to the optical fiber channel. Characterized computer system. 2. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein said server and said optical fiber channel are connected via a host bus adapter. 3. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein said server and said optical fiber channel are connected via a media module. 4. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein said optical fiber channel and said storage device are connected via an array controller. 5. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of said servers are connected to said optical fiber channel. 6. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of said storage devices are connected to said optical fiber channel. 7. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of said servers and a plurality of said storage devices are connected to said optical fiber channel. 8. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein an optical fiber channel loop is cascaded to said optical fiber channel. 9. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the system further comprises a redundant fiber optic channel, wherein the redundant fiber optic channel is connected to the server and the storage device. Characterized computer system. 10. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein the system further comprises a second server, wherein the second server is connected to the fiber optic channel and is different from the server. operating·
A computer system characterized by operating on a system. 11. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein said system further comprises a second storage device, said second storage device constituting second storage means, and said storage device. A computer system comprising a first storage means. 12. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein a device can be connected to the optical fiber channel by a hot plugging method while the computer system is turned on. Computer system. 13. An optical fiber channel attached storage architecture, comprising: an interconnect comprising fiber optic channels; at least one server connected to said fiber optic channels; and connection to said fiber optic channels. At least one data storage device. 14. An optical fiber channel-attached storage mechanism architecture according to claim 13, wherein an additional device can be connected to said optical fiber channel in a hot plugging manner. -Channel-attached storage architecture. 15. The fiber optic channel attached storage architecture of claim 13, wherein the data between said at least one server and said at least one storage device is at a data rate of 100 megabytes / second or more. And a fiber optic channel attached storage architecture. 16. The fiber optic channel attached storage architecture of claim 13, wherein the separation between said at least one server and said at least one storage device is at least 6 meters. Features Fiber Channel Attached Storage Architecture. 17. The fiber optic channel attached storage architecture of claim 13, wherein said at least one server is a plurality of servers, and at least two of said plurality of servers are mutually connected. A Fiber Channel Attached Storage Architecture characterized by using different operating systems. 18. The fiber optic channel attached storage architecture of claim 13, wherein the architecture further comprises a second fiber optic channel, wherein the second fiber optic channel is the at least one fiber optic channel.
An optical fiber channel attached storage architecture connected to a server and the at least one storage device. 19. The fiber optic channel attached storage architecture of claim 13, wherein the architecture further comprises a second fiber optic channel, wherein the second fiber optic channel comprises the fiber optic channel.
An optical fiber channel attached storage architecture, characterized in that the channel is connected to the second optical fiber channel so that additional servers and storage devices can be connected.