Patent ID: 9699027
Date: 2017-07-04
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. A method comprising: at a first switch in a storage area network (SAN) switched fabric, receiving a message comprising an active zoning configuration for the first switch from a central management device, wherein the active zoning configuration is stored in a management plane database on the central management device and comprises information for local devices that can login to the first switch and remote devices that can login to the SAN switched fabric via a second switch; storing the active zoning configuration in a control plane database on the first switch; receiving a fabric login request from a local device and determining whether the local device is zoned based on the control plane database; responsive to the fabric login request and the local device being zoned, sending a local device profile request message to the central management device comprising information configured to request a device profile for the local device when the active zoning configuration is not present; receiving from the central management device, the local device profile and storing the local device profile in the control plane database in order to complete the fabric login request; sending a message to the central management device comprising information configured to update the management plane database with a status of the local device as being present in the SAN switched fabric; responsive to the fabric login request, sending a fabric busy message from the first switch to the local device in order to cause the local device to wait for a period of time to allow the first switch to receive the local device profile from the central management device and process the local device profile; after the period of time, receiving another fabric login request from the local device; and sending a fabric login accept message to the local device when the local device profile has been processed.