Patent ID: 6343324
Filing Date: 2002-01-29
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
In a computer system having a plurality of host computers and at least one hardware device connected to said plurality of host computers, a method for controlling access to said hardware device to maintain data integrity by one of said plurality of host computers, said method comprising:associating a locally unique identifier with each said plurality of host computers; defining a data structure in a memory using said locally unique identifiers identifying which particular ones of said host computers may be granted access to said hardware device based on a logical configuration between said host computers and said hardware device selectably allowing one or more of said computers to access said hardware device and selectably denying access to said hardware device by other of said computers, said data structure providing a host-to-volume mapping including host computer identifiers identifying each of said plurality of computers, at least one hardware identifier identifying said at least one hardware device, and permission information for said at least one hardware device indicating for each said host computer whether access to said at least one hardware device is visible or invisible, said data structure making any particular logical volume visible to selected ones of said computers and invisible to other ones of said computers; and querying said data structure to determine if a requesting one of said computers should be granted access or be denied access to said hardware device in order to maintain data integrity.