Patent ID: 7953905
Filing Date: 2011-05-31
Classification: G06F,H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of identifying I/O paths in a storage area network (SAN) comprising: identifying a fabric of connections between a set of interconnected manageable SAN entities, the fabric of connections comprising a first network segment and a second network segment, the first network segment comprising a logical grouping of manageable SAN entities and operating according to a first transport mechanism, the second network segment comprising a logical grouping of manageable SAN entities and operating according to a second transport mechanism, the first transport mechanism different than the second transport mechanism, wherein (i) at least one of the manageable SAN entities in the first network segment and (ii) at least one of the manageable SAN entities in the second network segment each connects to an intersegment connection device, the intersegment connection device performing intersegment communications between the respective manageable SAN entities within the first network segment and the second network segment; identifying at least one intersegment path between the first network segment and the second network segment, wherein each manageable SAN entity from the respective first and second network segments, that is connected to the intersegment connection device, comprises an ingress and egress point for its corresponding network segment; and mapping a SAN message along the identified intersegment path, wherein mapping the SAN message includes discovering respective manageable SAN entities in the first network segment and the second network segment wherein discovering manageable SAN entities include: via the SAN management application: