Patent ID: 8433777
Filing Date: 2013-04-30
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A system for communicating with multiple storage processors, comprising: a first storage processor system; one or more additional storage processor systems, wherein each of the first storage processor system and the one or more additional storage processor systems includes a first processor and a peer processor; and a client device having at least two ports, being a first port and a second port, coupled to the first storage processor system, wherein the first port of the client device is connected to a first port of the first processor of the first storage processor system and the second port of the client device is connected to a first port of the peer processor of the first storage processor system, wherein a second port of the first processor of the first storage processor system is directly connected via a first direct connection to a port of the first processor of a particular one of the one or more additional storage processor systems and a second port of the peer processor of the first storage processor system is directly connected via a second direct connection to the peer processor of the particular storage system of the one or more additional storage processor systems, wherein at least one of the following is provided: (i) the first processor of the first storage processor system assesses a command received from the client device and, if the first processor of the first storage processor system determines that the first storage processor system does not include a correct destination processor to process the command, passes the command to the first processor of the particular storage processor system via the first direct connection, the first processor of the particular storage processor system assessing the command and determining if the correct destination processor to process the command is included in the particular storage processor system, or (ii) the peer processor of the first storage processor system assesses the command received from the client device and, if the peer processor of the first storage processor system determines that the peer processor is not a correct destination processor to process the command, passes the command to the peer processor of the particular storage processor system via the second direct connection, the peer processor of the particular storage processor system assessing the command and determining if the correct destination processor to process the command is included in the particular storage processor system, wherein at least one of the one or more additional storage processor systems includes an additional direct connection between ports of the first processor and the peer processor thereof that enables the command from the client device to be passed among all processors of all storage processor systems in a daisy-chain manner in order to reach a correct destination processor, wherein the command from the client device is passable among all of the storage processor systems to reach the destination processor independently of whether the command is initially passed from the client device to the first processor of the first processor system via the first port of the client device or whether the command is initially passed from the client device to the peer processor of the first storage processor system via the second port of the client device.