Patent ID: 8832372
Filing Date: 2014-09-09
Classification: G06F,H04L

Abstract:
1. A clustered network-based storage system, comprising: a host server adapted to transmit and receive data across the system, said host server including a virtualization agent and a storage management agent, wherein the virtualization agent facilitates identification of clustered system communication paths and determinations of capacity across multiple clustered system nodes, and wherein the storage management agent facilitates the determination of an overall storage profile across the clustered system; a plurality of storage devices adapted to store data transmitted from the host server, said plurality of storage devices being arranged in separate independent arrays, wherein each array of storage devices includes a quorum drive copy containing information about the overall storage profile of the clustered system; and a plurality of high availability system controller pairs including a first and a second high availability controller pair, each high availability system controller pair including first and second controllers that are each adapted for designation as a clustered system node and for reading and writing to at least some of the plurality of storage devices based upon commands received from the host server, wherein each of the first and second controllers are in communication with each other, the host server, a respectively assigned array of storage devices from the plurality of storage devices, and a corresponding controller in a different high availability controller pair via a remote volume mirroring link, and wherein the virtualization agent, storage management agent, quorum drive copies and remote volume mirroring link are adapted to provide redundancy, load sharing, or both between the separate independent arrays of storage devices; wherein the host server is adapted to transmit a non-backup write request for storing data in the respectively assigned array of storage devices assigned to the first and second controllers of the first high availability controller pair using one of four network paths based on availability of the network paths, the network paths comprising: