Patent ID: 6606698
Filing Date: 2003-08-12
Classification: G06F,H04L

Abstract:
A data storage managing apparatus for managing data storage having multiple storage devices of various forms, the data storage managing apparatus comprising:an access unit for configuring accessible multiple storage devices of various forms as a block of linear storage having storage addresses of a normalized format, each storage address indicating a specific location in a specific storage device, and for accessing the storage devices based on the storage addresses; a request processing unit for receiving Input/Output (I/O) requests, each using a local protocol, and translating the I/O requests into translated requests in an internal protocol of the data storage managing apparatus, each I/O request having an original identification for requested data to be written or read, and the request processing unit having an interface module for generating logical addresses for the I/O requests based on their original identifications and tagging the I/O requests with the logical addresses to output the translated requests having logical addresses; a normalizer for receiving the translated requests having the logical addresses, the normalizer having a storage address generator for generating storage addresses in the normalized format for the received translated requests, associating the storage addresses to the logical addresses, and adding the storage addresses to the translated requests to generate normalized requests; and a router for routing the normalized request to at least one of the multiple storage devices based on the storage address to access the data storage using the access unit.