Patent ID: 6275892
Filing Date: 2001-08-14
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A data processing system including an I/O subsystem, the system comprising:one or more storage devices having divided partitions that are configured as containers;a partition table that stores partition information copied from the storage devices;one or more container drivers that process I/O requests directed to the containers;a device switch table that contains pointers to entry points of container drivers;a container array table that contains pointers to data structures used by the container drivers, wherein each entry in the container array table has an associated entry in the device switch table;means for reconfiguring, by an initiation of a reconfiguration process, the storage devices into containers while the data processing system is performing other services, including means for (a) blocking all new I/O requests to the I/O subsystem in response an initiation of a reconfiguration process, (b) completing processing of the I/O requests previously received by the I/O subsystem, (c) unblocking the new I/O requests and (d) executing the new I/O requests after being unblocked by the means for unblocking based upon entry points that are the same as entry points to which the blocked I/O requests pointed prior to the initiation of the reconfiguration process; andmeans for changing the entries of the device switch table, the container array table, and the partition table to reflect the reconfiguration.