Patent ID: 8954685
Filing Date: 2015-02-10
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method for virtualizing an SAS (Serial Attached Small Computer System Interface) storage adapter, so as to allow two logical partitions of a computer system, including a first logical partition and a second logical partition, to share a logical unit of a storage device via the SAS storage adapter, the method comprising: creating a first logical storage adapter having a first initiator address, and assigning the first logical storage adapter to the first logical partition; creating a second logical storage adapter having a second initiator address, and assigning the second logical storage adapter to the second logical partition; creating a first mapping from the first logical partition to a first set of logical blocks in the logical unit of the storage device, thereby generating first mapping information; creating a second mapping from the second logical partition to a second set of logical blocks in the logical unit of the storage device, thereby generating second mapping information; upon receiving first and second data storage operations respectively accessing the first and second sets of logical blocks, dynamically translating virtual addressing of the first and second data storage operations using the first and second mapping information, to thereby obtain corresponding physical addresses of the first and second sets of logical blocks; and creating, for the SAS storage adapter, a first Initiator-Target-Logical Unit Number (I-T-L) nexus that associates the first initiator address, an address of the storage device and the physical address of the first set of logical blocks, and a second I-T-L nexus that associates the second initiator address, the address of the storage device and the physical address of the second set of logical blocks, to thereby allow the first and second logical partitions to simultaneously access the first and second sets of logical blocks in the logical unit of the storage device.