Patent ID: 6738839
Filing Date: 2004-05-18
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A data storage system comprising:a host having a plurality of links; a plurality of storage devices, each storage device having a respective device path; and a controller having a plurality of counters, the controller connected to the host by the plurality of links, the controller connected to respective ones of the plurality of storage devices by the respective device paths, each counter of the plurality of counters of the controller being associated with a respective one of the plurality of links for determining an amount of queued connection requests from the plurality of storage devices to the host on each one of the plurality of links, wherein the controller selects a link from the plurality of links for a new connection request from a storage device to the host as a function of the amount of queued connection requests on each of the plurality of links, wherein the controller selects the link having the lowest amount of queued connection requests to be the selected link for the new connection request; wherein the controller removes links of the plurality of links which have a maximum amount of queued connection requests from being considered as the selected link for the new connection request; wherein the controller enables removed links to be considered as the selected link for the new connection request once the amount of queued connection requests of the removed links has been lowered from the maximum amount of queued connection requests to a minium amount of queued connection requests upon queued connection requests of the removed links being honored by the host.