Patent ID: 7581116
Filing Date: 2009-08-25
Classification: H04L,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A system for acquiring device control support information from a field population of distributed devices, said system comprising: a data collector/analyzer host coupled to a storage area network (SAN) fabric via a network, wherein said SAN fabric includes a virtualizer connected to a plurality of disk drive controllers; means for querying and extracting device control support data from said SAN fabric, wherein each subset of said device control support data corresponds to a respective one of said plurality of disk drive controllers; a storage device for storing said device control support data within said data collector/analyzer host; means for determining whether or not one of said plurality of disk drive controllers associated with a subset of said device control support data is supported by a vendor of said data collector/analyzer host; means for, in a determination that said one disk drive controller is not supported by said vendor, determining whether or not said subset of device control support data associated with said one disk drive controller is related to a service call; means for, in determination that said subset of device control support data associated with said one disk drive controller is related to a service call, utilizing said subset of device control support data to respond to said service call; and means for, in determination that said subset of device control support data associated with said one disk drive controller is not related to a service call, utilizing said subset of device control support data as input to development and test plans of said vendor for modifying future device control support requirements.