Patent ID: 7451219
Filing Date: 2008-11-11
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method of determining resources accessible to client nodes, said method comprising: receiving information at a server node via a communications medium, said communications medium usable in accessing data at the server node, said server node comprising a plurality of physical resources to be shared by a plurality of clients coupled to the server node, wherein the plurality of physical resources comprise a plurality of input/output (I/O) resources; determining by the server node whether the information was received via a trusted agent, said trusted agent being coupled to the server node and the plurality of client nodes, and wherein the determining by the server node whether the information was received via a trusted agent includes determining whether a manager key that is included within the received information is valid; storing at least part of the information at the server node for use in determining the one or more physical resources assigned to the client node, in response to the determining indicating the information was received via a trusted agent, wherein the storing includes storing an access data structure having an indication of physical resources assigned to particular nodes, in response to the determining indicating that the manager key is valid; and using said information to determine one or more physical resources of the plurality of physical resources of said server node assigned to a given client node of the plurality of client nodes, wherein the client node is restricted access to the one or more determined physical resources such that one or more other physical resources of the plurality of physical resources is inaccessible to the client node.