Patent ID: 8234437
Filing Date: 2012-07-31
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A storage system comprising: a plurality of disk drives; a plurality of disk array controllers, each disk array controller controlling Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) processes on said disk drives; and a plurality of switches external of said disk array controllers, said switches being coupled to said disk array controllers and to said disk drives, wherein a first disk drive of said disk drives is coupled to a first disk array controller of said disk array controllers via a first switch of said switches and is coupled to a second disk array controller of said disk array controllers via a second switch of said switches, a second disk drive of said disk drives is coupled to said first disk array controller via said first switch and is coupled to said second disk array controller via said second switch, said first switch performs path switching among paths, each of which is coupled to one disk drive of said disk drives, when said first switch receives information related to one destination disk drive, so that data is transferred between one of said disk array controllers and said one destination disk drive of said disk drives via said first switch, said second switch performs path switching among paths, each of which is coupled to one disk drive of said disk drives, when said second switch receives information related to another destination disk drive, so that data is transferred between one of said disk array controllers and said another destination disk drive of said disk drives via said second switch, and a data transfer between said one of said disk array controllers and said one destination disk drive via said first switch is performed separately from a data transfer between said another one of said disk array controllers and said another destination disk drive via said second switch.