Patent ID: 8140725
Filing Date: 2012-03-20
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. An article of manufacture comprising a computer readable storage medium including path planner code executed by a processor in a management system coupled to a network, wherein the management system communicates over the network with a plurality of hosts, storage controllers, and a network monitor to configure paths in the network between the hosts and the storage controllers in order for the storage controller to provide storage services to the hosts, wherein the network monitor collects statistics from the components in the network, and wherein the path planner code is executed to perform operations, the operations comprising: obtaining from the network monitor information on host ports on at least one host, storage controller ports on at least one storage controller managing access to storage volumes, and at least one fabric over which the at least one host and storage controller ports connect; gathering, for at least one of the host ports and the storage controller ports, information on a connection metric indicating a number of paths in which the port is configured and a traffic metric indicating Input/Output (I/O) traffic at the port; processing the connection and traffic metrics for the host and the storage ports to select at least one of the host ports and at least one of the storage controller ports; and configuring at least one selected host and storage controller port pair to provide at least one path enabling the host to communicate with the selected storage controller port to access at least one of the storage volumes managed by the selected storage controller.