Patent ID: 6163806
Filing Date: 2000-12-19
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A system configured to provide global access to physical devices located on a computer cluster comprising a plurality of nodes, the system comprising:a global file system;a device configuration system (DCS), the DCS storing physical device information for a plurality of physical devices, the physical device information for each device in the plurality including a major number associated with a device type assigned to the physical device and other devices of same type, and a minor number that is globally unique for physical devices having the same major number;the physical devices including a plurality of physical devices having a same major number associated therewith including at least one device having a first globally unique minor number associated therewith on a first node of the system and a second device having a second globally unique minor number associated therewith on a second node of the system;at least one device server object (DSO) on each node of the system;the global file system including an interface for responding to a request to access one such physical device issued from one of the nodes by sending a corresponding request to the DCS;the DCS including an interface for responding to the request by returning information corresponding to the major number and globally unique minor number associated with the requested physical device, and also determining which node the physical device resides on and the DSO to use to access the physical device;the global file system including means for using the information returned by the DCS to generate a file descriptor and for returning the file descriptor for subsequent use in accessing the requested physical device.