Patent ID: 7831736

Claim:
A method for accessing iSCSI targets over a network, the method comprising: providing a network interface in a storage router having one or more processors, said network interface supporting a plurality of VLANs on a physical network; initializing a VLAN manager process executable by the one or more processors and to manage one or more VLAN sessions on the network interface in the storage router; initializing a first iSCSI routing component executable by the one or more processors in the storage router, the iSCSI routing component having a first network address for communicating through the network interface and further communicably coupled to a SAN (Storage Area Network) interface; initializing a second iSCSI routing component executable by the one or more processors in the storage router, the second iSCSI routing component having a second network address for communicating through the network interface and further communicably coupled to the SAN interface; associating the first network address of the first iSCSI routing component with a first VLAN of the plurality of VLANs, said first iSCSI routing component configured to providing a target and LUN (Logical Unit) mapping between a first host on the first VLAN to at least one device on the SAN; wherein the first iSCSI routing component is configured as a node of the first VLAN and to communicate directly to the first VLAN through the network interface using a first logical interface managed by the VLAN manager; associating network data between the first host and the at least one device through the first iSCSI routing component with a first VLAN tag associated with the first VLAN; associating the second network address of the second iSCSI routing component with a second VLAN of the plurality of VLANs, the second iSCSI routing component configured to providing a second target and LUN mapping between a second host on the second VLAN to the at least one device, wherein the second iSCSI routing component is configured as a node on the second VLAN and to communicate directly to the second VLAN through the network interface using a second logical interface managed by the VLAN manager; and associating network data between the second host and the at least one device through the second iSCSI routing component with a second VLAN tag associated with the second VLAN.