Patent ID: 7552291

Claim:
A method for subdividing a storage enclosure into separate storage domains, said method comprising the steps of: providing a storage enclosure having a plurality of storage drives, primary and secondary controllers coupled to the plurality of storage drives, and a storage drive domain definition memory coupled to the primary and secondary controllers, wherein each one of the plurality of storage drives has a unique identification number that is sequentially numbered with the other unique identification numbers of the other ones of the plurality of storage drives, wherein the primary controller is associated with a first domain and the secondary controller is associated with a second domain; storing a one or a certain one of a plurality of integer numbers in the storage drive domain definition memory, wherein the one of the plurality of integer numbers defines which ones of the plurality of storage drives communicate with the primary controller and which other ones of the plurality of storage drives communicate with the secondary controller, and wherein the certain one of the plurality of integer numbers defines that all of the plurality of storage drives communicate with both the primary and secondary controllers; and reading the storage drive domain definition memory by the primary and secondary controllers to determine which ones of the plurality of storage drives communicate with the primary controller and which other ones of the plurality of storage drives communicate with the secondary controller when the one of the plurality of integer numbers is read, or whether all of the plurality of storage drives communicate with both the primary and secondary controllers when the certain one of the plurality of integer numbers is read.