Patent ID: 7401139

Claim:
A storage area network (SAN) management and configuration method via enabling in-band communications comprising the steps of: utilizing a SAN management application for managing and configuring the storage area network; said SAN management application communicates with at least one SAN-connected host system and communicates with a host bus adapter (HBA) device driver, and providing a pass through in said HBA device driver for passing communications to a designated device in the storage area network from said SAN management application including at least one topology analysis command; said at least one topology analysis command including a command to get interconnect information and a command to get topology information; and providing said pass through includes providing at least a transport pass through and an extended link service (ELS) pass through; each of said transport pass through and said extended link service (ELS) pass through being a binary pass through, each taking applied commands and passing said commands to said designated device in the storage area network.