Patent ID: 8380894

Claim:
A system for tracking an input/output (I/O) mapping-path among a plurality of nodes in a storage configuration, the system having at least one computer device that performs a method, comprising: selecting an I/O request from among a plurality of I/O requests being serviced within the storage configuration; enabling I/O mapping-path tracking for the I/O request based on the selection, the storage configuration including a redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID) system having a plurality of physical storage nodes accessed virtually via a path having a plurality of virtual storage nodes; at each of the plurality of virtual storage nodes that process the I/O request on the path traversed by the I/O request within the storage configuration to reach a storage destination: computing a virtual to physical storage translation; appending the virtual to physical storage translation to mapping-path information included with the I/O request; and forwarding the mapping path information along with the I/O request to a next one of the plurality of virtual storage nodes, when present, on the path; and returning the mapping-path information, that includes the virtual to physical storage translation of all of the plurality of virtual storage nodes on the path, to the host system.