Patent ID: 8554976

Claim:
A method for processing an incoming command from a host at a bridge, the incoming command destined for a target, the target having a storage management component and a separately accessible disk command queue, the method comprising: determining, at the bridge, if the incoming command is a data command or a management command; processing management commands separately from data commands, including: forwarding, by the bridge, the incoming command to the storage management component of the target when the incoming command is a management command; and when the incoming command is a data command, the bridge: determining if the disk command queue on the target is full; sending the incoming command to the disk command queue when the disk command queue is not full; when the disk command queue is full, the bridge: starting a timer, the timer having a predetermined length; sending the incoming command to the disk command queue when the disk command queue becomes not full prior to the expiration of the timer; and sending a rejection of the incoming command to the host only if, upon expiration of the timer, if the disk command queue is still full; wherein the predetermined length of the time is selected to reduce a performance penalty for the host to process rejections of incoming data commands when there is a temporary disk command queue full state.