Patent ID: 7656823

Claim:
A method for auto-discovering a mapping between a first Storage Area Network (“SAN”) segment and a second SAN segment which are in communication via devices in a transparent interconnecting network which do not provide information indicative of linkage to the SAN segments in response to requests comprising the steps of: discovering an ingress from the first SAN segment to the interconnecting network by detecting use of a first physical path in the network and traffic of a first protocol on the first physical path; identifying a SAN device in the first SAN segment and a SAN device in the second segment by detecting first and second globally unique device identifiers from the traffic of the first protocol on the first physical path; discovering an egress to the second SAN segment from the interconnecting network by detecting use of a second physical path in the network and traffic of the first protocol on the second physical path; identifying the SAN device in the first SAN segment and the SAN device in the second segment by detecting the first and second globally unique device identifiers from the traffic of the first protocol on the second physical path; and generating a mapping by associating the ingress and egress with at least one logical path of the interconnecting network, where the logical path interconnects the ingress and egress where matching pairs of globally unique device identifiers are identified, the mapping representing at least some physical devices and physical links of the interconnecting network that are traversed by the traffic.