Patent ID: 8250267

Claim:
A computer system for providing split-path storage services, the computer system comprising: a fastpath processor adapted to communicate with a plurality of hosts and a plurality of storage devices via a storage area network; a control path processor for processing at least commands involving control I/O operations, the control path processor being in communication with the fastpath processor; a shared memory accessible by the control path processor and the fastpath processor, the shared memory storing logical state information associated with the hosts and the storage devices and mapping information for determining whether commands received by the fastpath processor are to be handled by the fastpath processor or the control path processor; and a command offload module executable by the fastpath processor, the command offload module comprising logic configured to: receive, at the fastpath processor, a command from one of the hosts via the storage area network; retrieve logical state information associated with the command; based on the mapping information, determine whether the received command involves a read/write operation or an offloaded control I/O operation, wherein the read/write operation involves a transfer of data stored or to be stored on at least one of the plurality of storage devices and the offloaded control I/O operation involves a request for information about logical state of the data offloaded to the fastpath processor; when the received command involves a read/write operation, determining read/write mapping data based on the mapping information and issuing a read/write command to the corresponding storage device; when the received command involves an offloaded control//O operation, determining a response to the received command based on the mapping information and sending the response to the host.