Patent ID: 8495412

Claim:
In a data processing system having (a) a client logical partition (LPAR) that generates and consumes input/output (I/O) requests, (b) a plurality of virtual input/output servers (VIOS) that are communicatively inter-connected with each other to form a VIOS cluster and which include virtual I/O adapters for connecting to a fabric that provides access to a block storage, a method comprising: a first VIOS receiving an I/O request from the client LPAR; detecting that a problem exists with a communication connection of the first VIOS to the block storage; and in response to detecting that the problem exists with the communication connection of the first VIOS to the block storage, the first VIOS: selecting a second VIOS, to which the first VIOS is connected from the plurality of VIOSes within the VIOS cluster, to propagate the I/O request thereto, wherein said selecting further includes selecting a closest path VIOS as the second VIOS, wherein the closest path VIOS is one or more of: a VIOS which takes a least amount of propagation time for transfer of the I/O request from the first VIOS; a VIOS which takes a least amount of propagation time for completing an I/O request at the distributed shared repository; and a VIOS among the VIOS cluster that is physically located on a same computing electronic complex (CEC) as the first VIOS; and autonomously propagating the I/O request to the second VIOS, wherein forwarding of the I/O request to the block storage is completed by the second VIOS.