Patent ID: 8601085

Claim:
A method for determining preferred paths comprising: requesting, by a host from each of one or more ports of a data storage system, first information, said first information including preferred path information for a first device visible to said host through said each port, said preferred path information including one or more parameters used by said host to perform one or more mathematical calculations to determine a preferred path for transmitting to the data storage system a data operation directed to the first device, wherein said one or more parameters of said preferred path information for the first device include a first parameter indicating a quantity of one or more member devices comprising said first device and a second parameter indicating a size of a chunk of data stored on each of said member devices; sending, from said each, port to said host, said first information; and performing, by said host using said preferred path information received from each of the one or more ports of the data storage system for the first device, said one or more mathematical calculations to determine said preferred path for transmitting, to the data storage system, the data operation directed to the first device, wherein said one or more mathematical calculations performed by the host include a first calculation to determine a stripe size using said first parameter and said second parameter, said stripe size indicating an amount of data stored in a single row across said member devices.