Patent ID: 7761738

Claim:
A high density data storage enclosure, comprising: an enclosure connector plane; a first plurality of hard disk drives (HDDs), each first hard disk drive coupled to the enclosure connector plane; a second plurality of HDDs, each second HDD coupled to the enclosure connector plane; a first pair of redundant controller cards associated with the first plurality of HDDs, comprising: a first controller card comprising a first switch coupled to the enclosure connector plane and a first storage enclosure services (SES) processor coupled to the first switch; and a second controller card comprising a second switch coupled to the enclosure connector plane and a second SES processor coupled to the second switch; a second pair of redundant controller cards associated with the second plurality of HDDs, comprising: a third controller card comprising a third switch coupled to the enclosure connector plane and a third SES processor coupled to the third switch; and a fourth controller card comprising a fourth switch coupled to the enclosure connector plane and a fourth SES processor coupled to the fourth switch; a first virtual enclosure comprising: the first and second controller cards; a first virtual connector plane partitioned from the enclosure connector plane and to which the first and second controller cards are coupled, the first virtual connector plane including a path through which the first and second SES processors are coupled; and the first plurality of HDDs; a second virtual enclosure comprising: the third and fourth controller cards; a second virtual connector plane partitioned from the enclosure connector plane and to which the third and fourth controller cards are coupled, the second virtual connector plane including a path through which the third and fourth SES processors are coupled; and the second plurality of HDDs; an inter-enclosure link between the first and third SES processors, the inter-enclosure link being disabled during normal operations of the storage enclosure; and a system control unit, comprising: means for detecting a failure in the first virtual enclosure; means for enabling the inter-enclosure link whereby the first SES processor is isolated from the balance of the first virtual enclosure; and means for accessing the first SES processor to obtain data associated with the failure in the first virtual enclosure and to transmit commands associated with a recovery process of the first virtual enclosure.