Patent ID: 7761650

Claim:
A dual ported active-active array controller apparatus capable of processing input/output (I/O) commands from a remote host via a network to a storage space, the apparatus comprising: a first policy processor partnered with a first intelligent storage processor (ISP), the first ISP having a first dedicated purpose host exchange controller (HEC) capable of communicating the I/O commands with the host via the network; a second policy processor partnered with a second ISP, the second ISP having a second dedicated purpose HEC capable of communicating the I/O commands with the host via the network; a communication bus interconnecting the ISPs; and programming instructions stored in memory and executed by the apparatus to buffer together transaction requests from both the first HEC and the second HEC corresponding to I/O commands directed to a first logical unit number (LUN) which the first ISP is a logical unit master of, to buffer together other transaction requests from both the first HEC and the second HEC corresponding to I/O commands directed to a second LUN which the second ISP is a logical unit mater of, to maintain the first policy processor in top level control of the buffered transaction requests corresponding to the first LUN and maintain the second policy processor in top level control of the buffered transaction requests corresponding to the second LUN to direct transaction request responses to the one of the first HEC and second HEC that originated the respective transaction request.