Patent ID: 8307044

Claim:
A storage controller adapted for coupling a host system to storage devices, the controller comprising: a request processor circuit adapted for coupling to locally accessible storage devices and adapted to process a request from the host system by accessing the locally accessible storage devices, the host system request referencing a data storage portion; a virtualization circuit coupled to the request processor circuit the virtualization circuit adapted to receive the request from the host system and adapted to determine, based on an association between this or another storage controller and the data storage portion referenced by the host system request, whether said this or said another storage controller will process the request and further adapted to forward the host system request to the request processor circuit responsive to a determination that said this storage controller will process the request if said this storage controller is associated with the data storage portion referenced in the host system request and further adapted to forward the request to another request processor circuit of said another storage controller responsive to a determination that the host system request will be processed by said another storage controller if said another storage controller is associated with the data storage portion referenced in the host system request, wherein the virtualization circuit is distinct from the request processor circuit; and a communication channel coupling the storage controller to said another storage controller, wherein the communication channel is independent of any communication channels used for front end or back end communications and wherein the storage devices locally accessible by the request processor circuit of said this storage controller are separate from other local storage devices accessible by a request processor circuit of said another storage controller.