Patent ID: 7890617

Claim:
A SAS end device grouping method for managing SAS zoning within an SAS domain having at least one SAS initiator end device and at least one SAS target end device, the method comprising the steps of: bundling at least one SAS initiator end device with at least one SAS target end device to define at least one zone; creating at least one zone group based on the defined zone, wherein the zone group includes phys of the end devices bundled in the zone from which the zone group is based; and comparing, after all zone groups based on the defined zones have been created, each zone group with all other zone groups, wherein the zone group comparing step includes identifying, after all zone groups based on the defined zones have been created, zone groups having at least one common phy, creating a new zone group for phys common to more than one existing zone group, moving the phys common to more than one existing zone group to the new zone group, and configuring the common phys within the new zone group in such a way that the common phys within the new zone group can communicate with other common phys in the new zone group and with the phys in the zone groups from which the common phys were removed, wherein the comparing step is repeated until no zone group has any phys common to any other zone group.