Patent ID: 8107467

Claim:
Apparatus for use in a storage system comprising a Fibre Channel fabric having a database that associates Fibre Channel names and Fibre Channel addresses of Fibre Channel ports coupled to it, the apparatus comprising: a source Fibre Channel device having one or more source ports coupled to the Fibre Channel fabric, each source port having a source port name unique to the device and an assignable source port address; a destination Fibre Channel device having one or more destination ports coupled to the Fibre Channel fabric, each destination port having a destination port name unique to the device and an assignable destination port address; logic for copying all data resident on the source Fibre Channel device to the destination Fibre Channel device; logic for replacing the destination port names at the destination device with the source port names so that the source port names are now unique to the destination device and no longer associated with the source device; logic for causing the fabric to update its database so that the database associates the destination port addresses with the source port names after the destination port names have been preplaced with the source port names at the destination device.