Patent ID: 7694038

Claim:
A method for providing hosts access to devices via storage controller ports, comprising: receiving a login from a host port on a storage controller port, wherein the host port has been configured on the storage controller to access one or more devices, wherein the login is configured to access at least one of the devices; adding an entry to a host-storage controller ports data structure for the host port and storage controller port involved in the login; initializing at least one pointer in the entry in the host-storage controller ports data structure to point to at least one entry in at least one intermediate data structure; and initializing one pointer in at least one entry in the intermediate data structure addressed by the initialized pointer in the host-storage controller ports data structure to point to a nexi data structure having a plurality of entries, wherein at least one entry in the nexi data structure identifies a device accessed through the host and storage controller ports identified in the added entry in the host-storage controller ports data structure, wherein the operations of initializing the at least one pointer in the entry in the host storage controller ports data structure and initializing the pointer in the intermediate data structure to point to a nexi data structure are performed when needed to provide information on the at least one device the login is configured to access.