Patent ID: 7383330

Claim:
A method for mapping the components and connections of a network fabric to build an in-memory picture of a fibre channel fabric, said network fabric having at least one host, comprising: identifying the components of the network fabric with the at least one host, with each of the components including at least one input/output (I/O) port, and said identifying of the components including identifying an attribute which is a numerical identifier of the at least one I/O port of each of the components; identifying with the at least one host, at least one starting port of the network fabric; identifying with the at least one host, at least one ending port of the network fabric; querying the components of the network fabric by the at least one host at identifiable starting points and ending points in the fabric, for obtaining information therefrom sufficient to determine the connections between the components of the network fabric, and said querying further comprising querying the components of the network by requesting information as to what each of the components of the network and the host see through each of their respective ports; and mapping with the at least one host, the components of the network fabric and all connections between the at least one starting point and the at least one ending point of the network fabric and identifying the connections between each of the components of the network fabric, with said connections between the components of the network fabric being identified according to a fibre identifier, wherein the fibre identifier is a function of the two ports that form each of the connections, and said mapping being done on the basis of said information through a series of comparisons, inferences and elimination steps to complete a table of components, the connections between the components and the hierarchical relationship between the components; and wherein the fibre network is mapped for a first host by a program implemented on one of the first host and a second host.