Patent ID: 7685223

Claim:
A method of discovering service ports in a storage area network (SAN), the method comprising: (a) sending an availability query from a first service port of the first gateway device to each of a plurality of other service ports; (b) for each availability response that is received at the first service port from a responding one of the other service ports in response to an availability query, determining that such responding other service port is communicatively available for providing a service, for communicating with one or more devices of the SAN, to a particular host that is outside the SAN and implements internet protocol (IP) and not a fibre channel protocol, as implemented by the SAN, and storing the identifier for such responding other service port; and (c) when a port query from the particular host to communicate with a particular device of the SAN is received at the first service port, sending a port response from the first service port to the particular host so as to specify that the one or more responding other ports, that have been determined to be communicatively available for providing the service for communicating with the one or more devices of the SAN, are available, in addition to the first service port, to provide communication with the particular device of the SAN, wherein a first one of the other service ports belongs to the first gateway device and belongs to a same local area network as the first service port and a second one of the other service ports belongs to a second gateway device and belongs to a different local area network than the first service port, wherein an availability response is received from the first other service port and not from the second other service port, wherein the port response includes each stored identifier for each responding other service port and the identifier of the first service port, and the identifiers of the responding other service ports are stored in one or more Port Reachability databases that are associated with the first service port.