Patent ID: 7925829

Claim:
A method of handling I/O operations for a storage array, comprising: distributing metadata among separate memories of a plurality of directors of the storage array, wherein the metadata correlates logical device data with physical device data, and wherein the separate memories include different portions of a global memory distributed among the plurality of directors, each of the different portions of the global memory being accessible by each of the plurality of directors; a first one of the directors receiving an I/O operation for a particular logical device; determining which of the plurality of directors includes the portion of the global memory that contains metadata corresponding to the particular logical device; and in response to the corresponding metadata being on the portion of the global memory of a different one of the directors, the first director providing a request to the different one of the directors, the request corresponding to the I/O operation for the particular logical device, wherein, although the first director is capable of accessing the portion of the global memory of the different one of the directors and servicing the I/O operation via a non-native global memory access, the first director provides the request to the different one of the directors having the portion of the global memory that contains the corresponding metadata for servicing the I/O operation via a native global memory access.