Patent ID: 7661014

Claim:
A network storage appliance, comprising: a chassis; a backplane, enclosed in said chassis, comprising one or more local buses; a server and an I/O controller, enclosed in said chassis, coupled to said backplane, said I/O controller comprising an I/O link port coupled to an I/O link and a local bus interface for coupling to one of said one or more local buses; and a plurality of storage controllers, enclosed in said chassis, each coupled to one or more of said one or more local buses of said backplane, for controlling transfer of data between said server and a plurality of storage devices coupled to said plurality of storage controllers, and for controlling transfer of data between said plurality of storage devices and a plurality of computers networked to the appliance and external to the appliance; wherein each of said plurality of storage controllers comprise a hot-replaceable blade and said server and I/O controller comprise a single hot-replaceable blade, wherein one of said plurality of storage controllers comprise said I/O controller; wherein said I/O controller is configured to receive from said server via said I/O link storage I/O requests for at least one of said plurality of storage controllers to transfer said data between said server and said plurality of storage devices, wherein said I/O controller is configured to receive from said external plurality of computers via said I/O link storage I/O requests for said at least one of said plurality of storage controllers to transfer said data between said external plurality of computers and said plurality of storage devices.