Patent ID: 7159024

Claim:
A storage control device for use in a storage system that carries out sending/receiving of data to/from a plurality of external devices via a common network, said storage control device controlling access from said plurality of external devices to a storage apparatus for storing said data, wherein the plurality of external devices include an external device which carries out block I/O access, an external device which carries out file I/O access, and an external device which carries out management-interface access according to out-of-band mode, said storage control device comprising: an external interface section configured to receive, through a single port, network-interface accesses and block-storage-interface accesses from said plurality of external devices via said common network; a data-transfer control section that each time receiving an access via said common network, determines whether said access is the network-interface access or the block-storage-interface access depending on a destination port number contained in a TCP header of network protocol of said access, when said access is determined to be the network-interface access, determines whether said access is the management-interface access according to out-of-band mode or the file I/O access based on the destination port number contained in said header of said access, when said access is determined to be the block-storage-interface access, also determines whether said access is the management-interface access according to out-of-band mode or the block I/O access based on the destination port number contained in a destination-port-number field of said TCP header of said access, the block I/O access employing iSCSI technology, and performs said access on the basis of results of the determinations; and a table storing relationships between information included in the destination-port-number field of the TCP header and access types of the external devices; wherein said plurality of external devices store devices store information which indicates any of the block I/O access, the file I/O access, and the management-interface access according to the out-of-band mode, as the destination port number in said header of said access.