Patent ID: 8644132

Claim:
A system coupled to a switch, wherein the switch is coupled to a host in a network including storage devices, comprising: a storage subsystem controlling data transfer and access to the storage devices in the network; a topological storage coupled to the host, the switch and the storage subsystem, for storing a topological coupling relationship between the host and the switch and a topological coupling relationship between the switch and the storage subsystem; a storage port management module implemented in the storage subsystem to perform operations comprising: in response to determining a failed path between the storage subsystem and the switch coupled to the storage subsystem, determining a first port on the storage subsystem in the failed path; determining from the topology storage the topological coupling relationship between the host and the switch and the topological coupling relationship between the switch and the storage subsystem; and redirecting, based on the topological coupling relationships, a message sent to the first port of the storage subsystem to an operational second port in the storage subsystem coupled to the switch by performing: determining, based on a zone in which the first port is located in the topological coupling relationship, a host whose communication is affected and the second port of the host; obtaining, based on the topological coupling relationship, a third port in the storage subsystem, having no communication failure, coupled to the switch; and instructing the topological storage to place the second port and the third port into one zone, wherein messages to the first port are redirected to the third port.