Patent ID: 7853821

Claim:
A method comprising: detecting a failure condition caused during a discovery procedure associated with a plurality of storage devices on a storage network having at least one primary bus interconnecting the plurality of storage devices, wherein the discovery procedure includes initializing the at least one primary bus, detecting presence of the storage devices, and configuring the storage devices for use, and wherein detecting the failure condition comprises detecting a condition caused by disruption of completion of the discovery procedure; and in response to detecting the failure condition, interacting with the plurality of storage devices over a secondary bus separate from the primary bus to identify and disable one or more of the plurality of storage devices causing the failure condition, wherein interacting with the plurality of storage devices comprises: bypassing the plurality of storage devices on the at least one primary bus, wherein bypassing the plurality of storage devices causes the plurality of storage devices to be disconnected from the at least one primary bus; unbypassing in sequence the bypassed plurality of storage devices; and after each unbypassing of a bypassed storage device, evaluating whether the failure condition is present.