Patent ID: 7730252

Claim:
A connector grouping method for managing SAS zoning within an SAS domain, wherein the SAS domain includes a plurality of connectors each having at least one phy, the method comprising the steps of: bundling at least one connector within the SAS domain to define at least one zone; creating at least one zone group based on the defined zones, wherein the zone group includes phys associated with the connectors bundled in the zone from which the zone group is based; and comparing, after all zone groups based on the defined zones have been created, each zone group with all other zone groups, wherein the zone group comparing step includes identifying, after all zone groups based on the defined zones have been created, zone groups having at least one common phy, creating a new zone group for phys common to more than one existing zone group, moving the phys common to more than one existing zone group to the new zone group, and configuring the common phys within the new zone group in such a way that the common phys within the new zone group can communicate with other common phys in the new zone group and with the phys in the zone groups from which the common phys were removed, wherein the comparing step is repeated until no zone group has any phys common to any other zone group.