Patent ID: 7739543

Claim:
A method for a first storage appliance to provide data access service operations performed by a second storage appliance after the second storage appliance suffers an error condition, comprising: operatively interconnecting the first and second storage appliances with a set of clients, the clients communicating with the first and second storage appliances using a block access protocol, being an iSCSI protocol, over a TCP/IP network; detecting, by the first storage appliance, that the second storage appliance has suffered an error condition; activating, on the first storage appliance, a network interface controller, the network interface controller being adapted to have a network address normally associated with the second storage appliance by identifying each media access control address associated with the second storage appliance and assigning a network interface controller connected to the first storage appliance, a media access control address that was normally associated with a network interface controller on the second storage appliance; associating, by the first storage appliance, an iSCSI name that is globally unique name associated with the entire second storage appliance and not with one or more network interfaces of the second storage appliance, by an iSCSI driver on the first storage appliance being programmed to associate the appropriate iSCSI name of the second storage appliance with such iSCSI requests that are directed to the second storage appliance; assuming, by the first storage appliance, ownership of a set of disks associated with the second storage appliance; and processing at said first storage appliance data access requests directed to the iSCSI name and network address of the second storage appliance, while the first storage appliance also continues to process data access requests directed to said first storage appliance.