Patent ID: 7673086

Claim:
A host implemented method, wherein the host is coupled to a control unit, comprising: under control of a control unit, identifying a group of attention connection paths configured to transmit lock attention interrupts and lock attention data between a host and the control unit for each of different hosts; storing different groups of attention connection paths for the different hosts, wherein each host is assigned one group of attention connection paths; selecting a first attention connection path from a first group of attention connection paths associated with a first host using a first load balancing function; and sending the first host a lock attention interrupt on the first attention connection path; under control of the first host, receiving the lock attention interrupt from the control unit on the first attention connection path; and in response to receiving the lock attention interrupt, selecting a second attention connection path from the group of attention connection paths associated with the first host using a second load balancing function; and retrieving lock attention data from the control unit using the selected second attention connection path.