Patent ID: 7549019

Claim:
A storage control system constructed in an enclosure, comprising: a plurality of storage devices; a storage device control unit that controls read/write operations against the storage devices; a plurality of scale-out Network Attached Storage (NAS) heads each comprising a first processor; a scale-up NAS head comprising a plurality of second processors; a storage connection section which connects said storage devices via said storage device control unit to each of said scale-out NAS heads and said scale-up NAS head; and a server connection section which connects each of said scale-out NAS heads and said scale-up NAS head to each other, wherein said plurality of scale-out NAS heads and said scale-up NAS head convert file input/output (I/O) commands from a host computer to block I/O commands which are sent via said storage connection section to said storage device control unit which controls read/write operations of the storage devices, wherein said scale-out NAS heads and said scale-up NAS head exchange interserver messages between each other via said server connection section, wherein said interserver messages include an inquiry message sent from a first NAS head to a second NAS head inquiring of information from said second NAS head and a response message sent from said second NAS head to said first NAS head responding to said inquiry message, wherein a number of paths forming said server connection section is larger than a number of paths forming said storage connection section, wherein a data transfer bandwidth of each path in said storage connection section is wider than a data transfer bandwidth of said server connection section, wherein said plurality of scale-out NAS heads operate as web servers, and wherein said scale-up NAS head operates as a database server.