Patent ID: 8260927

Claim:
A method, comprising: reserving, by a host, a device controlled by a controller that is coupled to the host; starting, by the controller, a first timer, in response to a completion of input/output (I/O) operations on the device by the host, wherein the host continues to reserve the device after the completion of the I/O operations; sending, by the controller, a notification to the host after an expiry of the first timer, wherein the notification requests the host to determine whether the device should continue to be reserved by the host; acknowledging, by the host, the notification from the controller, in response to the sending by the controller of the notification; starting, by the controller, a second timer, in response to receiving an acknowledgement from the host that the notification has been received by the host; displaying by the host the notification to an operator; sending, by the host, a command to the controller, wherein the command indicates to the controller an action that the host will take to release the device, in response to displaying the notification to the operator; and in response to receiving by the controller, the command that indicates to the controller the action the host will take to release the device, stopping, by the controller, the second timer.