Patent ID: 7254736

Claim:
A method of Input/Output (I/O) fencing comprising: establishing an end time of a time interval after which access is not allowed to a target device by a requesting device; initiating a multiphase write operation to the target device, wherein the multiphase write operation includes a first phase wherein the requesting device sends a write request to the target device, a second phase wherein the target device sends a response to the requesting device indicating that the target device is ready to write, a third phase wherein the requesting device sends data to the target device, and a fourth phase wherein the target device sends a response to the requesting device indicating that the data was written, wherein initiating the multiphase write operation comprises the requesting device initiating the first phase of the multiphase write operation; obtaining a time value prior to the requesting device initiating the third phase of the multiphase write operation; and interfering with the third phase of the multiphase write operation in response to determining that the time value is greater than the end time.