Abstract: Methods and devices are provided for non-disruptive monitoring of network traffic through one or more ports of a Fibre Channel network device. Preferred embodiments of the invention are used in conjunction with the switched port analyzer (“SPAN”) and/or remote SPAN (“RSPAN”) features. SPAN mode operation allows traffic through any Fibre Channel interface of a network device to be replicated and delivered to a single port on the same network device. Ingress SPAN allows the monitoring of some or all packets that ingress a specified port or ports. Egress SPAN allows the monitoring of some or all packets that egress a specified port or ports. RSPAN allows the delivery of the replicated traffic to a port on a remote network device. Filtering may be applied, for example, to SPAN packets having selected virtual storage area network numbers.

Abstract: Methods and devices are provided for the efficient allocation and deletion of virtual output queues. According to some implementations, incoming packets are classified according to a queue in which the packet (or classification information for the packet) will be stored, e.g., according to a “Q” value. For example, a Q value may be a Q number defined as {Egress port number ?? Priority number?? Ingress port number}. Only a single physical queue is allocated for each classification. When a physical queue is empty, the physical queue is preferably de-allocated and added to a “free list” of available physical queues. Accordingly, the total number of allocated physical queues preferably does not exceed the total number of classified packets. Because the input buffering requirements of Fibre Channel (“FC”) and other protocols place limitations on the number of incoming packets, the dynamic allocation methods of the present invention result in a sparse allocation of physical queues.

Abstract: An Fibre Channel Switch which enables end devices in different Fabrics to communicate with one another while retaining their unique Fibre Channel Domain_IDs. The Switch is coupled to a first fabric having a first set of end devices and a second fabric having a second set of end devices. The Switch is configured to enable communication by the first set of end devices associated with the first fabric with the second set of end devices associated with the second set of end devices using the unique Domain_IDs of each of the first set and the second set of end devices. In one embodiment of the invention, the first and second fabrics are first and second Virtual Storage Array Networks (VSANs) respectively. In an alternative embodiment, the first fabric and the second fabric are separate physical fabrics.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for a scalable network attached storage system. The apparatus includes a scalable network attached storage system, the network attached storage system including one or more termination nodes, one or more file server nodes for maintaining file systems, one or more disk controller nodes for accessing storage disks respectively, and a switching fabric coupling the one or more termination node, file server nodes, and disk controller nodes. The one or more termination nodes, file server nodes and disk controller nodes can be scaled as needed to meet user demands.