Abstract: An apparatus and method are provided for simulating a target storage configuration for a computer system. In particular, a storage command is received from an application running on the computer system into a storage protocol stack on the computer system. The storage protocol stack is part of an operating system of the computer system and runs in kernel mode. The storage command is intercepted within the storage protocol stack by a kernel simulator module incorporated into the storage protocol stack. The intercepted storage command is forwarded from the kernel simulator module to a userland simulator module running in user mode. The userland simulator module generates a response to the storage command, where the response emulates the behavior of the target storage configuration. The response is then sent from the userland simulator module to the kernel simulator module, to be returned from the kernel simulator module to the application via the storage protocol stack.

Abstract: An apparatus and method are provided for simulating a target storage configuration for a computer system. In particular, a storage command is received from an application running on the computer system into a storage protocol stack on the computer system. The storage protocol stack is part of an operating system of the computer system and runs in kernel mode. The storage command is intercepted within the storage protocol stack by a kernel simulator module incorporated into the storage protocol stack. The intercepted storage command is forwarded from the kernel simulator module to a userland simulator module running in user mode. The userland simulator module generates a response to the storage command, where the response emulates the behaviour of the target storage configuration. The response is then sent from the userland simulator module to the kernel simulator module, to be returned from the kernel simulator module to the application via the storage protocol stack.