Abstract: Described are techniques for upgrading a driver. A driver is installed which includes an upgrade facility, a base driver and a first set of one or more driver extension modules for processing input/output operations for one or more devices. Processing is performed to upgrade the driver using the upgrade facility. The processing includes loading one or more upgrade modules associated with a second version of said driver and performing cutover processing for each of the one or more devices.

Abstract: A method is disclosed for processing a kernel driver control command at a client machine. The method includes (a) receiving the kernel driver control command at the client machine via a user interface, (b) selecting a target server from a set of servers based on the kernel driver control command, (c) selecting a protocol path to use to reach the target server based on the availability of the target server via a set of possible protocol paths, (d) reformatting the kernel driver control command into a protocol format associated with the selected protocol path, and (e) sending the reformatted kernel driver control command to the target server via the selected protocol path for execution by a kernel driver running on the target server. A corresponding apparatus and computer program product for performing the method are also provided.

Abstract: Described are techniques for upgrading a driver. A driver is installed which includes an upgrade facility, a base driver and a first set of one or more driver extension modules for processing input/output operations for one or more devices. Processing is performed to upgrade the driver using the upgrade facility. The processing includes loading one or more upgrade modules associated with a second version of said driver and performing cutover processing for each of the one or more devices.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for non-disruptive upgrade by redirecting I/O operations. With this arrangement, a driver upgrade does not require restarting an application. In one embodiment, a method includes installing on a computer a legacy upgrade module in a kernel having a legacy driver with first and second loadable extensions for handling input/output operations for applications to and from devices, retrieving and storing static configuration data from the legacy driver, transferring the stored static configuration data to a new driver, obtaining runtime device configuration data from the devices and transferring the runtime device configuration data to the new driver, and filtering device input/output operations such that prior to cutover input/output operations are directed by the LUM through device stacks for the legacy driver and after cutover input/output operations are directed to the new driver.