Abstract: A system and method is disclosed for the automatic assignment, or reassignment, of shared storage resources to blade computers in a blade server environment. A chassis manager is implemented as a processing entity on the mid-plane of a blade server chassis to provide, independently or in conjunction with other systems and/or attached storage devices, management of shared storage resources. Management of these resources includes, but is not limited to, creation of logical units, assignment of logical units to predetermined blade server chassis slots, and deletion of logical units. Host-based software is not required to assign shared resources to a computer blade, only its presence in a predetermined slot of a blade server chassis. Logical unit numbers (LUNs) are assigned by the chassis manager based on blade server slot IDs while host-unique identifiers, such as world wide names (WWNs) are used by one or more shared storage controllers for internal LUN addressing.

Abstract: A method of managing storage device resets in a system using shared storage is provided. A reset instruction is received at a shared storage device from a first node. In response, the storage device is at least partially reset, including aborting one or more queued I/O commands including a first I/O command received from a second node. A reset notification timer is started. If an I/O command is received from the second node during the reset notification timer, in response to receiving the I/O command the second node is notified of the storage device reset such that the second node can determine that the first I/O command was aborted. If no I/O command is received from the second node during the reset notification timer, at the expiration of the timer, the second node is notified of the storage device reset such that the second node can determine that the first I/O command was aborted.

Abstract: A SAN-based cluster backup system and method are provided. The system and method are automated, do not use a LAN for backup data, and are made aware of application failover events. The system and method are composed of two main components: a backup service, and a primary coordinator. The backup service performs the backup of the applications that are hosted on a particular node. The backup service periodically checkpoints the state of the backup job and communicates the status to the primary coordinator. The primary coordinator controls all backup operations in the cluster. The user submits backup jobs for the applications through the primary coordinator. If a node fails during a backup operation, the primary coordinator can ensure that the failed backup job can be resumed from the last checkpoint on the failed-over node. In this way, repetitive backups can be avoided, thereby increasing efficiency.

Abstract: A system and method for updating the firmware of storage drive in a drive array is disclosed. The method includes the steps of updating the firmware of a spare drive. The spare drive is swapped for a drive of the drive array having unupdated firmware. The content of the spare drive is built on the basis of the content of the other storage drives of the storage arrays and according to the data recovery scheme of the drive array. The firmware of the selected storage array is updated and the updated storage drive is swapped with the spare storage drive in the drive array. The content of the updated storage array is then rebuilt or restored.

Abstract: A system and method for managing storage resources in a clustered computing environment are disclosed. A method incorporating teachings of the present disclosure may include holding a reservation on a storage resource for a first node of a clustered computing environment. A third party process log out for the first node may be performed and the reservation held for the first node may be released.

Abstract: A system, method and apparatus for network computing are disclosed. According to teachings of the present disclosure, a switching appliance having redundant Fiber Channel switches and redundant power supplies is provided. Also included on the switching appliance is a user selection mechanism allowing a user to port-zone each of the switches by selecting one of a plurality of pre-programmed port-zoning configurations. The switching appliance may be further configured to indicate cabling connections to be made between the ports of the switching appliance and a plurality of computing components.