Abstract: Apparatus and methods for distributing iSCSI and SCSI targets. The initiator may assist in the distribution and order the SCSI commands. A subset of target storage processors may act as proxies. Target storage processors forward requests to a selected target storage processor which decides whether any and which of the other target storage processors is to process a forwarded request. The target storage processors may act as peers. A target storage processor communicates each received request to all of the other storage processors. Each of the target storage processors determines whether a request it received is to execute. A target storage processors may arrange themselves into layers to divide the SCSI and iSCSI protocol work. A distributed system associates each of multiple egress target storage processors with a respective ingress target storage processor and associates a set of blocks of storage with each of the egress target storage processors.

Abstract: Apparatus and methods for managing storage. A storage system may receive a request from a host, for example, to allocate n blocks of storage. The storage system may allocate m blocks of physical storage, where m<n, and indicate that the request completed successfully. In various embodiments, m>zero (0) or m=zero (0). The storage system may receive a request to access a block j of the requested blocks of storage, m<j<n, and accessing the block j, in response to the request to access. Allocating the physical storage may include allocating m blocks of physical storage encompassing the block j. After the allocating, the storage system may receive a request to access a block j of the requested blocks of storage, m<j<n, access the block j and indicate that the request to access completed successfully.