Storage array including a bridge module interconnect to provide bridge connections to different protocol bridge protocol modules

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10467170-B2
Application number	US-201715489698-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 17, 2017
Priority date	Apr 18, 2016
Publication date	Nov 5, 2019
Grant date	Nov 5, 2019

Abstract

A storage array and systems for configuring a storage array are provided. In one example, the storage array includes a motherboard. The motherboard includes a first compute module and an input/output (I/O) mid-plane that is routed to the first compute module. The I/O mid-plane has a plurality of peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) lanes coupled to the first compute module. A bridge module interconnect is routed to the I/O mid-plane via one or more of the plurality of PCIe lanes of the I/O mid-plane. The bridge module interconnect provides bridge connections to receive to two or more types of protocol bridge modules. A storage mid-plane provides integrated routing between each of a plurality of drive connectors and each of the bridge connections of the two or more types of protocol bridge modules of the bridge module interconnect.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A storage array, comprising:
a motherboard comprising:
a first compute module;
an input/output (I/O) mid-plane routed to the first compute module, the I/O mid-plane having a plurality of peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) lanes coupled to the first compute module;
a bridge module interconnect routed to the I/O mid-plane via one or more of the plurality of PCIe lanes of the I/O mid-plane, the bridge module interconnect providing bridge connections to removably receive a plurality of types of protocol bridge modules that correspond to respective different protocol types of storage devices, the bridge module interconnect flexibly configurable to a plurality of different configurations depending upon which of the plurality of types of protocol bridge modules are received by the bridge connections; and
a storage mid-plane providing integrated routing between each of a plurality of storage device connectors and each of the bridge connections of the bridge module interconnect, the plurality of storage device connectors connectable to storage devices of a respective protocol type of the different protocol types of storage devices.

2. The storage array of claim 1 , wherein the first compute module is to actively use select PCIe lanes of the plurality of PCIe lanes based on a type of protocol bridge module coupled to a bridge connection of the bridge connections of the bridge module interconnect, and based on the protocol type of the storage devices connected to the plurality of drive connectors.

3. The storage array of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of storage device connectors is configured with routing to each one of the bridge connections of the bridge module interconnect via the storage mid-plane, such that storage devices of any of the different protocol types connected to the plurality of storage device connectors are provided with communication with a corresponding protocol bridge module of the plurality of protocol bridge modules that is connected to the bridge module interconnect.

4. A storage array comprising:
a motherboard comprising:
a first compute module;
an input/output (I/O) mid-plane routed to the first compute module, the I/O mid-plane having a plurality of peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) lanes coupled to the first compute module;
a bridge module interconnect routed to the I/O mid-plane via one or more of the plurality of PCIe lanes of the I/O mid-plane, the bridge module interconnect providing bridge connections to receive two or more types of protocol bridge modules, wherein the two or more types of protocol bridge modules are selected from a serial attached SCSI (SAS) protocol bridge module and a non-volatile memory express (NVME) protocol bridge module;
a storage mid-plane providing integrated routing between each of a plurality of drive connectors and each of the bridge connections of the bridge module interconnect and
a bridge board module that provides a passive interface to a predefined set of the plurality of drive connectors for interconnection to a predefined set of NVME storage drives.

5. The storage array of claim 1 , further comprising:
a second compute module integrated in the motherboard, the first compute module provided for a first controller, and the second compute module provided for a second controller, wherein the first and second controllers provide failover compute processing for the storage array,
wherein the second compute module is routed to the I/O mid-plane via a corresponding set of the plurality of PCIe lanes,
wherein the second compute module is routed to the bridge module interconnect using the corresponding set of the plurality of PCIe lanes, and
wherein the bridge connections of the bridge module interconnect provide communication between the PCIe lanes of the I/O mid-plane and the integrated routing of the storage mid-plane.

6. The storage array of claim 5 , wherein the bridge module interconnect is configured to receive plural protocol bridge modules of a serial attached SCSI (SAS) type, and the plurality of storage device connectors are connectable to storage devices having a SAS circuit and wherein the storage devices having the SAS circuit are configured to include storage media selected from a hard disk drive (HDD) or solid state drive (SSD).

7. The storage array of claim 5 , wherein the bridge module interconnect is configured to receive plural protocol bridge modules of a non-volatile memory express (NVME) type, and the plurality of storage device connectors are connectable to storage devices having an NVME circuit.

8. The storage array of claim 7 , wherein the storage devices having the NVME circuit NVME solid state drives (SSD).

9. The storage array of claim 8 , wherein the motherboard further includes a bridge board module that provides a passive interface to a set of four NVME storage drives via two of the storage device connectors routed through the storage mid-plane, and to the first and second compute modules routed via eight PCIe lanes.

10. The storage array of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of storage device connectors has a plurality of pins that are connected to the integrated routing of the storage mid-plane to provide connection to storage devices of different protocol types, and each storage device of a respective protocol type when connected to a respective storage device connector provides interconnection to a corresponding type of protocol bridge module when connected to ones of the bridge connections of the bridge module interconnect.

11. A storage array, comprising,
a motherboard comprising:
a first compute module;
a second compute module, the first compute module provided for a first controller, and the second compute module provided for a second controller, wherein the first and second controllers provide failover compute processing for the storage array;
an input/output (I/O) mid-plane routed to the first compute module and the second compute module, the I/O mid-plane having a plurality of peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) lanes coupled to the first and second compute modules;
a bridge module interconnect routed to the I/O mid-plane via the plurality of PCIe lanes of the I/O mid-plane, the bridge module interconnect providing bridge connections to receive two or more types of protocol bridge modules, wherein the two or more types of protocol bridge modules are selected from a serial attached SCSI (SAS) protocol bridge module and a non-volatile memory express (NVME) protocol bridge module; and
a storage mid-plane providing integrated routing between each of a plurality of drive connectors and each of the bridge connections of the bridge module interconnect.

12. The storage array of claim 11 , wherein the first and second compute modules are to actively use select PCIe lanes of the plurality of PCIe lanes based on a type of protocol bridge modules coupled to the bridge connections of the bridge module interconnect and based on a type of protocol of one or more storage drives connected to the plurality of drive connectors.

13. The storage array of claim 11 , wherein the plurality of drive connectors is configured with routing to each one of the bridge connections of the bridge module interconnect via the storage mid-plane, such that storage drives according to any of multiple protocol types connected to the plurality of drive connectors are provided with communication with a corresponding protocol bridge module of the two or more types of protocol bridge modules.

14. The storage array of claim 11 , wherein the motherboard further includes a bridge board module that provides

Assignees

• Hewlett Packard Entpr Dev Lp

Inventors

• Mcknight Thomas P

Classifications

• G06F2213/0026

  PCI express · CPC title

• G06F13/409

  Mechanical coupling (back panels H05K7/1438) · CPC title

• G06F13/4027 Primary

  using bus bridges (G06F13/4022 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F2213/0028

  Serial attached SCSI [SAS] · CPC title

• G06F13/4068

  Electrical coupling · CPC title