Apparatus, system, and method for a device shared between multiple independent hosts

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9734086-B2
Application number	US-95212107-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 6, 2007
Priority date	Dec 6, 2006
Publication date	Aug 15, 2017
Grant date	Aug 15, 2017

Abstract

The invention includes a proxy request receiver module and a proxy request command module. The proxy request receiver module executes on a designated command proxy host and receives a proxy request from a requesting host. The requesting host is one of two or more hosts. Each of the hosts executes an operating system independent from the other hosts and a shared device. One of the hosts is designated as the command proxy host. A system bus connects the hosts and shared device. The proxy request includes a control request to be executed by the shared device sufficient to configure the shared device for a data transfer between the requesting host and shared device independent of the command proxy host. The control request is free of data. The proxy request command module transmits the control request to the shared device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus, comprising:
a command proxy host configured to communicate with a system bus, the command proxy host comprising:
a proxy request receiver module configured to receive a proxy request for a shared device from a requesting host, wherein the proxy request comprises a control request executable by the shared device to configure the shared device for a plurality of direct memory access data transfers via a data path between the requesting host and the shared device independent of the command proxy host, the plurality of data transfers comprising data corresponding to a plurality of requests initiated by the requesting host after the shared device executes the control request, the control request comprising control information including an intermediate buffer identification, the control request being executed during an initialization process;
a path module configured to create a communication path comprising the data path and a shared resource control path between the command proxy host and the shared device, wherein the shared resource control path is configurable to control allocation of the shared device to the requesting host;
a proxy request command module configured to transmit the control request via the shared resource control path to the shared device in response to the proxy request receiver module receiving the proxy request; and

wherein the proxy request receiver module, the path module, the proxy request command module, comprise one or more of logic hardware and a non-transitory computer readable medium having executable code stored thereon.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:
the shared device, wherein the shared device comprises a network interface configured to:
transfer data received from the requesting host over a computer network to a network device; and
transfer data received through the computer network from the network device to the requesting host.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:
the shared device, wherein the shared device comprises a storage device and a storage controller.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the storage device further comprises a solid-state storage device, and wherein the storage controller comprises a solid-state storage controller.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the storage device is configured to store at least a portion of transmitted data on a storage division of the storage device, the storage division comprising a sequence indicator to preserve an ordered sequence of storage operations on the shared storage device.

6. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the storage device is configured to:
store a first portion of transmitted data on a first one of a plurality of solid-state storage elements of the solid-state storage device; and
store a second portion of the transmitted data on a second one of the solid-state storage elements.

7. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the storage device is configured to:
generate an error-correcting code (ECC) block comprising transmitted data and an error-correcting code capable of correcting an error in the ECC block; and
store a first portion of the ECC block on a first one of a plurality of solid-state storage elements of the solid-state storage device and a second portion of the ECC block on a second one of the solid-state storage elements.

8. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the storage device is configured to write data sequentially on the solid-state storage device to preserve an ordered sequence of storage operations.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the system bus comprises a peripheral component interconnect express (PCI-e) bus.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the command proxy host is configured to support PCI-e input/output virtualization (PCie-IOV).

11. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:
the shared device, wherein the shared device comprises the command proxy host.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:
the requesting host, wherein the command proxy host and the requesting host are configured to execute separate operating systems, and wherein the command proxy or the requesting host is configured to execute one of the operating systems above a virtual machine layer.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the command proxy host is configured to create the data path for a remote direct memory access (RDMA) transfer between the requesting host and the shared device.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the command proxy host further comprises:
a standard device emulation module configured to emulate the shared device to an independent host as a standard device attached to the system bus during device discovery and prior to the independent host loading a device driver specific to the shared device; and
wherein the standard device emulation module comprises one or more of logic hardware and a non-transitory computer readable medium having executable code stored thereon.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the standard device emulation module is configured to support I/O virtualization.

16. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:
the system bus, wherein the system bus further comprises a system bus switch with a non-transparent port configured such that a first initialization process of the requesting host discovers the command proxy host and fails to discover the shared device.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the non-transparent port is further configured such that a second initialization process of the command proxy host discovers the shared device and identifies the shared device for communication with the command proxy host.

18. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:
an interrupt receiver module, executing on the command proxy host, configured to receive receives an interrupt from the shared device via the shared resource control path, wherein the interrupt comprises information indicating that the shared device has data to be transmitted to the requesting host; and
an interrupt transmission module configured to transmit the information included in the interrupt to the requesting host via the shared resource control path, wherein the interrupt receiver module comprises one or more of logic hardware and a non-transitory computer readable medium having executable code stored thereon.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the path module is configured to determine, in response to the interrupt from the shared device, whether the communication path exists.

20. An apparatus, comprising:
a command proxy host that communicates with a system bus, the command proxy host comprising:
a proxy request receiver module that receives a proxy request from a requesting host;
a path module that creates a data path between a shared device and the requesting host and a shared resource control path between the command proxy host and the shared device, wherein the data path is created by sending a control request, corresponding to the proxy request, to the shared device via the shared resource control path, the control request is executable to configure the shared device for a plurality of direct memory access data transfers via the data path independent of the command proxy host, and the plurality of data transfers comprise data corresponding to a plurality of requests initiated by the requesting host after the shared device executes the control request, the control request comprising control information including an intermediate buffer identification, the control request being exec

Assignees

• Flynn David
• Strasser John
• Thatcher Jonathan
• Sandisk Technologies Llc

Inventors

• Flynn David
• Strasser John
• Thatcher Jonathan

Classifications

• G06F3/0643

  Management of files · CPC title

• G06F12/0804

  with main memory updating (G06F12/0806 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F3/0604

  Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management · CPC title

• G06F1/183 Primary

  Internal mounting support structures, e.g. for supporting printed circuit boards · CPC title

• G06F12/0246

  in block erasable memory, e.g. flash memory · CPC title