US007870225B2
`
`(12) United States Patent
`Kim
`
`(10) Patent No.:
`(45) Date of Patent:
`
`US 7,870,225 B2
`Jan. 11, 2011
`
`(54) DISKSYSTEMADAPTED TO BE DIRECTLY
`ATTACHED TO NETWORK
`
`(75) Inventor: Han-gyoo Kim, Seoul (KR)
`
`(73) Assignee: Zhe Khi Pak, Moscow (RU)
`(*) Notice:
`Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this
`patent is extended or adjusted under 35
`U.S.C. 154(b) by 0 days.
`
`DE
`
`6/1995 Chinnocket al.
`5.426,427 A
`5,455,926 A 10/1995 Keele et al. .................... T11/4
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`4/1996 Kandasamy et al.
`
`(Continued)
`FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS
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`
`(21) Appl. No.: 12/701,335
`(22) Filed:
`Feb. 5, 2010
`(65)
`Prior Publication Data
`US 2010/O1386O2A1
`Jun. 3, 2010
`
`Related U.S. Application Data
`(62) Division of application No. 09/974,082, filed on Oct.
`9, 2001, now Pat. No. 7,792,923.
`(60) Provisional application No. 60/240,344, filed on Oct.
`13, 2000.
`(51) Int. Cl.
`(2006.01)
`G06F 15/16
`(2006.01)
`GO6F 3/OO
`(2006.01)
`GO6F 2/OO
`(52) U.S. Cl. ....................... 709/217, 709/218: 709/236
`709/246; 709/250; 710/5: 710/36; 711/110
`(58) Field of Classification Search ................. 700,217
`709/218, 236. 246 25O: 711/110: 710s
`See application file for compl ete search history.
`References Cited
`U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
`
`(56)
`
`(Continued)
`OTHER PUBLICATIONS
`EP Communication 94(3) issued in co-pending European Applica
`tion No. 01272 932.3-2413 (Issued Aug. 3, 2009) (9 pages).
`(Continued)
`Primary Examiner Saleh Naijar
`Assistant Examiner Vitali Korobov
`(74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm Rothwell, Figg, Ernst &
`Manbeck, P.C.
`(57)
`
`ABSTRACT
`
`A network-attached disk (NAD) system is disclosed that
`includes an NAD device for receiving a disk access command
`from a host through a network, and a device driver at the host
`for controlling the NAD device through the network, where
`the device driver creates a virtual hostbus adapter so that the
`host recognizes the NAD device as if it is a local device to the
`host. The host may run the UNIX or Windows family of
`operating systems. The NAD device includes a disk for stor
`ing data, a disk controller for controlling the disk, and a
`network adapter for receiving a disk access command from
`the host through a network port.
`
`5,329,619 A
`
`7/1994 Page et al.
`
`22 Claims, 24 Drawing Sheets
`
`NAD Device Management Program
`
`mount, 326
`Icewind0
`Requestere arease
`335,
`
`Queue
`
`Thread Activation
`Request Friction
`-
`NAD Driver it
`
`mounts
`
`Requent
`NAD driver ANN
`
`
`
`Petitioners Microsoft Corporation and HP Inc. - Ex. 1001, p. 1
`
`

`

`US 7,870,225 B2
`Page 2
`
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`
`Petitioners Microsoft Corporation and HP Inc. - Ex. 1001, p. 2
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`

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`U.S. Patent
`
`Jan. 11, 2011
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`Petitioners Microsoft Corporation and HP Inc. - Ex. 1001, p. 3
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`Jan. 11, 2011
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`Jan. 11, 2011
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`U.S. Patent
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`US 7,870,225 B2
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`Petitioners Microsoft Corporation and HP Inc. - Ex. 1001, p. 6
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`Petitioners Microsoft Corporation and HP Inc. - Ex. 1001, p. 8
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`U.S. Patent
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`Jan. 11, 2011
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`US 7,870,225 B2
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`Jan. 11, 2011
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`Jan. 11, 2011
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`Petitioners Microsoft Corporation and HP Inc.
`
`- EX. 1001, p. 24
`
`Petitioners Microsoft Corporation and HP Inc. - Ex. 1001, p. 24
`
`
`

`

`U.S. Patent
`U.S. Patent
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`US 7,870,225 B2
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`Petitioners Microsoft Corporation and HP Inc.
`
`- EX. 1001, p. 25
`
`Petitioners Microsoft Corporation and HP Inc. - Ex. 1001, p. 25
`
`
`
`

`

`U.S. Patent
`
`Jan. 11, 2011
`
`Sheet 24 of 24
`
`US 7,870.225 B2
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`|0/
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`Z0/
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`Petitioners Microsoft Corporation and HP Inc. - Ex. 1001, p. 26
`
`

`

`1.
`DISK SYSTEMADAPTED TO BE DIRECTLY
`ATTACHED TO NETWORK
`
`2
`accessed like a local disk without the need of adding an
`additional file server or special equipment.
`
`US 7,870,225 B2
`
`CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED
`APPLICATIONS
`
`This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application
`Ser. No. 09/974,082, filed on Oct. 9, 2001 now U.S. Pat. No.
`7,792.923, and claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Appli
`cation Ser. No. 60/240,344, filed Oct. 13, 2000, the entire
`disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
`
`BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
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`1. Technical Field
`This invention in general relates to computer systems.
`More specifically, this invention relates to a disk system or
`interface that can be directly attached to a network.
`2. Description of the Related Art
`As the Internet becomes popular, the amount of data that
`needs to be stored has drastically increased. Especially, there
`is a high demand for a high-capacity disk drive to store
`multimedia data. For example, a demand for a disk system
`having a disk capacity of terabytes per server is not unusual.
`A tape drive or a CD drive may be used to store such
`amount of data, but its performance and user convenience are
`not matched to those of a hard disk drive. However, increasing
`the capacity of a hard disk in a conventional server system
`presents some problems.
`There are NAS (Network Attached Storage) products that
`can be connected to a network, usually Ethernet, to provide a
`pre-configured disk capacity along with integrated System/
`storage management using the NFS (Network File System)
`protocol, the CIFS (Common Internet File System) protocol,
`or both on top of the IP protocol used on the Internet. The
`primary purpose of these protocols is to exchange files
`between independently operating computers. Therefore, the
`client using the NAS for file access experiences the difference
`between its local storage and the storage in the NAS Systems.
`The NAS is basically a stripped-down version of a file
`server having mainly the functions of storing and retrieving
`files. Accordingly, increasing a disk capacity using a NAS
`product amounts to adding a separate file server in practice,
`which presents many shortcomings. Since an NAS disk is not
`seen as a local disk to the client, the installation, movement,
`and administration of an NAS disk should be done only
`through the operating system and Software offered as part of
`the NAS system. An NAS disk is installed in the inside bus of
`the NAS system, leading to a limitation to the number of disks
`that can be installed. Since the NAS system has a hard disk
`under its own operating system, the client cannot use an
`arbitrary file system to access the hard disk. Further, the NAS
`system requires an IP address. Overall, not only the installa
`tion and administration costs per disk are more expensive
`than those of a local disk, but also user convenience is
`severely restricted.
`There is SAN (Storage Area Network) that uses the Fibre
`Channel technology. To use the devices connected to a SAN,
`a special-type of switch is needed. For example, Fiber Chan
`nel uses a Fibre Channel hub or a Fibre Channel switch. The
`SAN has some shortcomings. Typically, a separate file server
`is used. In general, the SAN equipment is expensive, and so is
`the administration cost of the SAN system because, for
`example, it often requires an administrator with a specialized
`knowledge on the system.
`Therefore, there is a need for an interface that allows a disk
`system to be directly attached to a network, while still being
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`SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
`
`It is an object of the present invention to provide a disk
`system that can be directly attached to a network connecting
`to a host without going through a network file system.
`Another object is to provide a disk system that can be
`recognized and used as a local disk to a host without requiring
`additional facility Such as an additional file server, a special
`Switch, or even an IP address, if appropriate.
`Still another object of the present invention is to provide a
`disk system that can be conveniently connected to a server
`without much intervention of network/server administration.
`Yet another object is to provide a low-cost disk system,
`many of which can be plugged into existing network ports to
`readily satisfy a disk capacity demand.
`Further object is to provide an interface that allows a device
`attachable to a bus to be plugged into a network port.
`The foregoing and other objects are accomplished by pro
`viding a network-attached disk (NAD) system that includes
`an NAD device for receiving a disk access command from a
`host through a network, a device driver at the host for con
`trolling the NAD device through the network, where the
`device driver recognizes the NAD device as a local device.
`The host may run the UNIX or Windows family of operating
`systems. The NAD device includes a disk for storing data, a
`disk controller for controlling the disk, and a network adapter
`for receiving a disk access command from the host through a
`network port.
`
`BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
`
`FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an environment where a
`network-attached disk (NAD) system of the present invention
`is used.
`FIG. 2 is an illustration of how multiple NAD devices may
`be accessed by multiple hosts through a network.
`FIG. 3 is an example of how multiple NAD devices are
`accessed by multiple hosts.
`FIG. 4 is another example of how each disk inside an NAD
`may be treated as a separate disk.
`FIG. 5 is an illustration of how a block device driver,
`specifically an NAD device driver, is registered and unregis
`tered under the UNIX operating system.
`FIG. 6 is an illustration of the relation among the directory,
`device file, device driver, and device.
`FIG. 7 is an illustration of how a request function directly
`issues a command to a device.
`FIG. 8 is an illustration of how a request function activates
`a device accessing thread.
`FIG.9 is a block diagram of a local disk system and that of
`an NAD device running under UNIX.
`FIG. 10 is an illustration of a device searching thread for
`identifying the attached NAD devices and for providing the
`NAD information to the NAD device management program.
`FIGS. 11A and 11B are examples of network connections
`made between an NAD device driver and its corresponding
`NAD device using a connection setting thread.
`FIG. 12 is an illustration of a method of implementing an
`NAD device driver, using a device accessing thread.
`FIG. 13 is an illustration of a method of implementing an
`NAD device driver, without using a device accessing thread.
`FIG. 14 is an example of an NAD device construction.
`FIG. 15 is a functional block diagram of an NAD control
`ler.
`
`Petitioners Microsoft Corporation and HP Inc. - Ex. 1001, p. 27
`
`

`

`US 7,870,225 B2
`
`3
`FIG. 16 is a simplified state transition diagram of a state
`machine used by the main controller of an NAD controller.
`FIG. 17 is an illustration of how a disk inside an NAD
`device may be divided into disk partitions to which a device
`driver is assigned.
`FIG. 18 is an illustration of how separate NAD device
`drivers may be generated so that a physically single disk can
`be assessed by different file systems.
`FIG. 19 is an illustration of how the NAD system can
`recognize physically separate, several NAD disks as a logi
`cally single disk.
`FIGS. 20A and 20B are illustrations of the hierarchies of
`the disk driver layers in the conventional disk system and the
`NAD system under the Windows 2000 operating system.
`FIG. 21 is an illustration of a network environment where
`the NAD system of the present invention is used in the Win
`dows 2000 operating system.
`FIG. 22 is an example of a device stack created in the
`Windows 2000 operating system.
`FIG. 23A is an illustration of the flow of IRP, SRB, and
`CDB in a conventional disk system in the Windows 2000
`operating system.
`FIG.23B is an illustration of the flow of IRPSRB and CDB
`in an NAD system in the Windows 2000 operating system.
`FIG. 24 is an illustration of NDIS (Network Device Inter
`face Specification) in the Windows 2000 operating system.
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`be dynamically installed or removed. The present invention
`achieves this by creating a virtual hostbus adapter in purely
`software means that recognizes an NAD device as if it is
`connected to the system bus although there is no physical host
`bus adapter connected the NAD. This is distinguished from
`the conventional Network Area Storage (NAS) scheme where
`a NAS device connected through the MC is still recognized as
`an independent file server connected to a network.
`The Open Systems Interface (OSI) model defines 7 layers
`of protocols: a physical layer for electrical interface defini
`tions, a data link layer for communication using data frames,
`a network layer for routing packets from one end to another,
`a transport layer for dividing messages into packets, a session
`layer for establishing communication session, a presentation
`layer for data presentation format, and an application layer for
`application programs. The present invention uses a data link
`layer protocol to contain storage commands into data link
`frames. Because the NAD device is not acting as an indepen
`dent devices to the host, there is no need to use a network
`address such as IP address.
`Since the specific configuration of the hosts and the disk
`systems can be dynamically changed, user convenience and
`portability is preserved as in the case of using a local disk.
`There is virtually no restriction to the number of disk systems
`that can be attached to the network, thus providing an unlim
`ited disk storage capacity for a host.
`FIG. 3 shows another example of how multiple NAD
`devices are accessed by multiple hosts through a network.
`NAD device #1143, NAD device #2145, and NAD device #5
`147 are accessed by Host #1 140 through a network 142,
`while NAD device H2 144 and NAD device H4 146 are
`accessed by Host #2141 through the same network 142.
`The disks contained in an NAD may be treated as separate
`disks So that each of them can be independently accessed by
`a host. FIG. 4 shows an example of treating each disk inside
`an NAD device as separate disks. Disk(1,1) 166 inside NAD
`device #1 163, disk(2.2) 168 inside NAD device #2, and
`disk(3.2) 170 inside NAD device #2 are accessed by Host #1
`160 through a network 122 while disk(2.1) 167 inside NAD
`device #2 164 and disk (3,1) 169 and disk (3.3) 171 inside
`NAD device #3 165 are accessed by Host #2161 through the
`same network 162. Note that disk (2.1) 167 and disk (2.2)
`168, inside NAD device #2 164, are independently accessed
`by Host #1160 and Host #2161 respectively.
`Block Device Driver
`An embodiment of the NAD system will be explained with
`an example running the UNIX family of operating systems
`although other operating systems such as Windows may also
`be used.
`Each block device for block data storage, such as a disk
`device, is assigned a major device number to distinguish
`among different kinds of block devices, and a minor device
`number to distinguish among same kinds of block devices. In
`UNIX, each device is accessed through a device file, which
`provides an interface for accessing the real device. Device
`files are usually generated in advance, each with a major
`device number and a minor device number as well as infor
`mation on a block device driver.
`The purpose of the device driver is to handle the requests
`made by the kernel with respect to a device. The device driver
`isolates device-specific codes to provide a consistent inter
`face for the kernel. In order to activate the operation of a
`device driver, a device file and device driver routines must be
`prepared, after which the functions of the driver routines must
`be registered so that the operating system Such as UNIX can
`understand their availability. This is usually done by passing
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`DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
`
`FIG. 1 shows an environment where the present invention
`is used. A host 100 has a file system 101, which may contain
`a local disk device driver 102 that controls a local disk 104
`connected to an internal system bus 103. A local device is
`defined as a device inside a standard-alone system as opposed
`to a network device connected to a network. Local devices are
`directly connected to a system bus often through an adapter
`called a host bus adapter allowing the host to communicate
`with the devices withoutgoing through any network, whereas
`network devices are not directly connected to a system bus,
`rather connected through an interface called a network inter
`face card (NIC) installed on system bus. The local disk 104
`may be a conventional IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics)
`disk or SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) disk.
`The file system 101 also contains a network-attached disk
`(NAD) device driver 105 of the present invention that controls
`an NAD device 108 connected through a network adapter
`device driver 106 and a network 107 such as Ethernet. The
`NAD device 108 of the present invention contains one or
`more disks 109. The network 107 is an existing general
`purpose network for carrying storage traffic as well as other
`application traffic. This so called “front-end' network for
`carrying general-purpose network traffic is distinguished
`from a “back-end' network dedicated to storage such as that
`used in the conventional Storage Area Network (SAN)
`scheme.
`The present invention features two main components: one
`is the NAD device driver 105 at the host and the other is the
`NAD device 108 attached to the network.
`FIG.2 shows an example of how multiple NAD devices are
`accessed by multiple hosts through a network. NAD device
`#1 123 with disk(1,1) 126 and NAD device #2 124 with
`disk(2.1) 127 and disk(2.2) 128 are accessed by Host #1 120
`through a network 122, while NAD device #3125 with disk
`(3,1) 129, disk(3.2) 130, disk(3.3) 131 is accessed by Host #2
`121 through the same network 122.
`Each disk appears to the host as if it is a local disk to
`connected to the system bus of the host so that each disk can
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`Petitioners Microsoft Corporation and HP Inc. - Ex. 1001, p. 28
`
`

`

`5
`the major number assigned to the device and the functions of
`the driver routines as parameters.
`Registration and Unregistration of Block Device Driver
`Once a block device driver is registered by passing the
`device's major device number and the driver functions as
`parameters, it may be unregistered by passing the major num
`ber.
`Table 1 lists the functions used to either register ordereg
`ister a device driver.
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`TABLE 1.
`
`Functions
`
`Description
`
`Register blkdev()
`
`Unregister blkdev()
`
`register a driver by taking a major
`number and driver functions as parameters
`unregister a driver by taking a major
`number
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`Table 2 lists the general functions used by the local driver 2O
`and the NDA driver.
`
`TABLE 2
`
`Driver Function
`
`Description
`
`Read()
`write()
`ioctl()
`
`open()
`release()
`fsync()
`
`check media change()
`
`revalidate()
`
`used to read data in the device
`used to write data in the device
`used to change a particular value of a
`structure for a driver or to control
`input/output with respect to a device
`used to initialize a driver
`used to eliminate a driver
`used to reflect the content of buffer cache
`to the real device driver
`used to sense a change in the device
`condition
`used to update device managed by the
`deriver and device driver itself
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`Table 3 lists examples of the driver functions specific to the
`IDE local disk driver and the NAD driver.
`
`US 7,870,225 B2
`
`6
`
`Use of Block Device
`Once a block device driver is registered and its device file
`is generated, read/write is done to the device file to access the
`real device. The device file, however, is not directly called by
`the user, rather called after being mounted to the file system.
`Before being mounted, each block device file must beformat
`ted according to a particular file system. Since the NAD
`device driver of the present invention is prepared in the same
`way as a conventional local disk driver, the set of I/O com
`mands used to format a conventional local disk can also be
`used to format a disk in the NAD device. In addition, since
`NAD devices are controlled in the device driver level, they
`can be formatted in a required format independent of the file
`system used.
`FIG. 6 shows the relation among the directory, device file,
`device driver, and device. The left side shows attachment of a
`conventional local disk system where a device file 201
`mounted on a directory 200 is used by a local disk device
`driver 202 to control a local disk 203. The right side shows an
`NAD system of the present invention where a device file 204
`mounted on the directory 200 is used by an NAD device driver
`205 to control a NAD device 207 through a local area network
`(LAN) 206 such as Ethernet. The two relations are similar
`except that the NAD device is accessed through the network.
`Structure of Block Device Driver
`Each block device driver has an I/O request queue to store
`the I/O requests to the device. The stored requests may be
`re-scheduled for the purpose of improving the performance.
`Besides the I/O request queue, each block device driver needs
`a request function to process the I/O requests in the queue.
`FIG. 7 shows a situation where the request function
`directly issues a command to a block device. An NAD device
`driver 220, using a device 222 and a file system 223, has a
`queue 224 that stores I/O requests 225 through 228. The NAD
`device driver 220 has a request function 229 that issues a
`command to the NAD device 221 by taking a currently pro
`cessed request 225.
`
`TABLE 3
`
`Driver Function
`
`IDE Local Driver Function
`
`NAD Driver Function
`
`read()
`write()
`ioctl()
`open()
`Release()
`fsync()
`check media change()
`revalidate()
`
`ide read()
`ide write()
`ide ioctl()
`ide open()
`ide release()
`ide fsync()
`ide check media change()
`ide revalidate()
`
`netdisk read()
`netdisk write()
`netdisk ioctl()
`netdisk open()
`netdisk release()
`netdisk fsync()
`netdisk check media change()
`netdisk ide revalidate()
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`FIG. 5 shows an example where a block device driver,
`specifically