System and method for addressing protocol translation in a storage environment

Abstract

A system and method for translating addressing protocols between two types of storage drives in a storage environment is provided. A storage environment may include a JBOD of Serial ATA drives coupled to a host server through an external SCSI connection. The addressing protocol of the host server will typically involve addressing each Serial ATA drive by a unique SCSI target ID. This addressing protocol of the host server is translated to an addressing protocol in which each Serial ATA drive is addressed through unique LUN identifier and a single SCSI target ID, which is the addressing scheme of some SCSI-based peripheral controllers.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A storage environment, comprising: 
 a server having a controller, wherein the controller is able to address a storage drive in the storage environment according to an identifier associated with the storage drive;    a storage device coupled to the server through a network connection and having a plurality of storage drives, wherein each storage drive is associated with a unique identifier; and    a bridge element associated with the storage device and operable to recognize communications addressed to any of the storage drives of the storage device.    
     
     
         2 . The storage environment of  claim 1 , 
 wherein the network connection between the server and the storage device is a SCSI connection; and    wherein the plurality of storage drives are Serial ATA drives.    
     
     
         3 . The storage environment of  claim 2 , 
 wherein the storage device is a JBOD enclosure;    wherein each Serial ATA drive is assigned a unique SCSI target ID; and    wherein the bridge element is operable to recognize communications addressed to any of the unique SCSI target IDs of the associated JBOD enclosure.    
     
     
         4 . The storage environment of  claim 3 , further comprising a PCI bus connection between the bridge element and the Serial ATA drives of the JBOD enclosure.  
     
     
         5 . The storage environment of  claim 4 , further comprising a processor coupled to the PCI bus and able to translate a communication from a SCSI communications protocol to a Serial ATA communications protocol.  
     
     
         6 . A method for addressing storage drives in a storage device of a storage environment, comprising the steps of: 
 assigning a logical target identifier to each storage drive;    providing a bridge element for storage device, wherein the bridge element is operable to recognize communications addressed to any of the storage devices of the storage device;    receiving at the bridge element a communication from a host;    recognizing at the bridge element that the communication is addressed to one of the storage devices of the associated storage device; and    passing the communication to a storage drive on the basis of the target identifier of the communication.    
     
     
         7 . The method for addressing storage drives of  claim 6 , 
 wherein the storage device is a JBOD enclosure;    wherein the storage drives are Serial ATA drives; and    wherein the step of assigning a logical target identifier to each storage drive comprises the step of assigning a SCSI target ID to each Serial ATA drive.    
     
     
         8 . The method for addressing storage drives of  claim 7 , wherein the bridge element is operable to recognize communications addressed to any of the SCSI target IDs of the JBOD enclosure.  
     
     
         9 . The method for addressing storage drives of  claim 8 , wherein the step of passing the communication to a storage device comprises the step of translating the communication from a SCSI protocol to a Serial ATA protocol.  
     
     
         10 . A storage environment, comprising: 
 a host having a controller, wherein the controller is able to address a storage drive in the storage environment according to a first addressing protocol;    a storage device coupled to the server through a network connection and having a plurality of storage drives, wherein the storage drives are addressable according to a second addressing protocol; and    a bridge element associated with the storage device and able to translate communications between the first addressing protocol and the second addressing protocol.    
     
     
         11 . The storage environment of  claim 10 , 
 wherein the storage device is a JBOD enclosure; and    wherein the storage drives are Serial ATA drives.    
     
     
         12 . The storage environment of  claim 11 , wherein the network connection between the JBOD enclosure and the host is a SCSI connection.  
     
     
         13 . The storage environment of  claim 12 , wherein the first addressing protocol comprises addressing communications by a SCSI target ID assigned to each of the Serial ATA drives.  
     
     
         14 . The storage environment of  claim 13 , wherein the second addressing protocol comprises addressing communications to the Serial ATA drives by SCSI LUN number and a single SCSI target ID.  
     
     
         15 . The storage environment of  claim 14 , wherein the JBOD enclosure includes a controller that is coupled by a PCI bus to the Serial ATA drives of the JBOD enclosure.  
     
     
         16 . The storage environment of  claim 15 , further comprising a processor coupled to the PCI bus that is operable to translate communications from a SCSI protocol to a Serial ATA protocol.  
     
     
         17 . A method for addressing storage drives in a JBOD enclosure, comprising the steps of: 
 providing a bridge device coupled between a host and the JBOD enclosure;    receiving communications from the host according to a first addressing scheme;    translating the communications from the host into a second addressing scheme; and    transmitting the communications to the JBOD enclosure according to the second addressing scheme.    
     
     
         18 . The method for addressing storage devices of  claim 17 , wherein the storage drives of the JBOD enclosure represent Serial ATA drives.  
     
     
         19 . The method for addressing storage devices of  claim 18 , wherein the first addressing scheme comprises addressing the Serial ATA drives of the JBOD enclosure by a unique target ID.  
     
     
         20 . The method for addressing storage devices of  claim 19 , wherein the second addressing scheme comprises address the Serial ATA drives according to a LUN identifier and wherein each Serial ATA drive of the JBOD enclosure associated with a single target ID.