Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080294826 | APPARATUS AND METHOD TO CONTROL ACCESS TO STORED INFORMATION - A method is disclosed to control access to stored information. The method supplies a control unit in communication with a computing device and in communication with stored information. If the computing device requests access to that stored information, the method determines if access to the stored information is available. When access to the stored information becomes available, then the method reserves a communication pathway interconnecting the control unit and the requesting computing device, thereby disallowing the sending of non-MPLF unsolicited status via that reserved communication pathway, and provides a message to the computing device, using that reserved communication pathway, granting access to the stored information. | 11-27-2008 |
20090013118 | PRIORITIZATION OF INTERRUPTS IN A STORAGE CONTROLLER BASED ON INTERRUPT CONTROL DIRECTIVES RECEIVED FROM HOSTS - A storage controller receives an interrupt control directive from a host. The storage controller generates a first plurality of interrupts, in response to access requests received from the host for at least one storage device coupled to the storage controller, wherein the first plurality of interrupts indicates whether access to the at least one storage device is allowed to the host. The storage controller generates a second plurality of interrupts, wherein the second plurality of interrupts comprises unsolicited interrupts for the host that are different from the first plurality of interrupts. The storage controller controls how many of the first plurality of interrupts and how many of the second plurality interrupts to send to the host, based on the received interrupt control directive. | 01-08-2009 |
20090013119 | PRIORITIZATION OF INTERRUPTS IN A STORAGE CONTROLLER BASED ON INTERRUPT CONTROL DIRECTIVES RECEIVED FROM HOSTS - A storage controller receives an interrupt control directive from a host. The storage controller generates a first plurality of interrupts, in response to access requests received from the host for at least one storage device coupled to the storage controller, wherein the first plurality of interrupts indicates whether access to the at least one storage device is allowed to the host. The storage controller generates a second plurality of interrupts, wherein the second plurality of interrupts comprises unsolicited interrupts for the host that are different from the first plurality of interrupts. The storage controller controls how many of the first plurality of interrupts and how many of the second plurality interrupts to send to the host, based on the received interrupt control directive. | 01-08-2009 |
20090049218 | RETRIEVING LOCK ATTENTION DATA - Provided are techniques for retrieving lock attention data. A group of attention connection paths configured to transmit lock attention interrupts and lock attention data between the host and the control unit are identified. A lock attention interrupt is received from the control unit. In response to receiving the lock attention interrupt, a connection path from the group of attention connection paths is selected and lock attention data is retrieved from the control unit using the selected connection path | 02-19-2009 |
20090177911 | APPARATUS, SYSTEM, AND METHOD TO PREVENT QUEUE STALLING - An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed to prevent queue stalling. The apparatus to prevent queue stalling is provided with a plurality of modules configured to functionally execute the necessary steps of detecting a connection failure on a first logical path, wherein the first logical path is associated with a first entry in a queue, and wherein the first logical path is configured to define a communication path between an entity associated with a first entry in the queue and a queue manager, scanning the queue to identify a second entry associated with a second logical path in response to the connection failure, and advancing the second entry to a position within the queue that is ahead of the first entry. These modules in the described embodiments include a detection module, a scanning module, and an advancing module. | 07-09-2009 |
20090183026 | Thresholding Hardware Errors - A system is provided to protect against ill-behaved microcode by balancing between an actual occurrence of a hardware problem and a microcode bug setting a flag appearing as a hardware problem. In this method, the error recovery is performed only on a single piece of hardware and no further error recovery action is taken on other pieces of similar hardware. The approach addresses the problem by treating a hit on one card as a hardware problem, but as a bug on subsequent cards. The invention keeps track of whether or not the same event has occurred on the same type of hardware so not to take action on more than one instance of the hardware. Subsequent hits on another instance of the hardware will not trigger the hardware related recovery on additional hardware. | 07-16-2009 |
20100036975 | REPEAT CCW COUNT ARGUMENT FOR DEVICE COMMAND WORD PROCESSING - A method of packaging a plurality of repeating commands for device command word (DCW) processing in a computer environment having an I/O link handling complex instruction chains for a processing operation is provided. Locate record information is packaged into DCW prefix parameter data. The locate record information includes an intent count argument. The plurality of repeating commands are embedded as a truncated concatenation to the first locate record information. The plurality of repeating commands are identified by redefining the intent count argument for the plurality of repeating commands as a repeat count argument using a flag argument incorporated into the locate record information. The repeat count argument indicates a number of times for a control unit in the computer environment to execute the plurality of repeating commands. | 02-11-2010 |
20100036977 | CKD PARTIAL RECORD HANDLING - A method for combining partial records into a single direct memory access (DMA) operation for a count key data (CKD) protocol in a computer environment is provided. In an initiator processor of the computer environment, a number of the partial records to be prefetched is determined by gathering a plurality of descriptor information for a command according to a predetermined algorithm having a plurality of assumptions for the command. The number of partial records is prefetched. At least one of record headers and record keys of the number of partial records are concatenated into the single DMA operation. The DMA operation is forwarded to a receiver process to be completed. | 02-11-2010 |
20100036978 | EMBEDDED LOCATE RECORDS FOR DEVICE COMMAND WORD PROCESSING - A method of packaging locate record commands for device command word (DCW) processing is provided. A first locate record command is packaged into DCW prefix parameter data. The first locate record command includes first search and first seek arguments, a first intent count argument, a first transfer length factor argument, and a plurality of remaining arguments. A plurality of truncated locate record commands is embedded in the DCW prefix parameter data as concatenations to the first locate record command. Each of the plurality of truncated locate record commands include a unique search argument, intent count argument, and transfer length factor argument. Seek argument parameters for each of the plurality of truncated locate record commands are calculated by taking an offset from the first seek argument and the first search argument, applying the offset to each of the plurality of truncated locate record commands. The plurality of remaining arguments is shared. | 02-11-2010 |
20100036982 | INTERROGATE PROCESSING FOR COMPLEX I/O LINK - A method for facilitating input/output (I/O) communication for a processing operation is provided. An interrogate command is obtained by an I/O communications adapter. The interrogate command queries for status information of the processing operation to be provided in an interrogate response. A fixed number of resources and a time allocated to the interrogate command is throttled by pre-allocating the fixed number of resources needed for the interrogate command, and maintaining a timestamp for a interrogate message. The interrogate message is forwarded from the I/O communications adapter to a control unit. If the interrogate response is not received by the I/O communications adapter within a limited timeout period as measured by the timestamp, or if the interrogate message is received while the fixed number of pre-allocated resources are in use, the I/O communications adapter returns a busy response indicating the control unit is busy to prevent overrunning the control unit. | 02-11-2010 |
20100037098 | TERMINATE OPERATIONS FOR COMPLEX I/O LINK - Method, system and computer program product embodiments for, in an input/output (I/O) link handling complex instruction chains, a messaging scheme incorporating a method of error recovery between an initiator processor and a receiver processor, are provided. An operation initiation message is been sent from the initiator processor to the receiver processor for the receiver processor to begin work on an operation. If determined to be necessary, a terminate operation message is sent from the initiator processor to the receiver processor. The initiator processor withholds sending additional messages for the operation until a terminate operation response message is received. Once the terminate operation message is received, outstanding messages in process are flushed from the receiver processor. The receiver processor withholds sending additional messages to the initiator processor as the outstanding messages are completed. The terminate operation response message is sent from the receiver processor to the initiator processor. | 02-11-2010 |
20100106877 | APPARATUS AND METHOD TO CONTROL ACCESS TO STORED INFORMATION - A method is disclosed to control access to stored information. The method supplies a control unit in communication with a computing device and in communication with stored information. If the computing device requests access to that stored information, the method determines if access to the stored information is available. When access to the stored information becomes available, then the method reserves a communication pathway interconnecting the control unit and the requesting computing device, thereby disallowing the sending of non-MPLF unsolicited status via that reserved communication pathway, and provides a message to the computing device, using that reserved communication pathway, granting access to the stored information. | 04-29-2010 |
20100179831 | UNIVERSAL PERSONAL MEDICAL DATABASE ACCESS CONTROL - Various embodiments for configuring a medical database by a processor in communication with at least one storage device in a computing environment are provided. Medical data are assigned to a patient. A plurality of data types is organized for the medical data. Portions of each of the plurality of data types are designated as public and private data. A plurality of access levels is organized for the medical data. Each of the plurality of data types includes the plurality of access levels. A first access level of the plurality of access levels corresponds to the patient. The medical data is classified according to the plurality of data types, for each of the plurality of data types, according to the plurality of access levels, and according to one of the public and the private data. The medical data is encrypted in a hierarchical structure corresponding to each of the plurality of access levels. | 07-15-2010 |
20100185744 | MANAGEMENT OF A RESERVE FOREVER DEVICE - A host reserves a device controlled by a controller that is coupled to the host. The controller starts a first timer, in response to a completion of input/output (I/O) operations on the device by the host, wherein the host continues to reserve the device after the completion of the I/O operations. The controller sends a notification to the host after an expiry of the first timer, wherein the notification requests the host to determine whether the device should continue to be reserved by the host. The controller starts a second timer, in response to receiving an acknowledgement from the host that the notification has been received by the host, wherein reservation status of the device reserved by the host is determined by the controller on or prior to an expiry of the second timer. | 07-22-2010 |
20120290729 | ESTABLISHING COMMUNICATION PATH GROUP IDENTIFICATION FOR MULTIPLE STORAGE DEVICES - Embodiments of the disclosure relate to setting up a logical path group identification for multiple data storage devices. An aspect of the disclosure concerns a computer implemented method that comprises receiving a host command to establish a group of connection paths between the host and a plurality of storage devices, identifying the group of connection paths, adding each one of the storage devices to the group of connection paths, and reporting to the host those storage devices that could not be successfully added to the group of connection paths. The method maintains host access security to the storage devices by not grouping a device when it is a reset event state. | 11-15-2012 |