1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to fibre channel systems, and more particularly to LUN based hard zoning in fibre channel switches.
2. Background of the Invention
Fibre channel is a set of American National Standard Institute (ANSI) standards, which provide a serial transmission protocol for storage and network protocols such as HIPPI, SCSI, IP, ATM and others. Fibre channel provides an input/output interface to meet the requirements of both channel and network users.
Fibre channel supports three different topologies: point-to-point, arbitrated loop and fibre channel fabric. The point-to-point topology attaches two devices directly. The arbitrated loop topology attaches devices in a loop. The fibre channel fabric topology attaches host systems directly to a fabric, which are then connected to multiple devices. The fibre channel fabric topology allows several media types to be interconnected.
Fibre channel is a closed system that relies on multiple ports to exchange information on attributes and characteristics to determine if the ports can operate together. If the ports can work together, they define the criteria under which they communicate.
In fibre channel, a path is established between two nodes where the path's primary task is to transport data from one point to another at high speed with low latency, performing only simple error detection in hardware.
Fibre channel fabric devices include a node port or “N_Port” that manages fabric connections. The N_port establishes a connection to a fabric element (e.g., a switch) having a fabric port or F_port. Fabric elements include the intelligence to handle routing, error detection, recovery, and similar management functions.
A fibre channel switch is a multi-port device where each port manages a simple point-to-point connection between itself and its attached system. Each port can be attached to a server, peripheral, I/O subsystem, bridge, hub, router, or even another switch. A switch receives messages from one port and automatically routes it to another port. Multiple calls or data transfers happen concurrently through the multi-port fibre channel switch.
Fibre channel switches use memory buffers to hold frames received and sent across a network. Associated with these buffers are credits, which are the number of frames that a buffer can hold per fabric port.
Fibre Channel allows the use of Small Computer System Interface (“SCSI”) protocol in storage area networks. SCSI storage devices are sub-divided into multiple Logical Unit Numbers (LUNs).
In Fibre Channel Fabrics, zoning is used to control access of devices attached to the Fabric to other devices. Hard Zoning is zoning that is enforced on individual frames sent from one end-user device to another end-user device by preventing delivery of frames across zone boundaries.
Conventional techniques and standards do not allow secure LUN based zoning for fibre channel switches. Hence, this can result in inadvertent or malicious access by a device(s) that are not supposed to use a particular LUN.
Therefore, what is required is a process and system that can enforce secure; LUN based hard zoning for fibre channel switches.