System and method for supporting a plurality of levels of acceleration in a single protocol session
View Patent ↗A system and method supports a plurality of levels of acceleration in an iSCSI session between a client and a storage system. The iSCSI session includes multiple connections and the levels of acceleration include different types of transport provider hardware. An iSCSI session manager is configured to manage a different type of transport provider hardware over one or more connections of the session. The use of a multi-connection session with differing levels of acceleration enables the client to use standard multi-pathing algorithms, such as active/passive and/or weighted path selection, to maximize performance by employing the highest accelerated connection as a preferred data pathway.
1. A method for providing a plurality of levels of acceleration within a protocol session between a client and a server, the method comprising:
creating the protocol session between the client and the server using a first connection having a first type of transport provider hardware, the first transport provider hardware associated with a first level of acceleration;
creating a second connection having a second type of transport provider hardware, the second transport provider hardware associated with a second level of acceleration; and
utilizing the first connection and the second connection within the same protocol session to allow an initiator layer on a client to select the connection to be used for a request based the required level of acceleration without having to generate a new protocol session between the client and the server.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the protocol session comprises an iSCSI session.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the first level of acceleration is associated with a network interface controller.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the first level of acceleration is associated with a TCP offload engine (TOE).
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the first level of acceleration is associated with a host bus adapter (HBA).
6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
utilizing a multi-pathing algorithm to transmit operations over the first and second connections.
7. The method of claim 6 wherein the multi-pathing algorithm comprises an active/passive algorithm.
8. The method of claim 6 wherein the multi-pathing algorithm comprises a weighted average algorithm.
9. A system for providing a plurality of levels of acceleration within a protocol session between a client and a server, the system comprising:
means for creating the protocol session between the client and the server using a first connection having a first type of transport provider hardware, the first transport provider hardware associated with a first level of acceleration;
means for creating a second connection having a second type of transport provider hardware, the second transport provider hardware associated with a second level of acceleration; and
means for utilizing the first connection and the second connection within the same protocol session to allow an initiator layer on a client to select the connection to be used for a request based the required level of acceleration without having to generate a new protocol session between the client and the server.
10. The system of claim 9 wherein the protocol session comprises an iSCSI session.
11. The system of claim 9 wherein the first level of acceleration is associated with a network interface controller.
12. The system of claim 9 wherein the first level of acceleration is associated with a TCP offload engine (TOE).
13. The system of claim 9 wherein the first level of acceleration is associated with a host bus adapter (HBA).
14. The system of claim 9 further comprising:
means for utilizing a multi-pathing algorithm to transmit operations over the first and second connections.
15. The system of claim 14 wherein the multi-pathing algorithm comprises an active/passive algorithm.
16. The system of claim 14 wherein the multi-pathing algorithm comprises a weighted average algorithm.
17. A computer readable medium for providing a plurality of levels of acceleration within a protocol session, the computer readable medium including program instructions for performing the steps of:
creating the protocol session using a first connection having a first level of acceleration type of transport provider hardware, the first transport provider hardware associated with a first level of acceleration;
creating a second connection having a second type of transport provider hardware, the second transport provider hardware associated with a second level of acceleration; and
utilizing the first connection and the second connection within the same protocol session to allow an initiator layer on a client to select the connection to be used for a request based the required level of acceleration without having to generate a new protocol session.