Some embodiments provide a method of providing distributed storage services to a host computer from a network interface card (NIC) of the host computer. At the NIC, the method accesses a set of one or more external storages operating outside of the host computer through a shared port of the NIC that is not only used to access the set of external storages but also for forwarding packets not related to an external storage. In some embodiments, the method accesses the external storage set by using a network fabric storage driver that employs a network fabric storage protocol to access the external storage set. The method presents the external storage as a local storage of the host computer to a set of programs executing on the host computer. In some embodiments, the method presents the local storage by using a storage emulation layer on the NIC to create a local storage construct that presents the set of external storages as a local storage of the host computer.

Some embodiments provide a method of providing distributed storage services to a host computer from a network interface card (NIC) of the host computer. At the NIC, the method accesses a set of one or more external storages operating outside of the host computer through a shared port of the NIC that is not only used to access the set of external storages but also for forwarding packets not related to an external storage. In some embodiments, the method accesses the external storage set by using a network fabric storage driver that employs a network fabric storage protocol to access the external storage set. The method presents the external storage as a local storage of the host computer to a set of programs executing on the host computer. In some embodiments, the method presents the local storage by using a storage emulation layer on the NIC to create a local storage construct that presents the set of external storages as a local storage of the host computer.

Some embodiments provide a method of providing distributed storage services to a host computer from a network interface card (NIC) of the host computer. At the NIC, the method accesses a set of one or more external storages operating outside of the host computer through a shared port of the NIC that is not only used to access the set of external storages but also for forwarding packets not related to an external storage. In some embodiments, the method accesses the external storage set by using a network fabric storage driver that employs a network fabric storage protocol to access the external storage set. The method presents the external storage as a local storage of the host computer to a set of programs executing on the host computer. In some embodiments, the method presents the local storage by using a storage emulation layer on the NIC to create a local storage construct that presents the set of external storages as a local storage of the host computer.

Some embodiments provide a method of providing distributed storage services to a host computer from a network interface card (NIC) of the host computer. At the NIC, the method accesses a set of one or more external storages operating outside of the host computer through a shared port of the NIC that is not only used to access the set of external storages but also for forwarding packets not related to an external storage. In some embodiments, the method accesses the external storage set by using a network fabric storage driver that employs a network fabric storage protocol to access the external storage set. The method presents the external storage as a local storage of the host computer to a set of programs executing on the host computer. In some embodiments, the method presents the local storage by using a storage emulation layer on the NIC to create a local storage construct that presents the set of external storages as a local storage of the host computer.

System and method for supporting scalable bitmap based P_Key table in a high performance computing environment. A method can provide, at least one subnet comprising one or more switches, a plurality of host channel adapters, and a plurality of end nodes. The method can associate the plurality of end nodes with at least one of a plurality of partitions, wherein each of the plurality of partitions are associated with a P_Key value. The method can associate each of the one or more switches with a bitmap based P_Key table of a plurality of bitmap based P_Key tables. The method can associate each of the host channel adapters with a bitmap based P_Key table of the plurality of bitmap based P_Key tables.

An automated multi-fabric link aggregation system includes leaf switch devices that have leaf switch device downlink ports, that are included in a first network fabric, and that are aggregated to provide a first aggregation fabric. Each leaf switch device generates discovery communications including a first network fabric identifier for the first network fabric, and a first aggregation fabric identifier for the first aggregation fabric. The leaf switch devices then transmit the discovery communications via the leaf switch device downlink ports. I/O modules that have I/O module uplink port are included in a second network fabric and are aggregated to provide a second aggregation fabric. The I/O modules receive the discovery communications via each of the I/O module uplink ports, determine that each received discovery communication includes the first network fabric identifier and the first aggregation fabric identifier and, in response, automatically configure the I/O module uplink ports in a LAG.

System and method for supporting scalable representation of switch port status in a high performance computing environment. In accordance with an embodiment, a scalable representation of switch port status can be provided. By adding a scalable representation of switch port status at each switch (both physical and virtual)—instead of getting all switch port changes individually, the scalable representation of switch port status can combine a number of ports that can scale by just using a few bits of information for each port's status.

A storage system is provided. The storage system includes a plurality of storage units, each having a controller and solid-state storage memory. The storage system further includes one or more first pathways that couple processing devices of a plurality of storage nodes and is configured to couple to a network external to the storage system and one or more second pathways that couple the plurality of storage nodes to the plurality of storage units, wherein the one or more second pathways enable multiprocessing applications.

A SDN orchestration method includes: obtaining a first request for creating a first logical switch; creating a control plane instance of the first logical switch, and sending first configuration information to instruct the first forwarding device to configure the data plane instance of the first logical switch; obtaining a second request for connecting the first logical switch to a first logical router; sending second configuration information to instruct the first forwarding device to configure a first port of the data plane instance of the first logical switch to be communicatively connected to a second port of a data plane instance of the first logical router on the second forwarding device configured with the data plane instance of the first logical router; and sending third configuration information to instruct the second forwarding device to configure the second port to be communicatively connected to the first port.

A storage system determines source addresses, and destination addresses in a storage system, for network traffic. The storage system determines a hash algorithm, from a plurality of hash algorithms. The hash algorithm is to be used across the source addresses for load-balancing the network traffic to the destination addresses. The storage system determines that the hash algorithm more closely meets one or more load-balancing criteria than at least one other hash algorithm, of the plurality of hash algorithms. The storage system distributes the network traffic from the source addresses to the destination addresses in the storage system, with load-balancing according to the determined hash algorithm.