A fiber channel storage area network (SAN) provides virtualized storage
space for a number of servers to a number of virtual disks implemented on
various virtual redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID) devices
striped across a plurality of physical disk drives. The SAN includes
plural controllers and communication paths to allow for fail-safe and
fail-over operation. The plural controllers can be loosely-coupled to
provide n-way redundancy and have more than one independent channel for
communicating with one another. In the event of a failure involving a
controller or controller interface, the virtual disks that are accessed
via the affected interfaces are re-mapped to another interface in order
to continue to provide high data availability. In particular, those
targets, or virtual disks, which are owned by a failed device (e.g.,
interface or controller) are identified and their ownership information
within the SAN configuration tables is revised to reflect one or more
alternative devices which act as back-up devices.