VIRTUAL STORAGE SYSTEM AND SWITCHING NODE USED FOR THE SAME SYSTEM

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a virtual storage system to have the same performance with direct access to an external input/output device such as a disk by a node device. SOLUTION: The system is equipped with a switching node which is interposed between at least one node device 1 and a plurality of external input/ output devices 2 to manage storage areas of the plurality of the external input/ output devices virtually as a common storage 5 of the node device 1 and the switching node 3 has a control part which processes control system messages and a transfer process part 32 or 33 which discriminates the types of messages received from the node device 1 to transfers the control system messages to the control part 31 and data transfer system messages to a specific external input/output device 2.