US Patent 11392459 Virtualization server aware multi-pathing failover policy

A host device is configured to communicate over a network with a storage system comprising a plurality of storage devices. The host device comprises a multi-path input-output (MPIO) driver configured to control delivery of input-output (IO) operations from the host device to the storage system over a plurality of paths through the network. The MPIO driver is further configured to identify whether given ones of a plurality of initiators associated with the paths comprise given ones of a plurality of virtual initiator instances, and to identify given ones of a plurality of virtual IO servers corresponding to the given ones of the virtual initiator instances. The MPIO driver is also configured to detect a failure of an IO operation over a first path, and to select a second path for retrying the IO operation based on the identification of the virtual IO servers corresponding to the virtual initiator instances.