US Patent 9264384 Resource virtualization mechanism including virtual host bus adapters

Methods and apparatus are provided for virtualizing resources such as host bus adapters connected to a storage area network. Resources are offloaded from individual servers onto a resource virtualization switch. Servers are connected to the resource virtualization switch using an I/O bus connection. Servers are assigned resources such as virtual host bus adapters and share access to physical host bus adapters included in the resource virtualization switch. Redundancy can be provided using multipathing mechanisms.