NetApp Patent Grants

Method and system for handling lock state information at storage system nodes

Granted: May 29, 2018
Patent Number: 9984095
Methods and systems for handling lock state information between a first storage system node and a second storage system node coupled via a network link are provided. The second storage system node stores lock state information at a storage device previously managed by the first storage system node and notifies the first storage system node of a storage device location where the lock state information is stored. The second storage system node then transfers ownership of the storage device…

Avoiding data loss in a copy-free transition of storage objects

Granted: May 29, 2018
Patent Number: 9983810
A transition tool creates a reversion snapshot of storage objects and data in a copy-free transition method. The storage objects are transitioned from the formats that the source storage system uses to the formats that the destination storage system uses. During this transition, the transition tool can prevent automatic functions of the source and destination storage systems from deleting the reversion snapshots until a request to commit the transition is received. The transition tool…

Rack system for supporting a computing device

Granted: May 15, 2018
Patent Number: 9974203
A rack system for supporting a computing device includes an adaptor. The adaptor includes a first support portion defining an opening that is aligned with a rack opening of a rack support post. The first support portion and the rack support post receive a fastener through the opening and the rack opening to attach the adaptor to the rack support post. A second support portion is attached to an end of the first support portion. The second support portion includes a first wall and a second…

Eventual consistency among many clusters including entities in a master member regime

Granted: May 15, 2018
Patent Number: 9973394
The present application provides techniques to interrelate a group of multiple entities. A master entity makes configuration decisions regarding the group of entities and communicates those decisions to the entities. When the master relinquishes the master role, the retiring master selects a new master to accede to the master role. The retiring master releases the master role and ensures that the new master becomes aware of its assignment to the master role. During the time between when…

Preserving coredump data during switchover operation

Granted: April 24, 2018
Patent Number: 9952951
One or more techniques and/or computing devices are provided for preserving coredump data. A first storage controller, of a first storage cluster, may have a disaster recovery relationship with a second storage controller of a second storage cluster. When the first storage controller fails, the first storage controller performs a coredump process to dump memory contents of the first storage controller into a storage device. During implementation of the coredump process, the first storage…

Synchronous replication for storage area network protocol storage

Granted: March 13, 2018
Patent Number: 9917896
One or more techniques and/or computing devices are provided for implementing synchronous replication. For example, a synchronous replication relationship may be established between a first storage controller hosting local storage and a second storage controller hosting remote storage (e.g., replication may be specified at a file, logical unit number (LUN), or any other level of granularity). Data operations and offloaded operations may be implemented in parallel upon the local storage…

Dynamic resource allocation based upon network flow control

Granted: March 13, 2018
Patent Number: 9917784
One or more techniques and/or devices are provided for dynamic resource allocation based upon network flow control. For example, a first counter, corresponding to a count of communication availability signals provided by a network interface to a storage process, may be maintained. A second counter, corresponding to a count of communication unavailability signals provided by the network interface to the storage process, may be maintained. Responsive to the first counter exceeding a…

Push-based piggyback system for source-driven logical replication in a storage environment

Granted: March 13, 2018
Patent Number: 9916100
The disclosed techniques enable push-based piggybacking of a source-driven logical replication system. Logical replication of a data set (e.g., a snapshot) from a source node to a destination node can be achieved from a source-driven system while preserving the effects of storage efficiency operations (deduplication) applied at the source node. However, if missing data extents are detected at the destination, the destination has an extent pulling problem as the destination may not have…

Methods and systems for using predictive cache statistics in a storage system

Granted: November 28, 2017
Patent Number: 9830269
Method and systems for a storage system are provided. Simulated cache blocks of a cache system are tracked using cache metadata while performing a workload having a plurality of storage operations. The cache metadata is segmented, each segment corresponding to a cache size. Predictive statistics are determined for each cache size using a corresponding segment of the cache metadata. The predictive statistics are used to determine an amount of data that is written for each cache size…

Access management techniques for storage networks

Granted: November 14, 2017
Patent Number: 9819738
Improved access management techniques for storage networks are described. In one embodiment, for example, an apparatus may comprise a processor circuit and an access control component for execution by the processor circuit to select a set of hosts for which to enable access to a logical storage volume of a network storage cluster, select, from among a plurality of nodes of the network storage cluster, a set of nodes via which to enable access to the logical storage volume by the set of…

System and method for handling multi-node failures in a disaster recovery cluster

Granted: November 7, 2017
Patent Number: 9811428
A system and method for handling multi-node failures in a disaster recovery cluster is provided. In the event of an error condition, a switchover operation occurs from the failed nodes to one or more surviving nodes. Data stored in non-volatile random access memory is recovered by the surviving nodes to bring storage objects, e.g., disks, aggregates and/or volumes into a consistent state.

Path management techniques for storage networks

Granted: October 24, 2017
Patent Number: 9798485
Improved path management techniques for storage networks are described. In one embodiment, for example, an apparatus may comprise a processor circuit, a detection component for execution by the processor circuit to receive an advertisement of a set of paths for accessing a logical storage volume and determine whether the set of paths comprises an optimized path, and a modification component for execution by the processor circuit to, when the set of paths does not comprise an optimized…

Multicast transport

Granted: October 3, 2017
Patent Number: 9781201
One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for multicast transport configuration, for multicast transport, and/or for fault policy implementation. In an example, a multicast component may receive a data copy request from an application to copy data to multiple destinations. A scheduler component may create a transport schedule specifying an order with which to facilitate data copy operations across transports, such as heterogeneous transports, to the destinations. A dispatcher…

Cluster configuration information replication

Granted: August 1, 2017
Patent Number: 9720626
One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for cluster configuration information replication, managing cluster-wide service agents, and/or for cluster-wide outage detection. In an example of cluster configuration information replication, a replication workflow corresponding to a storage operation implemented for a storage object (e.g., renaming of a volume) of a first cluster may be transferred to a second storage cluster for selectively implementation. In an example of managing…

Interconnect path failover

Granted: July 25, 2017
Patent Number: 9715435
One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for interconnect failover between a primary storage controller and a secondary storage controller. The secondary storage controller may be configured as a backup or failover storage controller for the primary storage controller in the event the primary storage controller fails. Data and/or metadata describing the data (e.g., data and/or metadata stored within a write cache) may be mirrored from the primary storage controller to the…

Data profiler

Granted: May 9, 2017
Patent Number: 9645881
One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for profiling a dataset. For example, a snapshot of a volume may be evaluated to identify a set of data characteristics, such as file and directory size information. A baseline dataset profile of a dataset of data within the volume may be constructed based upon the set of data characteristics. Histograms and graphs of directory counts and file counts may be constructed based upon the baseline dataset profile. An incremental dataset…

Methods and systems for dynamically controlled caching

Granted: March 28, 2017
Patent Number: 9606918
Systems and methods for improving caching mechanisms in a storage system are disclosed. The method includes storing data associated with a write input/output (I/O) request at a cache; determining an amount of dirty data stored in the cache, where the dirty data is data in the cache that has not yet been written to a persistent storage location managed by a storage system; determining if the amount of dirty data exceeds a threshold value; determining a cache flush rate based on the amount…

Mirror vote synchronization

Granted: June 7, 2016
Patent Number: 9361194
One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for mirror vote synchronization. For example, a first storage device is located at a first storage site, and a second storage device is located at a second storage site. The second storage device is configured according to a data mirroring configuration where data from the first storage device is mirrored to the second storage device. Mirror vote metadata is generated based upon an up-to-date state of the data mirroring configuration.…

Survival site load balancing

Granted: May 24, 2016
Patent Number: 9348714
One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for load balancing between storage controllers. For example, a first storage controller and a second storage controller may be configured at a first storage site according to a high availability configuration, and may be configured as disaster recovery partners for a third storage controller and a fourth storage controller at a second storage site. If the first storage controller fails, the second storage controller provides failover…

Storage device health status synchronization

Granted: May 24, 2016
Patent Number: 9348715
One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for storage device health status synchronization. For example, a first health status registry is maintained for a first storage controller at a first storage site. The first storage controller stores storage device health status information of storage devices currently owned by or assigned to the first storage controller within the first health status registry. A second health status registry is maintained for a second storage controller…