System and method for efficiently deleting a file from secure storage served by a storage system
Granted: March 12, 2013
Patent Number:
8397083
A system and method efficiently deletes a file from secure storage, i.e., a cryptainer, served by a storage system. The cryptainer is configured to store a plurality of files, each of which stores an associated file key within a special metadata portion of the file. Notably, special metadata is created by a security appliance coupled to the storage system and attached to each file to thereby create two portions of the file: the special metadata portion and the main, “file data”…
Adaptive scheduling of storage operations based on utilization of a multiple client and server resources in a distributed network storage system
Granted: March 5, 2013
Patent Number:
8392312
Scheduling operations such as asynchronous file system operations in a network storage system is accomplished by applying a bid-price online auction methodology, in which bid (willingness-to-pay) values and price (cost) values are dynamically set by storage clients and a storage server, respectively, based on utilization of computing resources. The system provides a framework for adaptively scheduling asynchronous file system operations, managing multiple key resources of the distributed…
System and method for reduced-overhead snapshot creation
Granted: March 5, 2013
Patent Number:
8392675
Systems and methods for reduced-overhead creation of persistent, point-in-time images (PPIs) are disclosed. The summary map is updated as needed when a block is newly freed or allocated after the latest PPI is taken. Therefore, PPI maps of previously created PPIs do not need to be scanned after PPI creation, thereby eliminating high latency disk reads and memory consumption for scanning. When a PPI is created, the active map and the latest PPI map are identical since the active map…
Out of order delivery for data and metadata mirroring in a cluster storage system
Granted: February 26, 2013
Patent Number:
8386425
Described herein are a system and method for remote mirroring of data and metadata from a local node to a remote node using out-of-order delivery (OOD), while also providing data integrity at the remote node. OOD may utilize increased throughput of multiple connection paths between nodes. A mirroring layer/engine executing on the local node may receive related groups of data and metadata for storing to the remote node, each related group comprising one or more data sets and one metadata…
Coalescing metadata for mirroring to a remote node in a cluster storage system
Granted: February 26, 2013
Patent Number:
8386433
Described herein are a system and method for remote mirroring/copying data and metadata sets from a local node to a remote node that reduces the number of metadata sets that are mirrored. In some embodiments, the local node may coalesce metadata sets into metadata chains, each metadata chain comprising a grouping of two or more metadata sets. In some instances, a “representative” metadata set of a metadata chain may be selected for sending to the remote node for storing, wherein the…
Proxying search requests for files to a search engine
Granted: February 26, 2013
Patent Number:
8386446
A method and apparatus for proxying search requests for a storage system and maintaining a central index for performing the search requests is described herein. An index manager on the storage system may initially produce the central index by examining each file in a file system and update the central index thereafter by examining only those files that have changed since the central index was initially produced or last updated. The index manager may receive a changed file list from a…
System and method for automatic storage load balancing in virtual server environments
Granted: February 26, 2013
Patent Number:
8386610
Methods and systems for periodically analyzing and correcting storage load imbalances in a storage network environment including virtual machines are described. These methods and systems account for various resource types, logical access paths, and relationships among different storage environment components. Load balancing may be managed in terms of input/output (I/O) traffic and storage utilization. The aggregated information is stored, and may be used to identify and correct load…
System for handling input/output requests between storage arrays with different performance capabilities
Granted: February 26, 2013
Patent Number:
8386710
An apparatus comprising a remote storage array, a primary storage array and a network. The remote storage array may be configured to (i) define a queue size based on a performance capability of the remote storage array, (ii) generate a multiplier based on resources being used by the remote storage array, and (iii) adjust the queue size by the multiplier. The primary storage array may be configured to execute input/output (IO) requests between the remote storage array and the primary…
High-availability of a storage system in a hierarchical virtual server environment
Granted: February 26, 2013
Patent Number:
8386838
Described herein is a high-availability storage system having hierarchical levels of storage functions. The storage system may comprise one or more hierarchical levels, each hierarchical level comprising physical servers and be assigned to perform a particular set of storage functions. Each physical server may implement one or more VMs configured to perform only the set of storage functions assigned to the hierarchical level on which the VM executes. VMs of a first hierarchical level may…
System and method of implementing disk ownership in networked storage
Granted: February 19, 2013
Patent Number:
8380824
A method and apparatus for identifying ownership by a computer of a storage device connected to a computer network is described. A first ownership information is written into a selected sector of the storage device by a computer having ownership of the device as a first indicia of ownership. A second ownership information is written into a storage device label of the storage device by the computer having ownership as a second indicia of ownership, the storage device label visible to a…
System and method for preventing resource over-commitment due to remote management in a clustered network storage system
Granted: February 19, 2013
Patent Number:
8381217
A clustered network storage system includes a management module and a resource allocation mechanism configured to allow remote management of node resources from the management module while preventing resource over-commitment due to the remote management. Preventing resource over-commitment includes conditionally granting access to the resources of a node according to a credit based system. Preventing resource over-commitment further includes scheduling jobs that access the resources of…
Method and system for naming replicated storage
Granted: February 19, 2013
Patent Number:
8380955
Method and system for uniquely identifying a replicated copy of a storage volume is provided. A unique identifier is created by a storage system managing the replicated copy. The unique identifier includes a time stamp of when the identifier is being created, a system clock of the storage system and a unique address for an adapter that is used by the storage system.
Failover method and system
Granted: February 19, 2013
Patent Number:
8380954
Method and system is provided for performing a failover operation during which a second storage system takes over the management of a storage volume managed by a first storage system. The first storage system may also manage a plurality of replicated copies of the storage volume and maintain metadata for storing information regarding the replicated copies. The failover operation is completed without having the second storage system read all the metadata.
System and method for migrating lun data between data containers
Granted: February 19, 2013
Patent Number:
8380674
A system and method for lun migration between data containers, such as aggregates of a storage system is provided. A new destination lun is created on a destination aggregate. A background copy process is then started that copies all data from a source lun on a source aggregate to the destination lun. The storage system continues to process client-originated data access requests directed to the source lun while the background copying continues. Once all the data of the source lun has…
Re-keying based on pre-generated keys
Granted: February 5, 2013
Patent Number:
8369529
A system and method for pre-generating encryption keys for re-keying stored ciphertext. The encryption keys are illustratively distributed to LKMs and therefrom to the security appliances communicating with each other. A minimum number of un-used pre-generated encryption keys is established wherein when that number is reached more pre-generated encryption keys are created and distributed.
System and method for reallocating blocks in checkpointing bitmap-based file systems
Granted: February 5, 2013
Patent Number:
8370301
A computerized file system has a first software layer for writing data blocks to persistent storage, and a second software layer for receiving requests from a client, and in response to receiving a request passing a command to the first software layer. A current bit map shows data blocks of persistent storage which are allocated to holding data of the file system. A safe copy of the current bit map is maintained. A third copy of the current bit map is passed, at a selected time, to the…
Method for remote data back up with de-duplication and recovery from clustered secondary storage arrays
Granted: February 5, 2013
Patent Number:
8370569
A method, system, and apparatus a method for remote data back up with de-duplication and recovery from clustered secondary storage arrays are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method includes writing a set of data of a primary storage module (e.g., may be coupled to the secondary storage cluster with a fiber channel network) to a secondary storage module of a secondary storage cluster, writing an other set of data of the primary storage module to an other secondary storage module coupled…
System and method for re-use of writeable PPIs
Granted: February 5, 2013
Patent Number:
8370589
Techniques introduced herein allow writeable PPIs to be re-used. A writeable PPI manager can make use of existing writeable PPIs to offer logical units to clients without creating additional writeable PPIs. The writeable PPI manager can determine which writeable PPIs to re-use by testing the writeable PPIs for a variety of conditions. Advantageously, re-use of remaining logical units reduces unnecessary replication of data and increased overhead costs. Resources can thereby be conserved.
Load balancing of scan requests to all antivirus servers in a cluster
Granted: February 5, 2013
Patent Number:
8370943
A system receives a scan request for a storage object in a clustered storage system. The system determines if an anti-virus (AV) server is executed on a preferred node in the storage system. The system requests information describing a plurality of nodes on the clustered storage system from a service manager. This information is used to select an alternate AV server which is executed on a substitute node if the initial AV server is not executed on the preferred node. The scan request is…
Methods and apparatus for incrementally computing similarity of data sources
Granted: January 29, 2013
Patent Number:
8364716
Methods and systems for efficiently determining a similarity between two or more datasets. In one embodiment, the similarity is determined based on comparing a subset of sorted frequency-weighted blocks from one dataset to a subset of sorted frequency-weighed blocks from another dataset. Data blocks of a dataset are converted into hash values that are frequency-weighted. These frequency-weighted hash values can be compared to frequency-weighted hash values of another dataset to determine…
