System and method for dynamic allocation of virtual machines in a virtual server environment
Granted: September 4, 2012
Patent Number:
8261268
A system and method for dynamically producing virtual machines (VMs) across a plurality of servers in the virtual server environment is provided. A single VM request queue is produced comprising VM requests for producing the plurality of VMs. A processing thread is produced and assigned for each server and retrieves VM requests from the VM request queue and produces VMs only on the assigned server according to the retrieved VM requests. Each processing thread may be configured for…
System and method for event notification using an event routing table
Granted: August 28, 2012
Patent Number:
8255425
A system and method efficiently conveys event notification using an event routing table. An event is detected and forwarded to an event management system (EMS) that determines if any thresholds have been exceeded. If a threshold has been exceeded, one or more destination names from a routing table are expanded using a destination table and appropriate event notifications are sent.
System and method for adding a storage device to a cluster as a shared resource
Granted: August 28, 2012
Patent Number:
8255653
A system and method are described for adding a disk to a cluster as a shared resource. In one embodiment, a request is received to add a disk to a cluster as a shared disk resource. The disk may share a disk identifier with a second disk currently connected to the cluster as a shared resource. A determination is made as to which partition format is used by the disk. A unique disk identifier is retrieved and written to the disk in accordance with the determined partition format. The disk…
Method and system for accessing storage
Granted: August 28, 2012
Patent Number:
8255659
Method and system is provided for accessing storage. A first logical data structure is created without receiving a client request from a computing system. A first identifier for identifying the first logical data structure is assigned to the first logical data structure. Upon receiving a client request, a second logical data structure associated with a storage device is generated and the first identifier is assigned to the second logical data structure. The second logical data structure…
Non-disruptive methods for updating a controller of a storage system
Granted: August 28, 2012
Patent Number:
8255676
A non-disruptive method for updating firmware in a first controller 210 of a redundant controller 200 in a storage subsystem 120 is disclosed. This updating occurs while the storage subsystem 120 presents data to a host system 130 in response to a host request 132. During the non-disruptive updating, the updating first controller 210 redirects the host request 132 for data, e.g., drive-A volume 252 normally owned by the first controller 210, to second controller 220 of the redundant…
Pool encryption with automatic detection
Granted: August 28, 2012
Patent Number:
8255704
The invention provides a mechanism for selectively encrypting media within a consolidation of storage devices into a shared configuration, i.e. a media pool. The invention also provides a mechanism by which more than one key can be used for encrypting media. The invention accomplishes tape encryption by media parsing. An encryption key is determined based on the backup application's grouping of data sets. This is accomplished by examining the volume header of the tape and, from the…
System and method for failover of guest operating systems in a virtual machine environment
Granted: August 28, 2012
Patent Number:
8255735
A system and method provides for failover of guest operating systems in a virtual machine environment. During initialization of a computer executing a virtual machine operating system, a first guest operating system allocates a first memory region within a first domain and notifies a second guest operating system operating in a second domain of the allocated first memory region. Similarly, the second guest operating system allocates a second region of memory within the second domain and…
System and method for a redundant communication fabric in a network storage system
Granted: August 28, 2012
Patent Number:
8255737
The techniques introduced here include storage systems including a storage controller configured to access data and a storage subsystem including a storage device having n ports, where n is an integer greater than one, and where the storage device is configured to store the data and to make the data available to the storage controller via each of the n ports. The storage systems also include a communication fabric configured to couple the storage controller to each of the n ports of the…
System and method for compression of partially ordered data sets
Granted: August 21, 2012
Patent Number:
8250043
A system and method for compression of partially ordered data sets is provided. A first record of the data set is compressed by encoding the record using a Fibonacci encoding technique. Thereafter, for each subsequent record N, the N?1st record is subtracted from the Nth record before encoding the result, thereby allowing each subsequent record to store the difference (or delta) from the previous record.
Control I/O offload in a split-path storage virtualization system
Granted: August 21, 2012
Patent Number:
8250267
Various embodiments of systems, methods, computer systems and computer software are disclosed for implementing a control I/O offload feature in a split-path storage virtualization system. One embodiment is a method for providing split-path storage services to a plurality of hosts via a storage area network.
Devices and methods for matching link speeds between controllers and controlled devices
Granted: August 14, 2012
Patent Number:
8243754
A controller system for detecting and matching link speeds. The present invention provides for a controller system. The controller system is a first controller and a first port. The first port is located in the first controller and has a first link speed. The first controller is adapted to match the first link speed to a second link speed of a second port of a first controlled device that is connectable to the first controller.
Technique for dynamically restricting thread concurrency without rewriting thread code
Granted: August 14, 2012
Patent Number:
8245207
A method for executing uniprocessor (UP) coded workloads in a computer capable of concurrent thread execution is disclosed. The method identifies threads in the uniprocessor coded workloads (UP-workloads) which can execute concurrently, and identifies threads in the UP-workloads which cannot execute concurrently. First threads which cannot execute concurrently are assigned to a first concurrency group. Second threads which cannot execute concurrently are assigned to a second concurrency…
System and method for initial key establishment using a split knowledge protocol
Granted: August 14, 2012
Patent Number:
8245050
A split knowledge protocol adapted to establish an initial key for use in authenticating a first computer to a second computer. The second computer initiates the split knowledge protocol by generating a bit sequence and splitting the sequence into a predetermined number of segments. The second computer then encrypts each segment with a predetermined key associated with each segment before transmitting each encrypted segment to the first computer. In response, the first computer decrypts…
Scalable, redundant power distribution for storage racks
Granted: August 7, 2012
Patent Number:
8238080
Disclosed is a power distribution module that is capable of providing power to rack mounted equipment modules in electronic equipment mounting racks. The power distribution module may comprise a series of individual modules that can be placed at strategic locations through the electronic equipment mounting rack to meet the specific power requirements of the rack mounted equipment modules, which may vary depending upon the type of module. In this manner, the expense of supplying power of…
Method and an apparatus to provide access to operational data in a storage server via multiple data management protocols
Granted: August 7, 2012
Patent Number:
8239543
A method and an apparatus to manage data in a networked storage server have been disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes providing a single logical layer between a number of logical subsystems in a storage server and a number of data management agents in the storage server, wherein the data management agents are operable to service requests from a number of client machines following different data management protocols, and exporting a set of application programming interfaces…
Active-active support of virtual storage management in a storage area network (“SAN”)
Granted: August 7, 2012
Patent Number:
8239653
Methods and apparatuses are provided for active-active support of virtual storage management in a storage area network (“SAN”). When a storage manager (that manages virtual storage volumes) of the SAN receives data to be written to a virtual storage volume from a computer server, the storage manager determines whether the writing request may result in updating a mapping of the virtual storage volume to a storage system. When the writing request does not involve updating the mapping,…
Processing data of a file using multiple threads during a deduplication gathering phase
Granted: July 31, 2012
Patent Number:
8234250
A method and apparatus for deduplication of files of a storage system is described. During a gathering phase, a file may be simultaneously processed by two or more threads to produce and store content identifiers for data blocks of the file. Each file may be sub-divided into multiple file sub-portions, each file sub-portion comprising a predetermined number of data blocks. A thread may be assigned to each sub-portion of a file for processing the data blocks. The currently assigned…
Auto-committing files to immutable status based on a change log of file system activity
Granted: July 31, 2012
Patent Number:
8234317
A system and method are provided for auto-committing files of a storage system to immutable status based on a change log of file system activity. The system is configured for producing and analyzing the change log. Producing the change log involves generating change log entries associated with changes made to files of the storage system and organizing the change log entries from the oldest to newest entries. Analyzing the change log involves processing the change log beginning with the…
System and method for bandwidth optimization in a network storage environment
Granted: July 31, 2012
Patent Number:
8234327
According to one or more embodiments of the present invention, a network cache intercepts data requested by a client from a remote server interconnected with the cache through one or more wide area network (WAN) links (e.g., for Wide Area File Services, or “WAFS”). The network cache stores the data and sends the data to the client. The cache may then intercept a first write request for the data from the client to the remote server, and determine one or more portions of the data in…
System and method for providing variable length deduplication on a fixed block file system
Granted: July 31, 2012
Patent Number:
8234468
A system and method are described for providing variable length deduplication on a fixed block file system. In one embodiment, data comprising a plurality of data items is received. A determination is made if a segment of the data items exists on a storage volume. If the segment of data items does not exist on the storage volume, the segment of data items is stored on the storage volume. If the segment of data items exists on the storage volume, the segment of data items is deduplicated…
