NetApp Patent Grants

Write ordering for persistent memory

Granted: November 30, 2021
Patent Number: 11188266
Techniques are provided for implementing write ordering for persistent memory. A set of actions are identified for commitment to persistent memory of a node for executing an operation upon the persistent memory. An episode is created to comprise a first subset of actions of the set of actions that can be committed to the persistent memory in any order with respect to one another such that a consistent state of the persistent memory can be reconstructed in the event of a crash of the node…

Redeploying a baseline virtual machine to update a child virtual machine by creating and swapping a virtual disk comprising a clone of the baseline virtual machine

Granted: November 16, 2021
Patent Number: 11175941
One or more techniques and/or systems are disclosed for redeploying a baseline VM (BVM) to one or more child VMs (CVMs) by merely cloning virtual drives of the BVM, instead of the entirety of the parent BVM. A temporary directory is created in a datastore that has the target CVMs that are targeted for virtual drive replacement (e.g., are to be “re-baselined”). One or more replacement virtual drives (RVDs) are created in the temporary directory, where the RVDs comprise a clone of a…

Handling data extent size asymmetry during logical replication in a storage system

Granted: November 9, 2021
Patent Number: 11169972
A technique to name data is disclosed to allow preservation of storage efficiency over a link between a source and a destination in a replication relationship as well as in storage at the destination. The technique allows the source to send named data to the destination once and refer to it by name multiple times in the future, without having to resend the data. The technique also allows the transmission of data extents to be decoupled from the logical containers that refer to the data…

Selective deduplication

Granted: November 9, 2021
Patent Number: 11169967
Methods and apparatuses for performing selective deduplication in a storage system are introduced here. Techniques are provided for determining a probability of deduplication for a data object based on a characteristic of the data object and performing a deduplication operation on the data object in the storage system prior to the data object being stored in persistent storage of the storage system if the probability of deduplication for the data object has a specified relationship to a…

Recovery support techniques for storage virtualization environments

Granted: November 9, 2021
Patent Number: 11169884
Recovery support techniques for storage virtualization environments are described. In one embodiment, for example, a method may be performed that comprises defining, by processing circuitry, a storage container comprising one or more logical storage volumes of a logical storage array of a storage system, associating the storage container with a virtual volume (vvol) datastore, identifying metadata for a vvol of the vvol datastore, and writing the metadata for the vvol to the storage…

Cloned virtual machine disk replication

Granted: November 2, 2021
Patent Number: 11163729
One or more techniques and/or computing devices are provided for replicating virtual machine disk clones. For example, a first storage controller, hosting first storage, may have a synchronous replication relationship with a second storage controller hosting second storage. A virtual machine, within the first storage, may be specified as having synchronous replication protection. Accordingly, virtual machine disk clones of a virtual machine disk of the virtual machine may be replicated…

Deduplicated host cache flush to remote storage

Granted: November 2, 2021
Patent Number: 11163690
In addition to caching I/O operations at a host, at least some data management can migrate to the host. With host side caching, data sharing or deduplication can be implemented with the cached writes before those writes are supplied to front end storage elements. When a host cache flush to distributed storage trigger is detected, the host deduplicates the cached writes. The host aggregates data based on the deduplication into a “change set file” (i.e., a file that includes the…

Systems and methods for resynchronizing mirroring partners in a storage system

Granted: November 2, 2021
Patent Number: 11163655
Systems and methods which provide for managing multiple mirror resources in a storage distribution network are provided. In some embodiments, a system provides for both high availability and disaster recovery functionality at different mirroring locations. Other embodiments may provide for multiple high availability and/or multiple disaster recovery mirror resources. These mirror resources are operated in a heterogeneous manner in the sense that each have its own transport, protocol, and…

Storage cluster failure detection

Granted: November 2, 2021
Patent Number: 11163653
Direct monitoring of a plurality of storage nodes in a primary cluster is performed based on connectivity with the storage nodes. Indirect monitoring of a first storage node is performed, in response to direct monitoring of the first storage node indicating failure of the connectivity with the first storage node, wherein a second storage node of the plurality of nodes is a backup node for the first storage node. The indirect monitor of the first storage node indicates failure of the…

Inofile management and access control list file handle parity

Granted: October 26, 2021
Patent Number: 11157455
Techniques are provided for inofile management and access control list file handle parity. For example, operations targeting a first storage object of a first node are replicated to a second storage object of a second node. A size of an inofile maintained by the second node is increased if an inode number to be allocated by the replication operation is greater than a current size of the inofile. Access control list file handle parity is achieved by maintaining parity between inode number…

Efficient distributed scheduler for a data partitioned system

Granted: October 26, 2021
Patent Number: 11157317
Presented herein are methods, non-transitory computer readable media, and devices for optimizing thread assignment to schedulers, avoid starvation of individual data partitions, and maximize parallelism in the presence of hierarchical data partitioning are disclosed, which include: partitioning, by a network storage server, a scheduler servicing a data partitioned system into a plurality of autonomous schedulers; determining what fraction of thread resources in the data partitioned…

Timestamp consistency for synchronous replication

Granted: October 19, 2021
Patent Number: 11151162
Techniques are provided for timestamp consistency. An operation targeting a first storage object having a synchronous replication relationship with a second storage object is intercepted. A timestamp is assigned to the operation. A replication operation is created as a replication of the operation. The same timestamp is assigned to the replication operation. The operation is implemented upon the first storage object and the replication operation is implemented upon the second storage…

Snapshot storage and management within an object store

Granted: October 12, 2021
Patent Number: 11144503
Techniques are provided for an object file system for an object store. Data, maintained by a computing device, is stored into slots of an object. The data within the slots of the object is represented as a data structure comprising a plurality of nodes comprising cloud block numbers used to identify the object and particular slots of the object. A mapping metafile is maintained to map block numbers used to store the data by the computing device to cloud block numbers of nodes…

Object store file system format for representing, storing, and retrieving data in an object store according to a structured format

Granted: October 12, 2021
Patent Number: 11144502
Techniques are provided for an object file system for an object store. Data, maintained by a computing device, is stored into slots of an object. The data within the slots of the object is represented as a data structure comprising a plurality of nodes comprising cloud block numbers used to identify the object and particular slots of the object. A mapping metafile is maintained to map block numbers used to store the data by the computing device to cloud block numbers of nodes…

Defragmentation for objects within object store

Granted: October 12, 2021
Patent Number: 11144498
Techniques are provided for managing objects within an object store. An object is maintained within an object store. The object comprises a plurality of slots. Each slot is used to store a unit of data accessible to applications hosted by remote computing devices. The object comprises an object header used to store metadata for each slot. A determination is made that the object is a fragmented object comprising an in-use slot of in-use data and a freed slot from which data was freed. The…

Low overhead resynchronization snapshot creation and utilization

Granted: October 12, 2021
Patent Number: 11144211
One or more techniques and/or computing devices are provided for resynchronization. For example, a request may be received to create pseudo snapshots of a first consistency group, hosted by a first storage controller, and a second consistency group, hosted by a second storage controller, having a synchronous replication relationship with the first consistency group. Incoming client write requests are logged within an intercept tracking log at the first storage controller. After a first…

Dependency aware improvements to support parallel replay or parallel replication of operations which are directed to a common inode

Granted: October 5, 2021
Patent Number: 11138229
Techniques are provided for dependency aware parallel splitting of operations. For example, a first operation and a second operation may be replicated in parallel from a first device to a second device if the operations only target a single common inode that is an access control list inode referenced by the operations. An operation that dereferences the access control list inode can be replicated in parallel with other operations if the operation does not have the potential to delete the…

Method and apparatus to neutralize replication error and retain primary and secondary synchronization during synchronous replication

Granted: October 5, 2021
Patent Number: 11138061
Techniques are provided for neutralizing replication errors. An operation is executed upon a first storage object and is replicated as a replicated operation for execution upon a second storage object. A first error may be received for the replicated operation. Instead of transitioning to an out of sync state and aborting the operation, a wait is performed until a result of the attempted execution of the operation is received. If the first error is the same as a second error returned for…

System and method for enforcing a dataset timeout for generating a dataset image

Granted: September 28, 2021
Patent Number: 11132262
An application may store data to a dataset comprising a plurality of volumes stored on a plurality of storage systems. The application may request a dataset image of the dataset, the dataset image comprising a volume image of each volume of the dataset. A dataset image manager operates with a plurality of volume image managers in parallel to produce the dataset image, each volume image manager executing on a storage system. The plurality of volume image managers respond by performing…

Synchronous replication for synchronous mirror copy guarantee

Granted: September 28, 2021
Patent Number: 11132339
Techniques are provided for synchronous replication for synchronous mirror copy guarantee. A file system dependent technique for synchronous mirror copy guarantee is provided by overriding default behavior of a persistent fence so that the persistent fence is activated to block operations targeting a storage object having a synchronous replication relationship based upon the synchronous replication relationship being out of sync. The default behavior of the persistent fence is overridden…