Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080250178 | Load Distribution in Storage Area Networks - A load balancing method and system for identifying an input/output (I/O) network path from a set off I/O network paths is provided by the invention. The set off I/O network paths connect a host system via a network to a storage subsystem. The host system comprises at least one host bus adapter (HBA) and the storage subsystem comprises at least one I/O device and the network comprises at least one network device. Each of the HBA, the I/O device and the network device comprise at least one I/O port. For each I/O port of each HBA, an HBA port limit is determined. Additionally the set of I/O network paths which connect the I/O port of each of the HBA via the I/O ports of the network device to the I/O port of the I/O device is identified. Then a fabric utilization limit is determined for each I/O network path and a HBA port utilization is determined for each I/O port of the at least one HBA. All network paths are discarded for which the HBA port utilization is greater than the HBA port limit. For each of the remaining paths a network path distance is determined. All I/O network paths for which the network path distance is greater than the path distance limit are discarded. Then for each of the remaining paths a fabric utilization is determined. All I/O network paths for which the fabric utilization is greater than the fabric utilization limit are discarded and the I/O network path is determined from the remaining network paths. | 10-09-2008 |
20090059757 | Monitoring and Analyzing the Storage Quality and the Drive Hardware Performance of a Media Library - A method and infrastructure are provided for monitoring and analyzing the storage media quality and the drive hardware performance of a media library. The media library comprises a plurality of removable storage media, a plurality of drive units for said storage media and means for moving said storage media to and from appropriate drive units. The media library is managed by a management system being connected to said media library. At least one reference medium of a known and proven quality to compare the performance of at least one of said storage media in a given drive unit with the performance of said reference medium in said given drive unit and/or to test the performance of at least one given drive unit of said media library when acting on said reference medium. | 03-05-2009 |
20090070539 | Automated File Recovery Based on Subsystem Error Detection Results - The present invention provides a method and system for performing file recovery in a computer system coupled to a storage subsystem, wherein a data scrubbing process analyzes said storage subsystem for potential or existing storage errors. The method includes: receiving a report from said data scrubbing process describing said errors, including logical block addresses (LBAs) of storage locations containing errors; interacting with a file system created on logical unit numbers (LUN) provided by said storage subsystem in order to identify file information pertaining to the erroneous LBAs; moving the file pertaining to said erroneous LBAs to a different storage location; updating pointers to said file; in case of an unrecoverable, accessing a backup copy of said file from a backup location; if a predetermined degree of error severity is exceeded, creating an additional copy of said file; and updating the pointers to said file managed by the file system, respectively. | 03-12-2009 |
20090077099 | Method and Infrastructure for Storing Application Data in a Grid Application and Storage System - A grid application and storage system to enhance data access. The grid application and storage system comprises a plurality of grid application storage nodes with at least one storage system, said grid application storage nodes being remote to each other and connected via inter-connections; at least one application process distributed across said grid application storage nodes; and at least one grid node control process also distributed across said grid application storage nodes, said grid node control process managing grid application storage node operations. A plurality of client systems are connected to said grid application and storage system via a network for deploying said application process and accessing application data stored on said grid application storage nodes. | 03-19-2009 |
20090177838 | APPARATUS AND METHOD TO ACCESS DATA IN A RAID ARRAY - A method to access a data in a RAID array comprising a plurality of data storage media, wherein information is written to said plurality of data storage media using a RAID configuration, wherein the method receives from a requester a command comprising a data access priority indicator. If a RAID rebuild is in progress, the method determines if the data access priority indicator is set. If the data access priority indicator is set, the method executes a command selected from the group consisting of writing information to the target logical block array range, and returning to the requestor information read from the target logical block array range. | 07-09-2009 |
20090196143 | Method and System for Command-Ordering for a Disk-to-Disk-to-Holographic Data Storage System - A system, method and computer program product for managing command ordering for a host-Disk-to-intermediate-Disk-to-Holographic (D2D2H) data storage system. Specifically, a command ordering detects a command from a host system. A hologram segment associated with the detected command is identified and a determination is made whether the hologram segment is an open hologram segment or a closed hologram segment. A determination is made whether the detected command is to be prioritized. If the detected command is prioritized, the detected command is added to a prioritized command queue. Moreover, if the detected command is not prioritized, the detected command is added to a normal command queue. The detected commands addressing the same hologram segment are then grouped. The execution of one or more grouped commands (prioritized or normal) is deferred for a predetermined period to allow for additional commands to be received for a same command group. | 08-06-2009 |
20090196144 | Method and System for Command-Ordering and Command-Execution Within a Command Group for a Disk-to-Disk-to-Holographic Data Storage System - A system, method and computer program product for managing command ordering and command execution for a host-Disk-to-intermediate-Disk-to-Holographic (D2D2H) data storage system. Specifically, a command ordering and execution (COE) utility selects the command group from a command queue. A determination is made whether the command group includes a write command for writing an entire hologram segment. Responsive to a determination that the command group does not include the write command for writing the entire hologram segment, the entire hologram segment is read to an intermediate system disk. Conflicting commands are then sorted from non-conflicting commands. Specifically, all conflicting write commands are executed before all conflicting read commands. After execution, the entire hologram segment of the intermediate system disk is closed and written in holographic medium. | 08-06-2009 |
20090235022 | APPARATUS AND METHOD TO SELECT A DEDUPLICATION PROTOCOL FOR A DATA STORAGE LIBRARY - A method to select a deduplication protocol for a data storage library comprising a plurality of data storage devices configured as a RAID array, by establishing a normal deduplication protocol, a RAID failure deduplication protocol, and a multiple storage device failure deduplication protocol. The method receives host data comprising a plurality of interleaved data blocks. If the system is operating without any storage device failures, then the method processes the host data using the normal deduplication protocol. If the system is operating with a storage device failure, then the method processes the host data using the RAID failure deduplication protocol. If the system is operating with multiple storage device failures, then the method processes the host data using the multiple storage device failure deduplication protocol. | 09-17-2009 |
20090249003 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MULTIPLEXING CONCATENATED STORAGE DISK ARRAYS TO FORM A RULES-BASED ARRAY OF DISKS - A method, system and computer-readable medium are disclosed for efficiently multiplexing concatenated storage devices. An intelligent storage controller continuously monitors data access of a number of concatenated storage devices. In response to a request to write new data, the controller writes a primary data copy to the concatenated storage device having the lowest data access. Then the controller writes a secondary data copy to the device having the next lowest data access. In response to a read request, the controller reads data from the data copy located on the concatenated storage device having the lower data access. In response to an update request, the controller, after determining that data access does not exceed a predetermined threshold, the controller updates the data copy having the lowest data access, set that copy as the new primary copy and subsequently updates the other copy, setting that copy as the new secondary copy. | 10-01-2009 |
20090254645 | SERVER-MANAGED POWER SAVING METHOD FOR AUTOMATED TAPE LIBRARIES AND DRIVES - A system of controlling tape drives within a tape drive library where a backup server utilizes client backup schedules and pending client restore requests to efficiently control the powering on and off of tape drives within a tape drive library. | 10-08-2009 |
20090271659 | RAID REBUILD USING FILE SYSTEM AND BLOCK LIST - This embodiment (a system) addresses and reduces the RAID build time by only rebuilding the used blocks and omitting the unused blocks. This starts after a disk drive from a RAID system is failed and replaced and storage controller starts the process of rebuilding the data on the new disk drive. Storage controller determines the logical volumes that must be rebuilt, send a message requesting only used blocks for these logical volumes from the volume manager and then uses this information and only rebuild the used blocks for the failed disk system. | 10-29-2009 |
20090276648 | QUAD-STATE POWER-SAVING VIRTUAL STORAGE CONTROLLER - A method, system and computer program product for reducing the collective power consumption of a plurality of storage devices including a plurality of associated storage volumes is provided. The storage volumes are grouped by a last access time according to a plurality of ranks. The plurality of ranks corresponds to a level of power consumption based on device activity. A volume of the plurality of storage volumes is moved between the plurality of ranks according to an access pattern of the volume. | 11-05-2009 |
20090282203 | MANAGING STORAGE AND MIGRATION OF BACKUP DATA - A method and system for client backup data management and storage using virtual tape libraries (VTLs). A VTL controller executing a software method receives metadata that distinguishes among a plurality of different versions of backup data. The VTL controller determines a latest version of the backup data. The VTL controller determines a migration set of zero or more versions of the backup data. The latest version and any version included in the migration set are included in the plurality of different versions. The VTL controller determines that a storage of the latest version in a first storage medium (e.g., magnetic disk) of the VTL is complete. The VTL controller migrates the migration set to a second storage medium (e.g., magnetic tape) of the VTL if the migration set includes at least one version of the backup data. | 11-12-2009 |
20100121825 | FILE SYSTEM WITH INTERNAL DEDUPLICATION AND MANAGEMENT OF DATA BLOCKS - A method for deduplicating and managing data blocks within a file system includes adding a deduplication identifier to each pointer pointing to a data block to indicate whether the data block is deduplicated, detecting duplicate data blocks, determining whether one of the duplicate data blocks has been deduplicated, when detected, determining that one duplicate data block is a master copy when it is determined that one duplicate data block has been deduplicated, selecting one of the duplicate data blocks to be a master copy when it is determined that the duplicate data blocks have not been deduplicated, and setting the deduplication identifier of the selected duplicate data block to indicate deduplication, and determining that the other duplicate data block is a new duplicate data block and setting the deduplication identifier of the other duplicate data block to indicate deduplication and directing the respective pointer to the master copy. | 05-13-2010 |
20100185922 | HAMMING RADIUS SEPARATED DEDUPLICATION LINKS - A method of de-duplicating duplicate data in a data storage system that includes identifying a plurality of portions of data, comparing each portion of the data to identify duplicate data and identifying a link associated with each duplicate data, determining whether a Hamming link-separation-distance between the identified link and all other existing links is greater than twice the Hamming radius of an error correction code in the data storage system, and then replacing the duplicate data with the identified link. | 07-22-2010 |
20100235333 | APPARATUS AND METHOD TO SEQUENTIALLY DEDUPLICATE DATA - A method to sequentially deduplicate data, wherein the method receives a plurality of computer files, wherein each of the plurality of computer files comprises a label comprising a file name, a file type, a version number, and file size, and stores that plurality of computer files in a deduplication queue. The method then identifies a subset of the plurality of computer files, wherein each file of the subset comprises the same file name but a different version number, and wherein the subset comprises a maximum count of version numbers, and wherein the subset comprises a portion of the plurality of computer files. The method deduplicates the subset using a hash algorithm, and removes the subset from said deduplication queue. | 09-16-2010 |
20100250698 | AUTOMATED TAPE DRIVE SHARING IN A HETEROGENEOUS SERVER AND APPLICATION ENVIRONMENT - A method and system for automatically sharing a tape drive in a heterogeneous computing environment that includes a first computer and second computer. The first computer receives a message that includes a shared tape drive identifier, a source port identifier of the second computer, and a reservation status change for the tape drive. Based on the tape drive identifier, the first computer determines that the tape drive is connected to the first computer. The source port identifier is determined to not identify any host bus adapter installed in the first computer. In response to the first computer determining that the reservation status change indicates a reservation or a release of the tape drive for the second computer, the first computer sets the tape drive offline or online, respectively, in an application executing in the first computer. | 09-30-2010 |
20100325093 | APPARATUS AND METHOD TO SEQUENTIALLY DEDUPLICATE GROUPS OF FILES COMPRISING THE SAME FILE NAME BUT DIFFERENT FILE VERSION NUMBERS - A method to sequentially deduplicate data, wherein the method receives a plurality of computer files, wherein each of the plurality of computer files comprises a label comprising a file name, a file type, a version number, and file size, and stores that plurality of computer files in a deduplication queue. The method then identifies a subset of the plurality of computer files, wherein each file of the subset comprises the same file name but a different version number, and wherein the subset comprises a maximum count of version numbers, and wherein the subset comprises a portion of the plurality of computer files. The method deduplicates the subset using a hash algorithm, and removes the subset from said deduplication queue. During the deduplicating, the method receives new computer files comprising the same file name, stores those new computer files to the deduplication queue, but does not add those new computer files to the subset. | 12-23-2010 |
20110125950 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PERFORMING DEDUPLICATED DATA PROCESSING ON TAPE - A method, computer management apparatus, and computer program product are provided for processing data stored on a sequential storage media within a computational computing environment. A block reference table and most often read blocks are loaded from a modified tape format of a sequential storage media into an internal memory of a sequential storage media device. During write command processing, a data deduplication procedure is performed using a modified block reference table. It is determined if entries from the block reference table must be deleted and responsive to this identifying and deleting host block and device block entries from the block reference table. | 05-26-2011 |
20110239097 | DATA DEDUPLICATION USING CRC-SEED DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN DATA AND STUBS - Various embodiments for differentiating between data and stubs pointing to a parent copy of deduplicated data are provided. Undeduplicated data is stored with a first cyclic redundancy check (CRC) seed. A stub pointing to the parent copy of the deduplicated data is stored with a second CRC seed. Subsequent to reading the deduplicated data, the first CRC seed is associated with the undeduplicated data, and the second CRC seed is associated with the stub. A CRC check is performed using one of the first and second CRC seeds. If the CRC check is positive, an I/O operation is allowed to proceed. If the CRC check is negative, an additional CRC check is performed using another one of the first and second CRC seeds. | 09-29-2011 |
20120179846 | INPUT/OUTPUT (I/O) PATH SELECTION BASED ON WORKLOAD TYPES - Various embodiments for an Input/Output (I/O) path selection based on workload types are provided. A port workload controller is adapted to control the workload types of ports for accessing a storage device. A storage access command is received by the port workload controller from an application being executed on a virtual server on a physical server. The workload types related to the storage access command are determined. Storage access paths between the application and the storage device having the same workload types as the determined workload types related to the storage access command are determined. Storage access paths mapping data that is controlled by the port workload controller is used. A selected storage access path is selected out of the determined storage access paths having the least utilization. The storage device is accessed via the selected one of the plurality of storage access paths. | 07-12-2012 |
20120179928 | OPTIMIZED POWER SAVINGS IN A STORAGE VIRTUALIZATION SYSTEM - Various embodiments for optimized power savings in a storage virtualization system are provided. First meta data for physical resources which describes a power status of a storage resource in one of a powered-on/read-write, powered-on/read only, and powered-off power state is created. Second meta data for each of the physical storage resources which determines an actual performance of the physical storage resources and which supports optimization of a powering-on and a powering-off of the physical storage resources is created. A write request from one of a host and application to logical and virtual storage resource is executed. | 07-12-2012 |
20120180066 | VIRTUAL TAPE LIBRARY CLUSTER - Various embodiments for managing a virtual tape library cluster are provided. A virtual tape library system is enhanced by representing virtual tape resources in cluster nodes with a unique serial number. A least utilized cluster node is determined. One of the virtual tape resources represented within the least utilized cluster node is selected. | 07-12-2012 |
20120210192 | HAMMING RADIUS SEPARATED DEDUPLICATION LINKS - A data storage system includes a data storage array configured for de-duplication of duplicate data therein by: identification of a plurality of portions of data; a comparison of each portion of the data to identify duplicate data and identification of a link associated with each duplicate data; a determination of whether a Hamming link-separation-distance of the identified link is greater than twice a Hamming radius of an error correction code in the data storage system; and replacement of the duplicate data with the identified link when it is determined that the Hamming link-separation-distance is greater than twice the Hamming radius. | 08-16-2012 |
20120271888 | AUTOMATED TAPE DRIVE SHARING IN A HETEROGENEOUS SERVER AND APPLICATION ENVIRONMENT - An approach for automatically sharing a tape drive in a heterogeneous computing environment that includes a first computer and second computer is presented. The first computer receives a message that includes a shared tape drive identifier, a source port identifier of the second computer, and a reservation status change for the tape drive. Based on the tape drive identifier, the first computer determines that the tape drive is connected to the first computer. The source port identifier is determined to not identify any host bus adapter installed in the first computer. In response to the first computer determining that the reservation status change indicates a reservation or a release of the tape drive for the second computer, the first computer sets the tape drive offline or online, respectively, in an application executing in the first computer. | 10-25-2012 |
20120309297 | CARTRIDGE FOR STORING BIOSAMPLE CAPILLARY TUBES AND USE IN AUTOMATED DATA STORAGE SYSTEMS - Embodiments of the disclosure relate to a cartridge that includes slots for storing biosample capillary tubes. The cartridge has the same form factor as data tape cartridges to allow the cartridge to be handled by the same robotic mechanisms that handle data cartridges in an automated tape library. One aspect of the disclosure concerns a cartridge comprising an enclosure that includes a movable door to provide access to a tube holder in the enclosure. The tube holder includes cylindrical holes or slots for receiving capillary tubes which contain biosamples scanned and analyzed an automated tape library. | 12-06-2012 |
20130024401 | Apparatus and Method to Store Information - A data storage facility comprising a plurality of data storage media, an automated data storage library comprising a first plurality of storage cells, one or more data storage devices in communication with the controller, and a controller in communication with one or more host computers, a vault comprising a second plurality of storage cells, wherein the vault does not comprise any data storage devices, and a robotic accessor in communication with the controller, wherein the accessor comprises a gripper mechanism, and wherein the robotic accessor can bidirectionally transport each of the plurality of portable data storage media between the first plurality of storage cells and the one or more data storage devices. | 01-24-2013 |
20130212264 | Controlling access of clients to service in cluster environment - First, second, and third sets of addresses are created. The first set includes addresses registered in a name server; both the second and third sets include addresses not registered in the name server and that are disjoint. A first address of a first server that has failed and to which access is to be prohibited is moved from the first to the third set., is removed from the first server, assigned to a second server, and removed from the name server. Usage parameter values of the first address are monitored to determine whether at least one is below a value. If so, the first address is removed from the second server and moved from the third to the second set. Upon access to the first server no longer being prohibited, a second address of the second set is assigned to the first server and added to the name server. | 08-15-2013 |
20130262422 | DATA DEDUPLICATION USING CRC-SEED DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN DATA AND STUBS - Various embodiments for differentiating between data and stubs pointing to a parent copy of deduplicated data are provided. Undeduplicated data is stored with a checksum of an initial value as a first cyclic redundancy check (CRC) seed. A stub pointing to the parent copy of the deduplicated data is stored with an additional checksum of a differing, additional initial value as a second CRC seed. | 10-03-2013 |
20140163722 | Apparatus and Method to Store Information - A data storage facility comprising a plurality of data storage media, an automated data storage library comprising a first plurality of storage cells, one or more data storage devices in communication with the controller, and a controller in communication with one or more host computers, a vault comprising a second plurality of storage cells, wherein the vault does not comprise any data storage devices, and a robotic accessor in communication with the controller, wherein the accessor comprises a gripper mechanism, and wherein the robotic accessor can bidirectionally transport each of the plurality of portable data storage media between the first plurality of storage cells and the one or more data storage devices. | 06-12-2014 |
20140244598 | INTEGRITY CHECKING AND SELECTIVE DEDUPLICATION BASED ON NETWORK PARAMETERS - An approach for managing a data package is provided. Network utilization is determined to exceed a threshold. A sender computer determines a hash digest of the data package by using a hash function selected based on central processing unit utilization. If the hash digest is in a sender hash table, then without sending the data package, the sender computer sends the hash digest and an index referring to the hash digest so that a recipient computer can use the index to locate a matching hash digest and the data package in a recipient hash table. If the hash digest is not in the sender hash table, then the sender computer adds the data package and the hash digest to the sender hash table and sends the data package and the hash digest to the second computer to check the integrity of the data package based on the hash digest. | 08-28-2014 |