International Business Machines Corporation

Brian Frederick Ober

Jason K Resch

Wesley B Leggette

Manish Motwani

Amit H Lamba

Andrew D Baptist

Dustin M Hendrickson

Greg R Dhuse

Brian M O'Connell

Aaron K Baughman

Ravi V Khadiwala

Scott Michael Horan

Ann Corrao

Daniel J Scholl

Patrick Aaron Tamborski

David Brittain Bolen

Matthew T Schoen

Bryan J Keller

A method for execution by a dispersed storage and task (DST) processing unit includes: generating an encoded data slice from a dispersed storage encoding of a data object and determining when the encoded data slice will not be stored in local dispersed storage. When the encoded data slice will not be stored in the local dispersed storage, the encoded data slice is stored via at least one elastic slice in an elastic dispersed storage, cryptographic material and an elastic storage pointer indicating a location of the elastic slice in the elastic dispersed storage are generated, and the cryptographic material and the elastic storage pointer are stored in the local dispersed storage.

Securely storing data in an elastically scalable dispersed storage network

A method for execution by a dispersed storage and task (DST) processing unit includes: generating an encoded data slice from a dispersed storage encoding of a data object and determining when the encoded data slice will not be stored in local dispersed storage. When the encoded data slice will not be stored in the local dispersed storage, the encoded data slice is stored via at least one elastic slice in an elastic dispersed storage, an elastic storage pointer is generated indicating a location of the elastic slice in the elastic dispersed storage, and the elastic storage pointer is stored in the local dispersed storage.

Elastic storage in a dispersed storage network

A method by a computing device of a dispersed storage network (DSN) begins by determining whether alternate form data (AFD) exists for a data object. When the alternate form data does not exist, the method continues by identifying a content derivation function in accordance with an AFD policy of the DSN. The method continues by identifying a portion of the data object based on the content derivation function and identifying one or more sets of encoded data slices of a plurality of sets of encoded data slices corresponding to the portion of the data object. The method continues by generating at least a portion of the AFD based on the one or more sets of encoded data slices. The method continues by storing the at least a portion of the AFD within memory of the DSN in accordance with a storage approach.

Rebuilding derived content

A method, computer system, and a computer program product for object notifications is provided. The present invention may include receiving a requestor's operation. The present invention may then include determining that a notification describing the requestor's operation should be sent. The present invention may then include determining whether the requestor's operation is successful or unsuccessful, and the present invention may lastly include deleting an in-memory object.

Object notification wherein compare and swap is performed

A method for execution by dispersed storage failure detection unit of a dispersed storage network includes generating a storage unit weights and storage set weights based on the storage unit weights. One storage unit that meets a weight-adjustment trigger condition is identified, and a new storage unit weight for the identified storage unit is generated. A first data migration within the storage set that includes the identified storage unit is facilitated based on the storage unit weights. A failing set of storage units in a second storage set is identified. A new storage set weight for the second storage set is generated when the number of storage units in the failing set compares favorably to a failure threshold number. A second data migration that includes transferring data slices stored in the second storage unit to other storage sets is facilitated based on the storage set weights.

Handling storage unit failure in a dispersed storage network

A method begins when a read expansion condition is met for a set of encoded data slices stored in a set of storage units of a first DSN. The method continues with determining whether a difference between a pillar width number and a read threshold (RT) number is greater than or equal to the RT number. When no, the method continues with retrieving an expansion number of encoded data slices from the set of storage units and sending them to storage units of a second DSN for storage. The method continues by receiving a plurality of read requests for the set of encoded data slices, sending a first group of read requests to a RT number of storage units of the first DSN and sending a second group of requests to a second subset of storage units of the first DSN and to the storage units of the second DSN.

Expanding a dispersed storage network (DSN)

A method begins by a dispersed storage (DS) processing unit of a dispersed storage network (DSN) sending a set of data access requests regarding a set of encoded data slices to slice routers of the DSN. The method continues by a first slice router identifying a first storage unit of a first storage unit group based on a first slice name of a set of corresponding slice names that includes a first pillar number, wherein the first slice router is responsible for processing access requests that include the first pillar number. The method continues by the first slice router sending a first data access request of the set of data access requests to the first storage unit. The method continues by the first slice router receiving a first data access response. The method continues by the first slice router forwarding the first data access response to the DS processing unit.

Using slice routers for improved storage placement determination

A method includes obtaining, by a computing device, a plurality of sets of encoded data slices for storage in memory of a dispersed storage network (DSN). The method further includes identifying, by the computing device, a desired set of storage units within pools of storage units for storing the plurality of sets of encoded data slices. The method further includes generating, by the computing device, a specific source name based on the desired set of storage units and a distributed agreement protocol (DAP). The method further includes generating, by the computing device, a plurality of sets of slices names that includes the specific source name. The method further includes sending, by the computing device, a plurality of sets of write requests to the desired set of storage units regarding the plurality of sets of encoded data slices and in accordance with the plurality of sets of slice names.

Manipulating a distributed agreement protocol to identify a desired set of storage units

A computing device identifies and classify errors detected between the client application and the computing service, maintains service specific statistics across all communication points associated with the computing service, and stores the statistics within a metric data store. The computing device also provides an interface for introspecting the health of the computing service via metrics stored within the metric data store, monitors the health of the computing service via the metric data store, and assigns an operational state to the computing device based on metrics stored with the metric data store. The computing device then determines how to optimally route the client request based on the operational state of the computing service and routes the client request to the computing service via the optimal route.

Client-side service routing mechanism

A computing device includes an interface configured to interface and communicate with a dispersed storage network (DSN), a memory that stores operational instructions, and a processing module operably coupled to the interface and memory such that the processing module, when operable within the computing device based on the operational instructions, is configured to perform various operations. The computing device processes data usage characteristics associated with a data object that is associated with a user to determine an estimated location of the user. When the estimated location of the user compares unfavorably to the home location of the user, the computing device pre-fetches less than the decode threshold number of EDSs, for each set of encoded data slices (EDSs) that respectively correspond to data segments of a data object, from first storage units (SUs) to second SUs associated with the estimated location of the user.

Pre-caching data according to a current or predicted requester location

A method for execution by a dispersed storage and task (DST) processing unit includes queuing authorization requests, corresponding to received operation requests, in response to determining that first system utilization data indicates a first utilization level that compares unfavorably to a normal utilization threshold. A first batched authorization request that includes the queued authorization requests is generated for transmission to an Identity and Access Management (IAM) system in response to determining that the first request queue compares unfavorably to a first queue limit condition. A second queue limit condition that is different from the first queue limit condition is determined based on second system utilization data. A second batched authorization request that includes a second plurality of authorization requests of a second request queue is generated in response to determining that the second request queue compares unfavorably to the second queue limit condition.

Dynamic authorization batching in a dispersed storage network

A method includes receiving a data access request for a data object from a requesting device of a set of requesting devices associated with the data object. The method further includes determining storage entity data for the data object that includes global metadata, global policies, individual requesting device metadata of each requesting device of the set of requesting devices, and individual requesting device policies of each requesting device of the set of requesting devices. The method further includes determining whether an action of the data access request is compliant with the global policies and consistent with the global metadata. If so, the method further includes determining whether the action triggers one or more global policies and/or one or more individual requesting device polices, and whether global metadata and/or individual requesting device metadata are associated. The method further includes processing the action in accordance with the triggered policies and associated metadata.

Requester-associated storage entity data

A method for execution by a processing unit in a dispersed storage network (DSN), the method includes creating a unique identifier for intent processing entities (IPEs) and when creating intents, encrypting the contents of intents using an associated intent encryption key (IEK). The method continues by the processing unit encrypting each IEK using a key associated with a trusted IPE (TIPE) to generate an encrypted IEK, followed by storing and transmitting the encrypted IEK, the encrypted contents of the intent, and the IPE ID to the target TIPEs.

Processing intents using trusted entities in a dispersed storage network

A method for execution by a storage unit includes receiving, from an intent processing entity (IPE) via a network, a request to access at least one slice corresponding to an intent. An access query is transmitted to an access control system that includes an intent resource identifier (IRI) associated with the intent and an IPE identifier associated with the IPE. A query response, generated by the access control system based on the IRI and the IPE identifier of the access query, is received from the access control system. The request is executed when the query response indicates that permission to process the intent is granted to the IPE.

Controlling access when processing intents in a dispersed storage network

A method begins with a computing device of a distributed storage network (DSN) being designated to process a write request from a Decentralized, or Distributed, Agreement Protocol (DAP) and continues with the computing device retrieving a current policy for the storage units (SUs) associated with the write request, where the current policy specifies the current connectivity for the SUs. The method continues by using the current policy to configure a data structure to process the write request, where the data structure is based on scaling triggers and a load balancing scheme. The method continues with the data structure incorporating a primary queue and scaling the addition of secondary queues based on the scaling triggers and/or the load balancing scheme.

Growing community of inventors

Lake in the Hills, IL, United States of America

Brian Frederick Ober