Emc Corporation

Emc IP Holding Company LLC

Bruce Offhaus

Larry W McCloskey

Thomas McCafferty

Ralph Armstrong

Mikhail Tolstoy

Igor Matveevskiy

Douglas R Phillips

Sandra J Goodwin-Jette

Eric M Vaughn

William C Burgoyne

In one example, a method for managing data includes defining a policy concerning migration of a dataset, and the policy specifies a condition that the dataset is to be migrated from a first storage entity to a second storage entity after the passage of a length of time during which the dataset was not accessed. The policy is then associated with the dataset. Next, a determination is made as to whether the condition of the policy has been met, and when the condition of the policy has been met, the dataset is automatically migrated from the first storage entity to the second storage entity.

Heirarchical storage for virtual tapes

In an embodiment, a method includes, responsive to a user request for a virtual tape from a first library operatively coupled to a first plurality of virtual tape storage devices sent to a second library operatively coupled to a second plurality of virtual tape storage devices, copying a virtual tape from the second plurality of virtual tape storage devices of the second library to the first plurality of virtual tape storage devices of the first library.

Sharing virtual tape volumes between separate virtual tape libraries

In one embodiment, a method of informing a mainframe that a filesystem storing a plurality of virtual tapes is filled relative to a particular threshold includes returning, responsive to a write request to a virtual tape in the filesystem, a message indicating that the filesystem is filled relative to the particular threshold. The method can also include monitoring a plurality of filesystems for free space remaining on each of the plurality of filesystems. The method can additionally include indicating, in a data structure stored in a memory, a particular filesystem that is filled above the particular threshold. The data structure can be at least one of a table and a list. The method can further include mounting, responsive to a request to mount a particular virtual tape that is on a filesystem indicated in the data structure as being above the particular threshold, the particular virtual tape as read-only.

Signaling impending out of storage condition from a virtual tape drive

Embodiments are described for named mounts in a virtual tape engine (VTE) system. A system maintains a file list of named volumes for each of the VTEs. When named mount requests are received, the system searches the file list for the named volume rather than searching through each of the file systems for each of the VTEs. When the volume name is found on a file list, the VTE for the volume name is identified and the mount request can be completed.

Named mount optimization for virtual tape systems

A virtual tape emulator (VTE) that performs data integrity read back verification at host sync points. The VTE first flushes data that it may have buffered to a backend storage subsystem such as a disk array. The VTE then reads all data that was written to the backend storage array between a prior sync point and the current sync point. During this feedback verification, integrity checks can be performed. An error detected during read back verification is returned to the host operation that triggered the sync operation.

Method of verifying integrity of data written by a mainframe to a virtual tape and providing feedback of errors

Data de-duplication ('de-dupe') allows IT organizations to replace aging tape systems with disk-based backup solutions and minimize the storage allocated to backup and data protection. The effectiveness of de-dupe technology is dependent on the data being protected. Data streams with little data repetitiveness provide disappointing results when processed through a block-level de-dupe engine. To avoid this problem, Assisted Mainframe De-Dupe (AMDD) technology can insure that filesystem block-level de-dupe products efficiently de-dupe tape backup streams received from IBM&#x2122; and/or compatible mainframes. By pre-processing backup tape volumes before sending the data to storage, AMDD insures that large amounts of unchanged data lines up on de-dupe block boundaries each time the data is sent to the de-dupe process engine. By providing 'well-behaved' data to the de-dupe process, AMDD can improve the effectiveness of de-dupe processing and substantially reduce the storage used to backup critical mainframe DASD resources.

Assisted mainframe data de-duplication

Data de-duplication ('de-dupe') allows IT organizations to replace aging tape systems with disk-based backup solutions and minimize the storage allocated to backup and data protection. The effectiveness of de-dupe technology is dependent on the data being protected. Data streams with little data repetitiveness provide disappointing results when processed through a block-level de-dupe engine. To avoid this problem, Assisted Mainframe De-Dupe (AMDD) technology can insure that filesystem block-level de-dupe products efficiently de-dupe tape backup streams received from IBM&#x2122;and/or compatible mainframes. By pre-processing backup tape volumes before sending the data to storage, AMDD insures that large amounts of unchanged data lines up on de-dupe block boundaries each time the data is sent to the de-dupe process engine. By providing 'well-behaved' data to the de-dupe process, AMDD can improve the effectiveness of de-dupe processing and substantially reduce the storage used to backup critical mainframe DASD resources.

Growing community of inventors

Waldoboro, ME, United States of America

Bruce Offhaus