Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Iron Mountain Incorporated

Dale R Passmore

Robert S Gittins

Billy J Fuller

Steven T Senator

Joseph E Cunliffe

Matthew R Barnes

Jason Burkey

Systems and methods for managing digital assets in a distributed computing environment are described. Meta-data for the digital assets is stored separately from the digital assets. Meta-data for some of the digital assets is copied and stored at a central location. Meta-data for the digital assets is generated by clients of the system. A method of filtering I/O requests of a computer system includes: receiving a plurality of I/O requests from a filter manager of the computer system, the filter manager executing in the system space of an operating system; applying a hierarchical rule set to at least a portion of the plurality of I/O requests by a mini-filter executing in the system space; and providing at least one of the plurality of I/O requests from the mini-filter to an agent executing in user space in response to the application of the hierarchical rule set by the mini-filter.

Systems and methods for filtering file system input and output

In a system for managing digital assets in a distributed computing environment, meta-data for the digital assets is generated by clients of the system and stored separately from the digital assets, such as at a central location. A computer system operating under control of an operating system performs categorization of the digital assets using an agent operating in user space of the computer system. The agent receives an I/O request identifying a digital asset and applies categorization information to the identified digital asset based on the received I/O request without intervention by an end-user of the computer system, and the categorization information is stored as part of an asset identification tag associated with the digital asset.

Systems and methods for automatically categorizing digital assets

A computer implemented system, method and computer program product for automatically distributing copies of a replicated database for a computer system comprising at least first and second host computers. Each of the host computers operatively control at least one associated computer mass storage device controller coupled to commonly accessible computer mass storage devices by at least one storage device bus. The system and method comprises the step of enumerating each of the various host computers of the computer system, each of the computer mass storage device controllers associated with each host computer and each of the computer mass storage devices coupled to the storage device buses coupling the controllers. Copies of the replicated database are then automatically distributed across the computer mass storage devices such that failures of one or more of the computer mass storage device controllers or of one or more of the computer mass storage devices will not interrupt operation of the replicated database in the computer system.

System and method for automatically distributing copies of a replicated database in a computer system

A method and apparatus for storing associated data in a computing system having two or more storage devices arranged in a RAID configuration. The storage devices have a prewrite area for pre-storage of the data, and data region for persistent storage of the data. A scoreboard memory structure is created for monitoring the state of the prewrite area, and data in the prewrite area is conditionally invalidated based upon the information contained in the scoreboard memory structure. By conditionally invalidating the prewrite data, the write performance of the RAID storage system is improved.

Method and apparatus for maintaining data consistency in raid

Inconsistencies between cache and memory in a memory system operating in a computer are traced and corrected. A cache entry is checked against a counterpart memory entry to trace inconsistencies between the cache entry and the memory entry and to correct the cache entry. A page table entry in memory with a zero mapping mark is checked against a counterpart page entry in a translation lookaside buffer. Inconsistencies between the page table entry with a zero mapping mark and the existence of a counterpart page entry in the translation lookaside buffer is traced. The inconsistency is corrected by deleting the counterpart page entry in the translation lookaside buffer. Address mapping is checked comparing a page entry in the translation lookaside buffer against a counterpart page table entry in the memory. Inconsistencies between the page entry and the page table entry are traced and corrected.

Method and apparatus that detects and tolerates inconsistencies between

A system, method and computer program product comprising a storage manager independent configuration interface translator which requests an opaque listing of the available storage devices from an associated metadisk driver and determines a subset of the listing meeting a preselected search criteria. The resultant opaque listing is then converted to a non-opaque format listing for presentation to a user of the computer system in a desired format such as through a command line or graphical user interface. A notification mechanism is also provided that presents information about storage devices which have in some way changed while in use.

Storage manager independent configuration interface translator and method

In a computing system having a plurality of storage devices, notification of an application program of a change of state in a storage device so that corrective action can be taken. A notification module creates and maintains an event queue for storing events corresponding to changes in the state of the storage devices. The notification module indicates to the application programs that events are in the queue. The queue conditions are monitored by the notification for queue maintenance.

Event notification in a computing system having a plurality of storage

A metadisk driver functionally intermediate a computer operating system and one or more metadrivers and underlying layered drivers provides a driver rename/exchange function which does not depend on any particular driver having knowledge of the private data structures of any of the other drivers. The rename/exchange technique implemented thereby may be conducted while the underlying devices are on-line and comprise atomic operations which are, therefore, recoverable inasmuch as the operation will have either been completed or will not be committed in the event of any interruption.

Metadevice driver rename/exchange technique for a computer system

A system, method and computer program product for ensuring that a replicated computer database does not encounter a 'split brain' problem by replicating the database and requiring a replica quorum wherein at least (50% +1) of the replicas are accessible and in agreement. When a replica quorum in not obtainable, but 50% of the copies of the data are in agreement, an external source, or 'mediator', is called upon to provide a deciding vote (+1) to ensure that the data can be trusted.

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Colorado Springs, CO, United States of America

Dale R Passmore