International Business Machines Corporation

David Charles Boutcher

Charles Scott Graham

Harvey Gene Kiel

Jaya Srikrishnan

Chetan Mehta

Steven Jay Munroe

Colin Robert DeVilbiss

Jeffrey Jay Scheel

Raymond Keith Harney

David R Engebretsen

Bridget Marie Meyer

Bruce Hubbard Vining

Aleesa Mae Kobi

Embodiments of the invention provide a means for verifying that a person using a bank card at a point-of-sale merchant location is in fact a person authorized to use the bank card. In one embodiment of the invention, verification may involve communicating with the mobile deviceassociated with the person authorized to use the bank card. The person authorized to use the bank card may be required to send verification data to the bank card verification system via the mobile device to confirm a purchase. The bank card verification system may not authorize the purchase if the proper verification data is not received from the mobile device. In another embodiment, the bank card verification system may be configured to determine a proximity of the mobile device to the merchant point-of-sale location to verify the purchase.

Real-time security verification for banking cards

A hosting partition update mechanism allows updating I/O capability of a logically-partitioned computer system in a way that minimally affects the performance and availability of I/O in the computer system. When an update is needed, a new hosting partition is created with the desired update(s). I/O adapters in the current hosting partition are then migrated to the new hosting partition. The migration of an I/O adapter from the current hosting partition to the new hosting partition is relatively fast, thereby minimally impacting system performance and availability of I/O. Once all of the I/O adapters have been migrated to the new hosting partition, the current hosting partition may be kept as a backup, or may be eliminated. Providing a new or backup hosting partition allows updates to be performed in the new or backup hosting partition in a non-disruptive manner while the current hosting partition continues to service I/O requests.

Updating I/O capability of a logically-partitioned computer system

Methods, apparatus and computer program product implement enhanced dynamic copy-on-write storage compression. For a write operation, a freed block is detected by the COW storage for compressing freed blocks from the COW storage. Responsive to the detected freed block being a previously written block in the COW storage, the previously written block in the COW storage is deleted from the COW storage. Responsive to the detected freed block not being a previously written block in the COW storage, the block is marked as zero in the COW storage.

Implementing dynamic copy-on-write (COW) storage compression in COW storage through zero and deleted blocks

Methods, apparatus and computer program product implement enhanced dynamic copy-on-write storage compression. For a write operation, a purge function for a block being written is detected by the COW storage for compressing freed blocks from the COW storage. Responsive to the detected purge function and the block being a previously written block in the COW storage, the previously written block in the COW storage is deleted from the COW storage. Responsive to the detected purge function and the block not being a previously written block in the COW storage, the block is marked as zero in the COW storage.

Implementing dynamic copy-on-write (COW) storage compression through purge function

An apparatus and method provide a protocol for communicating between an operating system that owns a shared resource and other operating systems that use the shared resource so that the operating systems that use the shared resource will not crash if the operating system that owns the shared resource is restarted. Messages are defined that allow handshaking between operating systems so that operating systems that share a resource will realize the resource will be unavailable for some period of time, and that allow resuming the sharing of the resource once the operating system that owns the shared resource is restarted.

Restarting a shared virtual resource

A hosting partition update mechanism allows updating the I/O capability of a logically-partitioned computer system in a way that minimally affects the performance and availability of I/O in the computer system. When an update is needed, a new hosting partition is created with the desired update(s). The I/O adapters in the current hosting partition are then migrated to the new hosting partition. The migration of an I/O adapter from the current hosting partition to the new hosting partition is relatively fast, thereby minimally impacting system performance and availability of I/O. Once all of the I/O adapters have been migrated to the new hosting partition, the current hosting partition may be kept as a backup, or may be eliminated. Providing a new or backup hosting partition allows updates to be performed in the new or backup hosting partition in a non-disruptive manner while the current hosting partition continues to service I/O requests.

Apparatus and method for updating I/O capability of a logically-partitioned computer system

A memory tag mechanism creates a logical memory tag of a first length that corresponds to an I/O address of a second length. The memory tag is 'logical' because it does not represent physical memory. When an I/O adapter device driver that expects an address of the first length is invoked, the memory tag is passed. When the I/O adapter device driver makes a call to the partition manager to convert the address of the first length (i.e., memory tag) to an I/O address of the second length, the partition manager detects that the passed address is a memory tag instead of a real address, and returns the corresponding I/O address. In this manner existing device drivers that expect addresses of the first length may be used for redirected DMA, which allows performing DMA operations directly from a shared I/O adapter in a hosting partition to memory in a hosted partition.

Logical memory tags for redirected DMA operations

A distributed computer system incorporating multiple computer processes enables a client computer process to request execution of a remote procedure on a server computer process even when the server computer process does not support a current version of the client computer process. A version map is utilized by the client computer process while requesting a remote procedure to format the request to a version supported by the server computer process, thus permitting client and server computer processes coresident in a distributed computer system to be upgraded independently while ensuring backward-compatibility with earlier versions.

Remote procedure interface with support for multiple versions

A method and computer program product are provided for automatic conversion of data by a server computer system based on a location extension in a universal naming convention (UNC) name. Responsive to receiving a universal naming convention (UNC) name used for identifying data stored on the server computer system, a predefined location extension to a share name in the universal naming convention (UNC) name is identified. The identified predefined location extension is utilized for automatic conversion of the stored server data.

Growing community of inventors

Rochester, MN, United States of America

David Charles Boutcher