International Business Machines Corporation

Dominic Tomkins

Miles Mulholland

Eric John Bartlett

Alex Dicks

Nicholas Michael O'Rourke

Timothy A Moran

Warren Hawkins

Alastair Cooper

Gemma Izen

Ben Sasson

Paul Nicholas Cashman

Florent Rostagni

Mark Keith Elliott

Daniel Paul Dent

A method, system, and computer program product for managing a storage array in a storage system, the storage array comprising a first and second data blocks comprising: receiving a set of cryptographic values from the storage array, the set comprising a first value associated with the first data block, and a second value associated with the second data block; analysing the set of cryptographic values to determine a set of associations, the set of associations comprising a first association between the first data block and the second data block, storing the set of associations; and in response to determining the set of associations, performing a storage management operation on at least one of the first data block and the second data block.

Drive cryptographic value management

A method comprises: installing the target software version on a first node of the storage appliance; restarting the first node of the storage appliance while also running the current software version on other nodes of the storage system; subsequent to said installing the target software version and said restarting of the first node, determining if all hosts of the storage system have discovered paths to volumes on the first node; responsive to determining that all hosts of the storage system have discovered paths to volumes on the first node, permitting the CCU of the nodes to continue to upgrade one of the other nodes of the storage system from the current software version to the target software version; and responsive to determining that not all hosts of the storage system have discovered paths to volumes on the first node, preventing the CCU of the nodes from continuing.

Concurrent code upgrade

Provided are a method, system, and computer program product in which a storage volume is configured to be maintained in a replicated relationship between two storage systems. A reversing is performed of a switch of a direction of replication for a replicated storage volume, in response to determining that host activity does not sufficiently match a pre-switch host activity, where the host activity does not sufficiently match the pre-switch host activity if a predetermined set of criteria is not met.

Switching of replication relationship between storage systems

A method, computer program product, and computer system for full allocation volume to deduplication volume migration in a storage system. The method includes moving a physical allocation of stored data associated with a full allocation volume into a virtual address range in a deduplication domain and setting up the deduplication metadata to be a passthrough. The method then performs a background deduplication process on the virtual address range once populated with the physical allocations using a drive query hash interface to perform hash calculations on physical drives at which the data is stored.

Full allocation volume to deduplication volume migration in a storage system

Method and system for partitioning of deduplication domains in storage systems. The method includes constructing a data structure having multiple nodes representing data chunks and edges between the nodes representing a weighting of deduplication references between the data chunks, and performing clustering of the nodes of the data structure to split the nodes into clusters of tightly related nodes based on the weightings of the edges. The data chunks represented by a cluster of nodes are migrated to a deduplication domain to restrict deduplication to between only the data chunks in the deduplication domain.

Partitioning of deduplication domains in storage systems

Communication between target devices using protocol commands being carried out by a target device includes accessing a key for mapping of a plurality of defined patterns of stimuli and defined patterns of resultant protocol commands to a plurality of messages. A defined pattern of stimuli is sent from a target device to an initiator device to prompt a resultant defined pattern of protocol commands to be sent from the initiator device to all target devices that identify as the same device. The protocol commands including Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) specification compliant commands. A selected pattern of protocol command stimuli is sent from a first target device to the initiator device to prompt a resultant pattern of protocol commands from the initiator device to all target devices that identify as the same device thereby communicating the mapped message to other target devices.

Electronic communication between devices using a protocol

A method, computer system, and a computer program product for providing backend deduplication awareness at a virtualizing layer is disclosed. The present invention may include receiving a deduplication information from a backend storage controller associated with performing an input/output (IO) operation to a physical address of a disk. The present invention may include translating the physical address to a logical address to apply to a plurality of storage extents in a virtualizing layer. The present invention may include constructing a graph including corresponding nodes representing the plurality of storage extents and including corresponding deduplication edge weights representing a plurality of deduplications between the plurality of storage extents. The present invention may include identifying at least one subgraph within the constructed graph, wherein the identified at least one subgraph represents a storage extent cluster that is suitable for garbage collection as a cluster.

Backend deduplication awareness

Method and system are provided for dynamic rebuild capability in redundant array of independent disks (RAID) arrays using compressing drives. The method includes providing an array including a physical rebuild area for the multiple drives of the array and dynamically adjusting a number of allocated rebuild zones available within the rebuild area, wherein each allocated rebuild zone has capacity to store a drive rebuild based on a current physical usage of the multiple drives of the array.

Dynamic rebuild capability in redundant array of independent disks (RAID) arrays using compressing drives

Embodiments of the present invention provide concepts for handling a handover of ownership of data from a source to a referrer in a data deduplication environment. By performing a handover of the ownership of the data from the source to the referrer, the number of processes required to access the data may be reduced and so the performance of the system may be improved. The identification of a source for performing the handover on may be performed by way of a volatile cache.

Data deduplication

A data recovery method recovers corrupted data after a disaster event in a storage facility operating with deduplication in which copies of data are maintained between volumes through a copy services relationship. The deduplication operates with referencing domains, each having a source grain containing a reference pointing to a location where data is stored and referrers pointing to the source. The data recovery method identifies any source that is pointing to data which is corrupt and then establishes whether a copy services relationship exists between the referencing domain of the source with corrupted data and another referencing domain, in which case the other referencing domain will have a copy of the corrupted data. Provided that the copy is valid, it is written across to replace the corrupted data. The method allows corrupted source data to be recovered without having to perform a full resync or restore.

Data recovery mechanisms in deduplication-enabled storage facilities

Concepts for remote storage of data are presented. Once such concept is a system comprising: a primary storage controller; and a secondary storage controller of a remote data storage system. The primary storage controller is configured to determine a service characteristic of data storage to or data retrieval from the remote data storage system and to communicate service performance signals to the secondary storage controller based on the determined service characteristic. The secondary storage controller is configured to receive service performance signals from the primary storage controller, to compare the received service performance signals with a service requirement so as to determine a service comparison result, and to control data storage to or data retrieval from the remote data storage system based on the service comparison result.

Remote data storage

Method and system are provided for managing capacity in a storage system using copy services. The method is a computer-implemented method that predicts an imminent event due to a constrained resource and identifies one or more copy service relationship that will mitigate the imminent event. The method orchestrates a partial or full invalidation of a copy service relationship to reclaim some of the constrained resource to prevent the imminent event, including updating the copy service relationship metadata to indicate the invalidation.

Predicting and preventing events in a storage system using copy services

A computer-implemented method for performing garbage collection in a data storage system having a RAID configuration according to one embodiment includes determining on which geometry addressable region of the RAID configuration extents of data are stored. The RAID configuration includes an old geometry addressable region and a new geometry addressable region. The method further includes determining an order for performing garbage collection on the extents of data. Extents of data determined to be stored on the old geometry addressable region are assigned a higher priority within the order than extents of data determined to be stored on the new geometry addressable region. Moreover, the method includes performing garbage collection on the data storage system according to the order for performing garbage collection.

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Hook, United Kingdom

Dominic Tomkins