Netapp, Inc.

Alacritus, Inc.

Other

Don Alvin Trimmer

Roger Keith Stager

Craig Anthony Johnston

Rico Blaser

Yafen Peggy Chang

Ling Zheng

Yuval Frandzel

Gavin David Cohen

Jerry Kai Lau

Steven Robert Kleiman

Sandeep Yadav

Paul Jardetzky

Steven C Miller

Pawan Saxena

Yong Cho

Randall C Johnson

Pratap Singh

According to one or more embodiments of the present invention, a network cache intercepts data requested by a client from a remote server interconnected with the cache through one or more wide area network (WAN) links (e.g., for Wide Area File Services, or 'WAFS'). The network cache stores the data and sends the data to the client. The cache may then intercept a first write request for the data from the client to the remote server, and determine one or more portions of the data in the write request that changed from the data stored at the cache (e.g., according to one or more hashes created based on the data). The network cache then sends a second write request for only the changed portions of the data to the remote server.

System and method for bandwidth optimization in a network storage environment

A technique for eliminating duplicate data is provided. Upon receipt of a new data set, one or more anchor points are identified within the data set. A bit-by-bit data comparison is then performed of the region surrounding the anchor point in the received data set with the region surrounding an anchor point stored within a pattern database to identify forward/backward delta values. The duplicate data identified by the anchor point, forward and backward delta values is then replaced in the received data set with a storage indicator.

Sampling based elimination of duplicate data

The present invention provides a system and method for estimating duplicate data in a storage system. A duplicate estimation application executes on a client of a storage system selects an element from an intended destination such as, e.g., a data store of the storage system. If the element is a file (or other data container), the application reads data from the file and computes a fingerprint of the read data. The computed fingerprint is then logged in a fingerprint database, which is illustratively stored on a storage device connected to the client executing the application. This process repeats until the entire file (or other data container) has been read and fingerprinted. Once all elements have been scanned, fingerprinted and recorded, the application identifies any unique entries within the fingerprint database. Utilizing this information, the application computes an estimated space savings that may be realized by employing a data de-duplication technique.

System and method for estimating duplicate data

A method and system for performing data manipulation on a storage device is disclosed. A data manipulation command is created on a computing device, wherein the computing device is separate from the storage device. The computing device is a client or a server that requests services of a storage system to store data on a storage medium. The computing device and the storage device are connected over a network. The computing device executes a host application, and its data is stored on the medium. The computing device issues a command to the storage device to be performed on the data. The storage device executes the command and sends the result to the computing device. As a result, the data is not sent to the computing device for manipulation.

Performing direct data manipulation on a storage device

The present invention provides a system and method for eliminating duplicate data (de-duplication) in substantially real time using an electronic storage medium.

System and method for real-time deduplication utilizing an electronic storage medium

System and method for sampling based elimination of duplicate data

A method and system for emulating tape library commands is disclosed. Tape library commands implemented in response to commands received from a data protection application are emulated in a disk based storage medium so that existing data protection applications may be used to copy data to and from the disk based storage medium.

Method and system for emulating tape libraries

A system for the storage and retrieval of data files includes a data disk, a configuration disk and a controller. Each data file includes one or more data blocks, each data block comprising a data section. The data disk stores the data blocks and is divided into a plurality of block groups. The configuration disk stores a copy of at least a portion of the corresponding meta-data. The controller controls both the data disk and the configuration disk.

Optimized disk repository for the storage and retrieval of mostly sequential data

A method for tracking changes on a primary volume in a continuous data protection system writes data to the primary volume. A copy of the data is written to a secondary volume, the secondary volume including all writes made to the primary volume. Each write made to the secondary volume is mapped in a data structure, such that the data structure tracks changes on the primary volume between two different points in time.

Method and system for storing data using a continuous data protection system

The invention is a method and system for copying backup data to a virtual tape library (VTL), where data written to the VTL can optionally be stored on removable disk media for offsite storage. The invention minimizes dependency on tape media without taxing the resources of any of the servers and without the need for the data protection application (DPA) to perform a second backup pass. Backup data written to the VTL can optionally be copied to the VTL's default storage area and/or to a predetermined set of disks that may be removed and stored offsite.

Method and system for creating and using removable disk based copies of backup data

The present invention is a tape library comprising both a small front-end portion and a larger back-end portion. The front-end portion is a visible virtual or physical tape library; and the back-end portion is a large invisible virtual or physical tape vault. The DPA is a typical DPA which only sees the front-end library. If desired, all messages regarding the importing and exporting of tapes are reviewed by an agent. The agent manages the automatic transfer of tapes between the front-end and the back-end, and notifies the user when a manual import or export is needed. This greatly reduces both the amount of hardware required to establish a virtual or physical tape library and also reduces the amount of labor required by a user to physically import and export tapes. If both the front-end library and the back-end vault are virtual and reside on the same virtual tape library appliance, no data movement is necessary and the tapes can be moved merely by performing small software state changes. In this case, manual operation may be acceptable.

System and method for virtual vaulting

A method of protecting a data storage system including the steps of: providing a disk system including a plurality of disk modules, each disk module containing a disk controller and a disk driver, the disk driver being in detachable electrical communication with the disk controller; and physically disconnecting the disk controller from the disk driver for any of the plurality of disk modules that are not required by the data storage system for the transfer of data.

Protectable data storage system and a method of protecting and/or managing a data storage system

A method and system for efficiently storing and transferring data in a virtual tape library environment is disclosed. Data is written to a virtual tape library that emulates a physical tape library. Data stored in the virtual tape library may be compressed and an estimated compression ratio may be dynamically computed. While data is written to the virtual tape library, an end-of-tape signal is provided based on the estimated compression ratio.

Method and system for data compression and compression estimation in a virtual tape library environment

A method and system wherein a plurality of different file system views may be provided for the same data. Data copied in a sequential format to a disk based repository using a data protection application is decoded so that the data may be presented and accessed using a standard file system view. The standard file system may be used to randomly access the data as desired.

Growing community of inventors

Livermore, CA, United States of America

Don Alvin Trimmer