Netapp, Inc.

Network Appliance, Inc.

Faramarz Rabii

Peter Frank Corbett

Jeffrey S Kimmel

Hooman Vassef

John David Strunk

Keith Allen Arner

At least certain embodiments include a method, system and apparatus for relocating data between tiers of storage media in a hybrid storage aggregate encompassing multiple tiers of heterogeneous physical storage media including a file system to automatically relocate the data between tiers. The hybrid storage aggregate includes one or more volumes, each volume including a volume block number space spanning at least a first-tier of storage media and a second tier of storage media of the multiple tiers of heterogeneous physical storage media and the hybrid storage aggregate further includes a control module to cooperatively manage the tiers of the multiple tiers of heterogeneous physical storage media and a file system coupled with the control module, the file system including a policy module configured to make policy decisions based on a set of one or more policies and configured to automatically relocate data between different tiers of the multiple tiers of heterogeneous physical storage media based on the set of policies.

Mechanisms for moving data in a hybrid aggregate

A system and method that provides users of network data storage with the ability to gain advantages of a clustered storage server system, in which volumes from multiple server nodes are linked into a virtual global hierarchical namespace, without first having to migrate their data to the clustered storage server system. The system and method extends the global namespace of the clustered storage server system to allow access to one or more volumes stored on one or more remote storage servers over at least one network pathway communicably connecting the remote storage servers and the clustered storage server system. In addition, the system and method allows loads to the clustered system and to the remote storage servers to be balanced or shared by generating at least one set of mirrored volumes accessible via the extended global namespace of the clustered system.

Read-only mirroring for load sharing

A system and method that provides users of network data storage systems with the ability to gain the advantages of a clustered storage server system, in which volumes stored on multiple server nodes are linked into a virtual global hierarchical namespace, without first having to migrate their data to the clustered storage server system. The system employs an extended virtual global hierarchical namespace that allows client systems to access, via the extended global namespace, volumes stored on the clustered storage server system and on one or more storage servers that are remote from and do not constitute a part of the clustered system. The extended global namespace can also be employed to perform migration of volume data among the multiple nodes of the clustered storage server system and the remote storage servers.

Growing community of inventors

Ashland, MA, United States of America

Faramarz Rabii