International Business Machines Corporation

Seagate Technology Incorporated

Netapp, Inc.

Kenneth Fairclough Day, Iii

Kenneth Wayne Boyd

John Jay Wolfgang

Douglas William Dewey

Gregory E McBride

Philip Matthew Doatmas

William Frank Micka

Kirby Grant Dahman

Robert Bruce Nicholson

Philip Matthew Dudas

Gail Andrea Spear

Robert Francis Bartfai

Dean Lee Hanson

Aviad Zlotnick

Shachar Fienblit

William Patrick Delaney

Ian Davies

David Allan Pease

James Chien-Chiung Chen

David W Messina

Harry M Yudenfriend

Leonard George Jesionowski

William James Scales

Robert Beverley Basham

Bret S Weber

Lee Jason Sanders

Rodney A Dekoning

Robert Frederic Kern

Henry Esmond Butterworth

Gerhard Banzhaf

Stefan Amann

Jeffrey William Palm

John Earle Lindley

Helmut H Weber

Thomas William Beglin

Stephen F Edel

Charles William Lickel

Christopher Diebold O'Toole

William David Lamear

Akinobu Shimada

Tsutomu Sukigara

Vitaly Zautner

Gerardo De Jesus Frias Garcia

Ryusuke Ito

Yasumitsu Mizoguchi

Kenta Ninose

Gregory Tad Kishi

Brent Cameron Beardsley

Michael Edward Factor

Jonathan Wayne Peake

Thomas W Bish

Mark Edward Dean

Michael Howard Hartung

Mark Albert Reid

Amiram Hayardeny

John Thomas Flynn, Jr

Thomas George Wicklund

Ruiling Luo

Phillip Matthew Doatmas

Norman Iwao Hanami

An apparatus for controlling a storage system having a data replication function, comprises: a storage array component being operable to send notification to a replication engine that a write of data to a primary storage location by a host is subject to data replication; the replication engine being operable to receive the notification and in response to instruct the storage array to copy the data to a secondary storage location; wherein the data is copied to the secondary storage location unmediated by the replication engine.

Apparatus and method for managing storage copy services systems

The technology disclosed herein includes a method for dividing a body of user data into a plurality of data blocks, and writing the plurality of data blocks into chunk zones in parallel streams, the chunk zones located in a first ordered pool of storage devices. In some implementations, the method includes adding additional storage devices to the first ordered pool making a second ordered pool, including the first ordered pool, and writing the plurality of data blocks across the second ordered pool of storage devices, such that each of the storage devices including spare capacity. The method includes determining if a storage device fails, and seeking data for the data blocks on the failed storage device from of the other storage devices.

Distributed RAID system

Systems and methods for replicating a snapshot of a volume are described. In one embodiment, a storage controller of a storage system may be operable to initialize a first replication process between a first storage volume of the first storage system and a second storage volume of a second storage system, copy content from a first system snapshot of the first storage volume to a second system snapshot of the first storage volume, and copy content from a first user snapshot of the first storage volume to the first system snapshot of the first storage volume. In some cases, a system snapshot is not accessible to a user and a user snapshot is accessible to the user. In some cases, at least one of the system snapshot and the user snapshot include a point in time capture of data on the first storage volume.

Snap tree arbitrary replication

Systems and methods for intelligent replication of a snapshot tree are described. In one embodiment, a first storage system may include a storage controller. In some embodiments, the storage controller may be operable to replicate a first storage volume of a first storage system and a first user snapshot of the first storage volume to a second storage volume of a second storage system and capture a first tree structure block (TSB) of the first storage system. In some cases, the first user snapshot may include a point in time capture of data on the first storage volume at a first time. In some embodiments, the first TSB captures a hierarchy of each snapshot of the first storage system.

Intelligent snapshot tree replication

An enhanced mechanism for providing data protection for variable length records utilizes high performance block storage metadata. In an embodiment, an emulated record that emulates a variable length record, such as a Count-Key-Data (CKD) record or an Extended-Count-Key-Data (ECKD) record, is generated by a Host Bus Adapter (HBA) of a mainframe system. The emulated record comprises a sequence of extended fixed-length blocks, each of which includes a data block and a footer. A confluence of the footers defines a high performance block storage metadata unit associated with the emulated record and includes a checksum that covers all data blocks and all footers of the entire emulated record. In one embodiment, the checksum is checked during transit of the emulated record between a HBA and a storage subsystem (e.g., by the HBA when the emulated record is received from the storage subsystem, and/or by a switch in the data transfer path), during a hardening step when writing the emulated record to a disk, and/or during a verification step when reading the emulated record from the disk.

Data protection for variable length records by utilizing high performance block storage metadata

Disclosed is a storage system architecture. An Environmental service module (ESM) is coupled to one or more array controllers. The ESM is configured with a central processing unit and one or more assist functions. The assist functions may include nonvolatile memory. This nonvolatile memory may be used for write caching, mirroring data, and/or configuration data. The assist functions, or the ESM, may be controlled by the array controllers using SCSI or RDMA commands.

Storage array assist architecture

An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for determining prefetch data. A start module communicates a start of a target software process to a storage device. A learning module learns data blocks accessed for the target software process. In one embodiment, a prefetch module prefetches the learned data blocks in response to the start of the target software process. An end module communicates the end of the target software process to the storage device. In one embodiment, the prefetch module terminates prefetching data blocks and the learning module terminates learning the data blocks accessed for the target software process in response to the end module's communication of the end of the target software process.

Monitoring program execution to learn data blocks accessed by software process for facilitating efficient prefetching

A method is disclosed for reliably updating a data group in a read-before-write data replication environment. The method reliably updates the data group by receiving an updated data group sent from a first storage medium to a second storage medium, comparing the updated data group with a previous data group previously existing on the second storage medium and writing the updated data group to the second storage medium. The read-before-write and differencing method disclosed maintain reliability by storing multiple copies of changes made to the second storage medium during and after the write process.

Method for reliably updating a data group in a read-before-write data replication environment using a comparison file

A file system driver stored in a computational device receives a request to provide access to a snapshot of a rewritable file system at a selected point in time, wherein a plurality of tokens corresponding to a plurality of data units are stored in the rewritable file system, and wherein an ordering relationship is maintained among the plurality of tokens. The file system driver determines a token corresponding to the selected point in time based on the ordering relationship. A virtual subdirectory name is generated corresponding to the determined token. A virtual subdirectory is created with the generated virtual subdirectory name, wherein the virtual subdirectory is a subdirectory of a root directory. The snapshot is accessed via the subdirectory.

Accessing snapshots of a time based file system

Provided are a method, system, and article of manufacture for splitting writes between a storage controller and replication engine. A splitter executing in a storage controller manages access to primary volumes. An initialization command is received to communicate with a replication engine. A replication command is received for one primary volume and the primary volume is indicated as subject to replication. A write request is received to write data to a target primary volume of the primary volumes that is indicated as subject to the replication. The data in the write request is written to the target primary volume. The data in the write request is sent to the replication engine. The replication engine executes a copy services function associated with the target primary volume to write the data to a replication engine volume.

Splitting writes between a storage controller and replication engine

A non-disruptive method for updating firmware in a first controllerof a redundant controllerin a storage subsystemis disclosed. This updating occurs while the storage subsystempresents data to a host systemin response to a host request. During the non-disruptive updating, the updating first controllerredirects the host requestfor data, e.g., drive-A volumenormally owned by the first controller, to second controllerof the redundant controller. After the second controllerobtains dataidentified in the host request, the operating second controllertransfers the datato the updating first controllervia an inter-controller channel. Once the updating first controllerreceives the data, the first controllerpresents the datato the host system. The host systemdoes not detect that the first controlleris updating because the updating process is invisible to the host system. The above process is also applied when the updating is simply a reboot command for the first controller

Non-disruptive methods for updating a controller of a storage system

Data protection method for variable length records by utilizing high performance block storage metadata

Growing community of inventors

Tucson, AZ, United States of America

Kenneth Fairclough Day, Iii