Emc IP Holding Company LLC

Emc Corporation

Larry W McCloskey

Karyn Kelley

Mikhail Tolstoy

Igor Matveevskiy

Bruce Offhaus

Roman Kupriyanov

Douglas R Phillips

Sandra J Goodwin-Jette

Thomas McCafferty

Ralph Armstrong

Douglas Eric LeCrone

Martin Feeney

Richard Goodwill

John P Darling

Innokentiy Aristov

William C Burgoyne

Eric M Vaughn

A mechanism for disaster recovery configurations and management in virtual tape applications. Specifically, the introduction of an additional computer process executing at an active datacenter site and at another active (or alternatively, a standby) datacenter site permit: (i) the generation and management of global configurations implemented on the active datacenter site prior to the occurrence of a failover event; and (ii) the implementation of global configurations on the another active (or standby) datacenter site after the occurrence of the failover event.

Disaster recovery specific configurations, management, and application

Writing new data to a tape volume of a tape emulation unit includes determining if the new data is an update to data that was previously written, writing the new data to a new section of the tape emulation unit in response to the new data not updating data that was previously written, deleting the data that was previously written and writing the new data to a new section in response to the new data updating data that was previously written, the new data being larger than the data that was previously written, and the underlying file system not supporting variable size records/blocks, and overwriting the data that was previously written in response to the new data updating data that was previously written and either the new data not being larger than the data that was previously written or the underlying file system supporting variable size records/blocks.

Concurrent tape modification

A virtual tape engine migrates a virtual tape volume between filesystems. A source virtual tape volume is copied into the virtual tape engine, and a target virtual tape volume is generated. Data associated with the source virtual tape volume may be modified to generate the target virtual tape volume. For example, compression or encryption state may be modified. Migration may be triggered automatically in accordance with a migration policy. The source virtual tape volume remains accessible during migration.

System for migrating virtual tape volumes between filesystems

A mechanism for multiple coexisting configurations support in virtual tape applications. Specifically, the introduction of various additional computer processes facilitate the introduction or modification of user specific configurations on a virtual tape solution: (i) without requiring the shutdown and re-initialization of the virtual tape solution; and (ii) without compromising the performance of computing resources allocated towards the implementation of other user specific configurations already existing on the virtual tape solution.

Mechanism for multiple coexisting configurations support in virtual tape applications

A mechanism for non-disruptive virtual tape libraries configuration. Specifically, the introduction of various additional computer processes permit the configuration of a virtual tape library without requiring the shutdown and re-initialization of the host application on which the virtual tape library resides.

Mechanism for virtual tape libraries non-disruptive configuration

A mechanism for non-disruptive virtual tape drives removal and reconfiguration. Specifically, the introduction of various additional computer processes permit the removal and reconfiguration of a virtual tape drive without requiring the shutdown and re-initialization of the host application on which the virtual tape drive is being emulated.

Mechanism for non-disruptive virtual tape drives removal and reconfiguration

In one embodiment, a method can include notifying, from a mainframe, a virtual tape server that the mainframe is available to accept a job over a virtual tape channel. The method can also include, responsive to receiving at least one job data message of the job, sending, from the mainframe, a job receipt confirmation to the virtual tape server.

Method of initiating execution of mainframe jobs from a virtual tape server

In one example, a method for managing data includes defining a policy concerning migration of a dataset, and the policy specifies a condition that the dataset is to be migrated from a first storage entity to a second storage entity after the passage of a length of time during which the dataset was not accessed. The policy is then associated with the dataset. Next, a determination is made as to whether the condition of the policy has been met, and when the condition of the policy has been met, the dataset is automatically migrated from the first storage entity to the second storage entity.

Heirarchical storage for virtual tapes

A mechanism for non-disruptive virtual tape libraries removal and reconfiguration. Specifically, the introduction of various additional computer processes permit the removal and reconfiguration of a virtual tape library without requiring the shutdown and re-initialization of the host application on which the virtual tape library resides.

Mechanism for non-disruptive virtual tape libraries removal and reconfiguration

In one embodiment, a method of updating a list of available scratchfiles at a node accessing a filesystem includes determining whether the node should update the list of available scratchfiles on the filesystem. If the node should update the list of available scratchfiles of the filesystem, the method updates the list of available scratchfiles on the filesystem. In one embodiment, the method may determine whether the list of available scratchfiles on the filesystem should be updated by determining whether another node is currently updating its scratch list for the filesystem. If it is not, then the method may further determine whether the filesystem has added a scratch volume since a previous update of the list of available scratchfiles at the node.

Method of maintaining list of scratch volumes in shared filesystems across multiple nodes

In an embodiment, a method includes, responsive to a user request for a virtual tape from a first library operatively coupled to a first plurality of virtual tape storage devices sent to a second library operatively coupled to a second plurality of virtual tape storage devices, copying a virtual tape from the second plurality of virtual tape storage devices of the second library to the first plurality of virtual tape storage devices of the first library.

Sharing virtual tape volumes between separate virtual tape libraries

Embodiments are described for a method and system for performing data writes in a virtual tape emulation system. A parallel processing component receives data blocks from a mainframe host and upon receipt provides indication to the mainframe that a current block is received so that the mainframe can proceed to send the next block while the current block is processed. The component initiates parallel processing of the received block in a separate task, and as the operation completes, the data is written to non-tape media in a block-wise manner.

Queued parallel processing of block handling for virtual tape control units

In one embodiment, a method of informing a mainframe that a filesystem storing a plurality of virtual tapes is filled relative to a particular threshold includes returning, responsive to a write request to a virtual tape in the filesystem, a message indicating that the filesystem is filled relative to the particular threshold. The method can also include monitoring a plurality of filesystems for free space remaining on each of the plurality of filesystems. The method can additionally include indicating, in a data structure stored in a memory, a particular filesystem that is filled above the particular threshold. The data structure can be at least one of a table and a list. The method can further include mounting, responsive to a request to mount a particular virtual tape that is on a filesystem indicated in the data structure as being above the particular threshold, the particular virtual tape as read-only.

Growing community of inventors

Burlington, MA, United States of America

Larry W McCloskey