International Business Machines Corporation

Lior Chen

Constantine Gavrilov

Zah Barzik

Rivka Mayraz Matosevich

Gregory Etelson

Alexander Snast

Daniel Gan-Levi

Dan Cohen

Michael Keller

Maxim Kalaev

Jonathan Amit

Deborah A Messing

Ronen Gazit

Osnat Shasha

Ari Zigler

Nimrod Sapir

Ofer Leneman

Alex Friedman

Amit Margalit

Vladislav Drouker

Eli Koren

Alex Snast

Michael Green

Aharon Novogrodski

Vladimir Zaslavski

Nadav Parag

Meir Kalech

Shai M Koffman

Yossi Yamin

Ron Zvi Stern

Dennis Potashnik

Demian Glait

Embodiments for disaster recovery (DR) configuration management. An orchestration mechanism is used to automate a deployment and/or a configuring of two or more storage clusters for DR by arranging, in one step, a mirroring session between the two or more storage clusters. The two or more storage clusters are existing clusters, and the orchestration mechanism locates each of the existing storage clusters and establishes the mirroring session between the two.

One-step disaster recovery configuration on software-defined storage systems

A mechanism is provided in a data processing system comprising at least one processor and at least one memory, the at least one memory comprising instructions that are executed by the at least one processor and configure the at least one processor to implement a device context device driver for forced detaching of an application from mapped devices. The device context device driver receives a command to detach an application, wherein the command specifies a process descriptor associated with the application. The device context device driver identifies a plurality of matching device context entries in a list of open device contexts maintained by the device context device driver that match the process descriptor. The device context device driver marks the plurality of matching device context entries as detached. The device context device driver invalidates mapped memory areas associated with the plurality of matching device context entries. The device context device driver shuts down all device contexts associated with the plurality of matching device context entries.

Forced detaching of applications from DMA-capable PCI mapped devices

A computer-implemented method, according to one embodiment, includes: storing information in a specified system memory location, attaching an external process to the specified system memory location in response to experiencing a system halt event, sending the information stored in the specified system memory location to a memory location associated with the external process, restarting the system in a recovery mode, retrieving the information from the external process, and using the retrieved information to restore the system to a state the system was in when the system halt event occurred. Other systems, methods, and computer program products are described in additional embodiments.

System halt event recovery

A controller-implemented method, according to one embodiment, includes: receiving, by a first controller, data. Metadata associated with the data is stored, by the first controller, in a specified system memory location. Second metadata received from a second controller is also stored, by the first controller, in the specified system memory location, thereby creating combined metadata. In response to the second controller entering a failed state: snapshots of the combined metadata are stored, by the first controller, to resilient storage at a predefined interval. Moreover, additional data continues to be received by the first controller. Metadata associated with the additional data is stored, by the first controller, in the specified system memory location, while changes to the metadata which occur between the snapshots of the combined metadata are also stored by the first controller. According to some approaches, the changes to the metadata are stored in a log structured array.

Method for the implementation of a high performance, high resiliency and high availability dual controller storage system

A processor initiates an execution of a network driver in a first node comprising a master node of a plurality of nodes in a switchless network. The network driver configures the plurality of nodes and service level in the switchless network by transmitting management datagrams from the master node, wherein the management datagrams include an attribute that allows the management datagrams to be propagated among the plurality of nodes of the switchless network without being terminated at host channel adapters of the plurality of nodes.

Configuration mechanisms in a switchless network

Provided are a method, a system, and a computer program product in which a switchless network is maintained. A processor discovers a plurality of nodes in the switchless network by requesting and receiving port information and node information in association with an attribute that allows datagrams to be propagated among the plurality of nodes of the switchless network without being terminated at host channel adapters of the plurality of nodes.

Node discovery mechanisms in a switchless network

ID management for a network attached storage system using layered ID mapping virtualization. When a connection request is received at a NAS server, it is determined whether the request is for a new user, and if so, user IDs are created for the new user. External user ID and filesystem user ID are mapped to the internal user ID, and user ID is verified at the NAS server kernel on subsequent logins with an external database. The user IDs are remapped for the changed user account, and updated mappings are transmitted from the NAS server to one or more NAS server kernel repositories.

ID management for a network attached storage system

In an example computer-implemented method, a dataset and a query including an expression to be matched to the dataset is received via a processor. A false positive rate (FPR) and a false negative rate (FNR) is calculated via the processor for each possible value assignment of a plurality of possible value assignments in response to detecting a missing value in the dataset. A value assignment is selected, via the processor, from the plurality of possible value assignments based on the FPR and the FNR. A response to the query is generated via the processor based on the selected value assignment.

Generating responses to queries based on selected value assignments

A plurality of nodes are maintained in a switchless network, wherein each of the plurality of nodes has at least one host channel adapter for communication. A management datagram that indicates source to destination routes for communication in the plurality of nodes is provided. An attribute is configured in the management datagram to allow the management datagram to be propagated among the plurality of nodes of the switchless network without being terminated at host channel adapters.

Method, system, and computer program product for configuring an attribute for propagating management datagrams in a switchless network

Improving storage device efficiency during data replication. An asynchronous data replication process is initiated between a source computer and a target computer over a network. Performance of the target computer and a storage device of the target computer is monitored. At least one portion of data stored on the source computer is identified for the data replication, wherein the at least one portion of the data is organized in a data block. Whether to modify a size of the data block is determined, based on the monitored performance of the target computer. Responsive to determining to modify the size of the data block, based on the monitored performance of the target computer, the size of the data block is modified.

Storage device efficiency during data replication

Methods, computing systems and computer program products implement embodiments of the present invention that include detecting, on a communications network in a computing facility including a first computer coupled to a second computer via the communications network, an input/output (I/O) request conveyed from the first computer to the second computer. Subsequent to detecting the I/O request, data traffic resulting from the second computer processing the I/O request is identified on the communications network, and network statistics are collected based on the I/O request and the data traffic. Upon detecting a performance degradation of the computing facility, the performance degradation greater than a predetermined amount, heuristics can be applied to the collected network statistics, to identify a cause of the performance degradation and to identify a remedy to the detected performance degradation. In some embodiments, the identified cause and the identified remedy can be presented to a user on a display.

Data traffic monitoring tool

A computer program product, system, and method are provided for upgrading a kernel or kernel module with a configured persistent memory. A persistent memory space is configured in the memory to store application data from applications in user mode. A kernel executing in the memory is prevented from accessing the persistent memory space. A service is called to load an updated kernel in the memory to replace the kernel, wherein the applications have access to the persistent memory space after the updated kernel is loaded. The service may comprise a kernel execution mechanism that directly loads the updated kernel into the memory without a full reboot of the computer system. An extended memory kernel service may be loaded during a boot operation to reserve the persistent memory space as an extended memory space for use by the applications and prevent the kernel from accessing the persistent memory space.

Upgrading a kernel or kernel module with a configured persistent memory unused by the kernel

Methods, computing systems and computer program products implement embodiments of the present invention that include defining a plurality of failure domains for sets of storage devices in a storage facility, and defining, using the failure domains, one or more limitations for distributing data on the storage devices. Upon identifying a data distribution configuration for a software defined storage system that is compliant with the one or more limitations, the identified data distribution configuration can be presented to a user. The failure domains may include physical failure domains, logical failure domains, or a combination of physical and logical failure domains, and the limitations may include mandatory limitations or a combination of mandatory and non-mandatory limitations. In embodiments including non-mandatory limitations, the data distribution configuration may not comply with all the non-mandatory limitations, and any non-mandatory limitations that are not met can be flagged and presented to the user.

User-defined failure domains for software-defined storage systems

Communication of a node is maintained in a switchless network via point-to-point connections of a plurality of nodes having a plurality of ports. Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) announces are performed, via a virtual network device of the node, periodically or in response to an occurrence of a change in the node, for communications among the plurality of nodes in the switchless network.

Method, system, and computer program product for a network device in switchless networks

Methods, computing systems and computer program products implement embodiments of the present invention that include defining multiple group names, and identifying multiple system objects in a computer system such as a storage system. Examples of system objects include physical objects such as storage devices, network objects such as IP addresses, and logical objects such as logical volumes. Each of the system devices is tagged with a given group name, and upon receiving a query including a condition and an operation, one or more of the system devices matching the condition are identified, and the operation is performed on the one or more identified system objects. In some embodiments, the operation may include retrieving a parameter associated with the one or more identified system objects, and presenting a result of the query. In alternative embodiments, the operation may include updating a parameter associated with the one or more identified system objects.

Growing community of inventors

Jerusalem, Israel

Lior Chen