International Business Machines Corporation

Mary Catherine Burton

Amy Nicole Morris

Linda V Benhase

Shekhar Gajanan Kale

Ruthie D Lyle

Gregory E McBride

David Michael Shackelford

David Randall Blea

Kelly Malone

Sandra K Johnson

Fonda J Daniels

Dale Huber Anderson

David V Valverde

Linda Van Patten Benhase

Demethria J Ramseur

Maria Savarimuthu Rajakannimariyan

Amy Lynn Therrien

Paul Thomas Arellanes

Daiv Santos Barrios

LaTondra Alyce Murray

William S Liu

Douglas Dwaine Yakesch

Kaur Ramandeep

John E Wrobel

Elizabeth A Halliday-Reynolds

Jason Thomas Read

Provided are techniques for providing context-based user assistance. A request from a user for user assistance content for a first configurable element is received. One or more rules are retrieved for the first configurable element, wherein at least one of the rules describes a second configurable element that is related to the first configurable element. The one or more rules are used to identify context-based user assistance content for configuring at least one of the first configurable element and the second configurable element. The user assistance content is provided to the user.

Context-based user assistance

The invention automatically selects a copy function according to a policy associated with data to be copied. The apparatus comprises an identification module configured to identify available copy functions in response to a data copy request that includes a predefined copy policy, a comparison module configured to compare each copy function of a storage device to attributes of the predefined copy policy, a selection module configured to automatically select a copy function that satisfies the predefined copy policy, and a relationship module configured to establish a copy relationship between the determined copy function and the data copy request. A policy generation module may be included and configured to read a set of required attributes from an application and to establish the predefined copy policy based on the set of required attributes from the application.

System, apparatus, and method for automatic copy function selection

A computer-generated user interface for setting up source-target pairs of storage resources, and representing the status of copying activities of the pairs, in a disk storage server or other storage device. The interface () identifies each storage resource, such as volumes, in the storage device (), and one or more storage resources in the same or a different storage device () for which a copy relationship has been established. One or more status icons are displayed to provide information related to the copy relationship, such as whether copying is in progress, the type of copying, copying progree and the like. A task wizard interface () enables a user to designate desired copy relationships between storage resources. The user may select indicia associated with the resources to set up the copy relationships.

Representing status information in a storage subsystem copy services product

A method and system for autonomic relevancy building using information obtained from clients to improve customer support. Upon receiving a client request for product support information, product support information objects representing the requested product support information in an information library are identified. Relevant product support information corresponding to the identified relevant product support information objects are provided to the client. Data regarding whether or not the information provided to the client is relevant may be obtained from the client through implicit feedback (such as, system usage), explicit feedback (such as, user feedback), metadata information, or any combination thereof. Relevancy associations may be created between the product support information objects based on the relevancy data. Relevancy weights may also be assigned to each relevancy association based on the relevancy data, wherein the relevancy weights designate a certainty of each relevancy association.

Autonomic relevancy building

A user interface facilitates copying data between storage resources, such as servers. A user selects a source storage resource and a target storage resource. Available adapters are displayed through which a path can be established between the selected source and target storage resources. The user selects at least one of the available adapters to configure the path to copy data from the selected source storage resource to the selected target storage resource. The list of available adapters is dynamically updated so that only currently available adapters are displayed. The displayed adapters may be further limited to those that are compatible with a certain path type selected by the user, such as adapters used for a unidirectional or a bi-directional path.

User interface for representing logical path information and displaying available adapters in a storage subsystem

Disclosed are a method and system for pairing objects for the purpose of copying data. The method comprises the steps of selecting such pairs in a single view including graphical depictions of representations of storage resources, and implementing checks and alert messages regarding such pairings based on predefined rules. Preferably, these graphical depictions are side-by-side depictions in the single view of a logical configuration of the storage resources, and, for example, these depictions may be hierarchical trees. Preferably, users are able to select a single source and target volume and/or to select blocks of source and target volumes using familiar computer controls, and users may also confirm their selections before committing to them. These volumes may be in the same or different storage subsystems. In addition, some error checking and/or error handling, with an appropriate error message is preferably built into the tool of this invention.

Selecting and showing copy pairs in a storage subsystem copy services graphical user interface

Growing community of inventors

Tucson, AZ, United States of America

Mary Catherine Burton