International Business Machines Corporation

Ofer Leneman

Shay Haim Akirav

Tzafrir Z Taub

Aviv Caro

Elena Drobchenko

Dov N Hepner

Gil E Paz

Yariv Bachar

Itay Maoz

Lior Aronovich

Evgeny Budilovsky

Aharon Lazar

Michael Keller

Michael Hirsch

Shira Ben-Dor

Daniel Gan-Levi

Asaf Ekshtein

Asaf Levy

Ronen Gazit

Ron Asher

Lior Chen

Moshe Weiss

Osnat Shasha

Ehood Garmiza

Dan Melamed

Liran Loya

Ariel J Ish-Shalom

Samuel Krikler

Deborah A Messing

Uri Shmueli

Yoni Raveh

Lior Shlomov

Gal Sinay

Ariel Waizel

Rivka Mayraz Matosevich

Sergey Marenkov

Yosef Shatsky

Asaf Porat-Stoler

Amit Margalit

Ovad Somech

Dan Ben-Yaacov

Shiri Alexander

Neville Yates

Kobi Beifus

Tamar Shacked

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

Embodiments for reducing rebuild time in a computing storage environment in by a processor. One or more disk drive failures in a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID)-may be rebuilt by holding at least three parity strips per stripe while using one or more of the at least three parity strips according the one or more disk drive failures.

Reducing rebuild time in a computing storage environment

Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for generating a configuration page for rendering in a graphical user interface (GUI) for managing provisioning of storage resources in a storage system. A determination is made of allocation commitment certainties for virtual storage ranges to allocate from the storage system based on physical capacity in the storage system and an estimated data reduction rate. Each of the allocation commitment certainties indicates a likelihood that a corresponding of the virtual storage ranges will be available for allocation in the storage system. Visual representation of a plurality of user selectable storage spaces indicating the allocation commitment certainties for the virtual storage ranges in the user selectable storage spaces are rendered in the configuration page. A user selection graphic that when selected provisions a selected of the user selectable storage spaces in the storage system is rendered in the configuration page.

Generating a configuration page for rendering in a graphical user interface (GUI) for managing provisioning of storage resources in a storage system

Provided are a computer program product, computer system, and method for smart selection of a storage module to be excluded when a connection between two storage modules is broken. An indication is received from a first storage module that a connection between the first storage module and a second storage module is broken. In response to determining that the second storage module is accessible, values of exclusion criteria for the first storage module are determined and summed to identify a first exclusion total. Then, values of exclusion criteria for the second storage module are determined and summed to identify a second exclusion total. In response to determining that the first exclusion total exceeds the second exclusion total, the second storage node is excluded from the cluster. In response to determining that the second exclusion total exceeds the first exclusion total, the first storage node is excluded from the cluster.

Smart selection of a storage module to be excluded

A computer-implemented method, according to one embodiment, includes: splitting received information between two controllers of a system in a normal operating mode, the received information including data and metadata; storing the metadata in resilient storage in response to a first of the controllers entering a failed state; updating the first controller with information received while the first controller was in the failed state, the first controller being updated in response to the first controller being repaired; and returning the system to the normal operating mode in response to the first controller being updated. Storing the metadata in resilient storage includes: saving snapshots of the metadata in the resilient storage, and saving changes to the metadata which occur between the snapshots. The changes to the metadata are saved in a log structured array. Moreover, the two controllers store the received information in a specified system memory location.

A mechanism is provided in a data processing system comprising a processor and a memory, the memory comprising instructions that are executed by the processor to specifically configure the processor to implement an initiator entity in a symmetric split-direction connection. The initiator entity generates a custom keepalive command and sends the custom keepalive command to a target entity via the symmetric split-direction connection. Responsive to the initiator entity determining a number of consecutive acknowledgement commands received in response to custom keepalive commands exceed a first threshold, the initiator entity reports the symmetric split-direction connection as sufficient. Responsive to the initiator entity determining a second number of consecutive keepalive commands sent without receiving an acknowledgement is greater than a second threshold, the initiator entity reports the symmetric split-direction connection as insufficient.

Symmetric connectivity over SCSI where the initiator and target are symmetric

Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for distributed global data vaulting in a grid of server computers. At each of the server computers, it is determined that there is a system shutdown. For each data element at that server computer, a list of one or more vault devices at other server computers is retrieved from a vault distribution table, and the data element is dumped to the one or more vault devices at the other server computers.

Distributed global data vaulting mechanism for grid based storage

Deduplicated data is packed in a self-contained deduplicated repository having unique data blocks with each being referenced by a globally unique identifier (GUID). The self-contained deduplicated repository has information regarding both deduplicated data files and the unique data blocks of each of the deduplicated data files and a master GUID list containing a location of each of the unique data blocks.

Packing deduplicated data in a self-contained deduplicated repository

For efficient calculation of both similarity search values and boundaries of digest blocks in data deduplication, input data is partitioned into chunks, and for each chunk a set of rolling hash values is calculated. A single linear scan of the rolling hash values is used to produce both similarity search values and boundaries of the digest blocks of the chunk. The rolling hash values are used to contribute to the calculation of the similarity search values and to the calculation of the boundaries of the digest blocks.

Efficient calculation of similarity search values and digest block boundaries for data deduplication

For digest retrieval based on similarity search in deduplication processing in a data deduplication system using a processor device in a computing environment, input data is partitioned into fixed sized data chunks. Similarity elements and digest block boundaries and digest values are calculated for each of the fixed sized data chunks. Matching similarity elements are searched for in a search structure containing the similarity elements for each of the fixed sized data chunks in a repository of data. Positions of similar data are located in the repository. The positions of the similar data are used to locate and load into the memory stored digest values and corresponding stored digest block boundaries of the similar data in the repository. The digest values and the corresponding digest block boundaries of the input data are matched with the stored digest values and the corresponding stored digest block boundaries to find data matches.

Digest retrieval based on similarity search in data deduplication

Subsequent to a storage operation performed on the source instance by a source component, a synchronization message is sent to a replicated component for the replicated instance. The synchronization message is stored locally in a persistent storage location associated with the source component along with an indicator representative of a time the storage operation was performed. Pursuant to receipt of the synchronization message by the replicated component, the replicated component is updated to a dirty state to indicate a lack of full synchronization between the source and replicated instances.

Synchronization of sequential access storage components with backup catalog

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Kfar Saba, Israel

Ofer Leneman