Dell Products Inc.

Emc IP Holding Company LLC

Owen Crowley

Peniel Charles

Joseph G Kanjirathinkal

Manikandan Sethuraman

Arieh Don

Vinay G Rao

Erik P Smith

Scott Rowlands

Sanjib Mallick

Amit Pundalik Anchi

Gopinath Marappan

Venkata Adireddy Padala

Pramod Kumar Puthanveettil Kurungodan

Venkatesh Dn

Dambarudhar Jani

Pawel Wasylyszyn

The present disclosure relates to establishing a tightly coupled integration between a decentralized blockchain network and a centralized storage array. In embodiments, a first set of storage operations on a snapshot of a storage array are performed. Further, data blocks generated from the snapshot are broadcast to at least one computing network for the at least one computing network's nodes to perform a second set of storage operations.

Blockchain-enabled storage array

A method, comprising: selecting an HBA entity that is currently turned on and which is part of a host device, the host device being coupled to a storage array, the host device being configured to read and write data to the storage array; identifying an identifier of the HBA entity; identifying, based on the identifier, a switch that is coupled to the HBA entity via a communications path; identifying one or more other communications paths that span between the host device and the switch; detecting whether a redundancy policy would be violated if the HBA entity were to be turned off, the redundancy policy including at least one rule that specifies a minimum number of active paths that must be present between the host device and the switch at any given time; turning off the HBA entity in response to detecting that the redundancy policy would not be violated.

Improving data center sustainability through dynamic inclusion and elimination of paths

Multipathing software in an IO path on a host implements DIF processing (MPIO DIF) to enable data integrity verification to be implemented between the host and a storage array. The multipathing software uses control signaling to identify a set of applications that have data integrity verification implemented using MPIO DIF. For application write IO operations, the multipathing software adds an 8-byte extended sector defined by DIF, to enable data integrity verification to be implemented by the storage array when the write IO is received at the storage array front-end. For application read IO operations, the storage array receives the read IO operation, determines that the read IO operation is from an MPIO DIF application, and the storage array adds an 8-byte extended sector defined by DIF, to enable data integrity verification to be implemented by the multipathing software when the read IO is received from the storage array.

Enabling data integrity verification with multipathing software and storage array microcode

An aspect of the present disclosure relates to using at least one service-level objective (SLO) to control data communications between two or more devices over a network. In embodiments, a notification is received by a source device. The notification can include status information of at least one of a plurality of communication paths between the source device and a target device. A communications control technique can be performed based on the indicated status. The communications control technique can include prioritizing one or more data packets based on a data payload corresponding to each packet. The technique can also include controlling the transmission of one or more data packets based on each data packet's priority.

Controlling storage arraydata transmissions

An apparatus includes at least one processing device configured to identify one or more logical storage devices each accessible in at least first and second storage systems, to detect one or more input-output (IO) operations associated with an offload application programming interface (API) of at least one of the first and second storage systems, to clone each such detected IO operation, and to send resulting respective first and second instances of each cloned IO operation to respective ones of the first and second storage systems. The first and second instances of each cloned IO operation are tagged prior to being sent to respective ones of the first and second storage systems so as to allow each of the first and second storage systems to separately determine that the other one of the first and second storage systems has been sent a corresponding instance of the cloned IO operation.

Host device configured for efficient delivery of offload API commands to multiple storage systems

A method comprises receiving at one or more cloud storage nodes a data block to be validated in connection with adding the data block to a digital ledger. The data block is received from a party storage node corresponding to a party of a plurality of parties that are members of a blockchain computing environment. The party storage node executes a first portion of a validation operation for the data block. The one or more cloud storage nodes execute a second portion of the validation operation for the data block. In the method, the data block is added to the digital ledger responsive to validating the data block, and at least a portion of the digital ledger is stored in the one or more cloud storage nodes.

Storage systems to perform data validation in blockchains

One or more aspects of the present disclosure relate to dynamically selecting a storage array and corresponding input/output (IO) paths between a host and the storage array. In embodiments, a virtual storage volume (VSV) can be established for a host entity using one or more storage device portions from a plurality of storage arrays. In addition, IO servicing metric parameters can be dynamically measured. For example, the servicing metric parameters can define metrics corresponding to the VSV's assigned ports on each storage array or network latency between the host and each storage array. Further, a primary storage array from the plurality of storage arrays can be selected based on the IO servicing metrics.

Array resource based input/output (IO) path selection in a distributed services environment

The condition of SFP transceivers of RDF port pairs is monitored and used to project port pair data transmission rate degradation. Responsive to receipt of a command to migrate data from a source volume to a target volume, ability of port pairs to accommodate the additional load associated with data migration is calculated based on projected data transmission rate and normal load. Only port pairs that are capable of accommodating the additional load in view of the condition of the SFP transceivers are considered as candidates. Utilization of the source volume is monitored and the target volume is created with a size based on projected growth of utilization of the source volume.

Using predictive analytics on SFP metrics to influence the target port selection process

A management appliance communicates with host servers and a storage array to determine per-path loading. Based on the loading, the management appliance selects a host server with an uncredentialed path for reconfiguration. Unique endpoint authentication credentials are sent from the management appliance to the selected host server and the storage array. The uncredentialed path is placed in standby mode and the selected host server and the storage array are updated with the unique endpoint authentication credentials, which are then used to reactivate the path with endpoint authentication. Tight coupling between the MPIO software management appliance, storage array, and MPIO drivers on the host servers enables reconfiguration to be automated and based on host server loading, storage array loading, and loading of uncredentialed paths.

Automated non-disruptive migration of hosts to an authenticated storage array connection

Techniques are provided for path management and failure prediction in a multipath environment using target port power levels. One method comprises obtaining, by a first entity that communicates with a second entity via multiple paths, a transmit power level and/or a receive power level of a target port associated with the second entity; evaluating the transmit power level and/or the receive power level of the target port relative to a threshold; and setting, by the first entity, a path state of one or more paths between the first entity and the target port to a standby state based on the evaluating, wherein the first entity establishes paths between the first entity and one or more other target ports of the second entity in an active state. Existing communications on the one or more paths between the first entity and the target port may be allowed to complete in the standby state.

Path management and failure prediction using target port power levels

Multipath hosts with the ability to detect path latency, report latency values on paths between the Latency Detecting (LD) host and a set of storage systems. The detected latency values are used by the storage system to create a data structure correlating path information with the detected latency values. When hosts without the ability to detect path latencies (non-LD hosts) connect to the storage systems, the path information about paths used by the non-LD hosts is used to determine reported latency values for paths with similar path information, to generate presumed latency values for the paths used by the non-LD hosts. Where paths used by non-LD hosts have higher latency values, the storage system sets a path attribute value, such as an ALUA state for the path, to signal non-LD hosts to preferentially use paths with lower presumed latency values.

Optimized path selection by non-latency detecting multipath hosts

An apparatus comprises at least one processing device that is configured to control delivery of input-output operations from a host device to a storage system over selected ones of a plurality of paths through a network. The at least one processing device is further configured to detect a reduction in performance of one or more of the input-output operations over one or more paths of the plurality of paths, to identify a physical initiator component corresponding to the one or more paths, and to notify the storage system about the reduction in performance and the identified physical initiator component. The at least one processing device is also configured to receive a notification from the storage system indicating one or more virtual initiator instances of a plurality of virtual initiator instances corresponding to the identified physical initiator component, and to deactivate the one or more virtual initiator instances.

Host bus adaptor (HBA) virtualization awareness for effective input-output load balancing

A layered-infrastructure blockchain-based system for software license distribution includes a distributed cloud of blockchain full nodes. Each blockchain full node contains a blockchain data structure on which a complete set of license key transactions are recorded. The layered-infrastructure also includes a plurality of storage systems. Each respective storage system contains a blockchain light data structure on which only a subset of license key transactions associated with that respective storage system are recorded. A plurality of hosts connect to the plurality of storage systems. As the hosts connect to the storage systems, license key transactions are generated, such that the license key transactions that are recorded in the blockchain-based system for software license distribution are associated with the connection events between the plurality of hosts and the plurality of storage systems.

Layered-infrastructure blockchain-based system for software license distribution

Switch topology-aware path selection in an information processing system is provided. For example, an apparatus comprises a host device comprising a processor coupled to a memory. The host device is configured to communicate with a storage system over a network with a plurality of switches. The host device is further configured to obtain topology information associated with the plurality of switches in the network, and select a path from the host device to the storage system through one or more of the plurality of switches based at least in part on the obtained topology information.

Input-output path selection using switch topology information

A storage system may manage I/O communications between the storage system and other components on a storage network based on the state information of transceivers (e.g., SFPs) along I/O paths between the storage system and other network components. A storage system may send one or more queries to a switch of a data storage network. The query may request the state information of transceivers within any port on any I/O path through the switch between the storage system and another component on the storage network, for example, a host system or another storage system. The storage system may receive the requested transceiver state information in one or more responses, and manage I/O communications between the storage system and the other network component based on the received transceiver state information. The received state information may include, for each transceiver, an RX power level and/or a TX Power level for the transceiver.

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Carrigaline, Ireland

Owen Crowley