Emc Corporation

Timmins Software Corporation

Paul Timmins

Christopher Chaulk

Anuradha Shivnath

Serge Marokhovsky

Xiaohua Cheng

Udi Bar-On

Karl Martin Connolly

Viren Pherwani

Mark Kincaid

Xiaosu Wu

Philip N Burt

Mark Clement

A chargeback management station obtains data records including asset information pertaining to storage assets in a data storage system and utilization information pertaining to the use of the storage assets by the users, wherein the storage assets include redundant storage assets and internal and external storage assets. The data records further include grouping information reflecting a grouping of the storage assets and the users into charge-related groups. The asset and utilization information is selectively aggregated according to the grouping to obtain respective asset and utilization values for raw capacities, usable capacities, and the internal and external storage assets. The asset and utilization values are displayed in corresponding information fields of a graphical user interface that is presented to a system operator and that reflects the charge-related grouping of the storage assets and the users. The system operator can specify the layout for the charge reports displayed on the graphical interface by using a table screen, a graph screen, and a filter screen.

System and method for generating charge information for users of a data storage system

An information technology (IT) system of interest is analyzed using collaborative, community-based sharing of expert knowledge, analysis and advice through user-submitted analysis rules and/or user-submitted report templates. Users may submit rules that have been found to be useful in analyzing or managing IT systems. A rule may analyze a particular item of configuration data or performance data according to a predetermined criterion. Other users may apply these rules to their own systems' data and, thereby, utilize the collective expertise of the people who submitted the rules. Performance and configuration data from IT systems or components of the systems in various enterprises is collected and then sanitized by removing or masking identifying information before storing the sanitized data in a data warehouse. An IT manager may compare data from his/her IT system to historical data from the system or to data from IT systems having similar workloads, configurations, problems or according to other matching criteria, without obtaining confidential information about the comparison systems. Such comparisons may use the user-submitted rules. Reports are generated from these analyses and comparisons according to predefined and/or user-submitted report templates and report component templates for items such as text blocks, tables, graphs, charts and block diagrams.

Analyzing information technology systems using collaborative intelligence data anonimity

A system produces a storage area network resource management report view by obtaining at least one report definition containing report parameters that specify a report layout for presentation of data in the graphical user interface. The system receives a report request to view data in a report view and obtains a data set corresponding to the report request. The data set includes data values to be presented as the data in the graphical user interface. The system applies the data values in the data set to the corresponding report parameters in the at least one report definition to populate the report layout specified by the at least one report definition to dynamically generate at least one report view. The system provides the at least one report view for rendering in the graphical user interface. The system also provides the ability to create custom report views without requiring programming language skills.

Method and apparatus for generating report views

A storage area network uniform integrated backup reporting and verification mechanism displays backup reporting information at an enterprise level while showing uniformity among heterogeneous backup applications of different vendors. The backup management application coalesces data from different backup applications by scanning status data from backup applications, and identifying data corresponding to common output fields. Further storage array specific aspects, information, or commands are attainable via the linkages to the native backup applications specific to the individual storage arrays. The backup management application provides uniform reporting and verification of satisfactory backup completion across the SAN, or otherwise pinpoints and clarifies problems or other anomalies associated with the backup. Further, filtering and focused report layouts allow customization and refinement of the output data providing a multitude of integrated report formats to facilitate operations including troubleshooting, charge back and service provisioning.

System and methods for managing backup status reports

A storage area network (SAN) management application generates device allocation reports displaying foundation variables, device specific parameters, and computed, derived fields for different types of storage arrays, without burdening the allocation report with extraneous parameters through the use of a layout indicative of the information included on the report, providing a streamlined and seamless allocation report. The SAN management application defines a layout indicative of the foundation variables, device attributes, and derived fields requested in an allocation report. The user selected layout indicates the requested allocation parameters for a report, indicative of the foundation variable, device attributes, and derived fields, and also indicates the device usage metrics for computing the derived fields from the foundation variables and device attributes. In this manner, a SAN operator requests an allocation report indicative of only the information sought, and need not correlate multiple reports or manually synthesize report output for determining derived fields.

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Natick, MA, United States of America

Paul Timmins