Hewlett-packard Company

Hewlett-packard Development Company, L.P.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP

Richard Arthur Bickers

Curtis C Ballard

Steven Maddocks

Scott Spivak

Alexandre Lenart

Simon Rae

Simon David Southwell

Robert P Hazel

In some examples, a controller for a storage system separate from a host system checks whether a storage cartridge in a storage system is associated with an indication set, in an electronic memory, during a configuration operation in the storage system to indicate write protection is enabled for the storage cartridge. In response to determining that the storage cartridge is associated with the indication, the controller triggers the write protection for the storage cartridge to prevent writing of data to the storage cartridge if the storage cartridge already contains previously written data.

Write protection for storage cartridges

A system includes a utilization calculation module, a performance calculation module, an input module and an output module. The input module to receive a user-selection of tape drives and time ranges over which to calculate utilization data and calculate performance data. The utilization module to calculate utilization data of the selected tape drives over the selected time ranges. The performance module to calculate performance data of the selected tape drives over the selected time ranges. The output module to generate single data points representing output of utilization data and performance data of the respective selected tape drives, and to analyze the data points to determine whether to highlight the data points in a first user-definable display region representing higher utilization and performance tape drives relative to data points in a second user-definable display region representing lower utilization and performance tape drives.

System and method for displaying tape drive utilization and performance data

Storage systems and methods for distributed support ticket processing are disclosed. An exemplary method may include accessing at least one storage device in a storage system by an interface manager to retrieve raw support ticket data from the at least one storage device. The method may also include analyzing the raw support ticket data at the interface manager to generate a support ticket for the storage system. The method may also include decoding the support ticket to an intermediate format at a management station. The method may also include presenting the converted support ticket to a user at the management station.

Storage systems and methods for distributed support ticket processing

A method of centralized data position information storage comprising the steps of arranging a byte stream of data into partitioned logical data, providing an updateable centralized storage area being operable to store data position information relating to the logical data, utilizing the information to locate a target data and storing the data position information in the storage area using a first algorithm applied to the target data to update the storage area with target data position information and using a second algorithm applied to a non-target data to update the storage area with non-target data position information such that data position information is accumulated in the centralized storage area when a target data is located and accessed.

Updateable centralized data position information storage system

In a tape drive used for storing computer data, both record boundary data and data separation commands, such as Write File Mark commands, are encoded with codewords to form a continuous, encoded data stream. In such a tape drive, a tape drive interface receives the record data and data separation commands and, transmits the record data to a tape drive formatter to encode the record data into a continuous encoded data stream and signals the formatter when data separation commands are received. In response to signals from the tape drive interface, the formatter generates control codewords and embeds them into the continuous encoded data stream, and the data stream is stored in a buffer.

Method of and apparatus for arranging data received in a data transfer from a data source

In a tape drive, a host interface receives from a host computer host data to be compressed and stored to tape. The host interface and also receives commands to create appendable points in the resulting compressed data stream. A data formatter formats the received host data by encoding the data as codewords to form the compressed data stream, and co-operates with the host interface by inserting into the compressed data stream special flush codewords at the requested appendable points. The formatter is also provided with the ability to insert flush codewords at positions determined by the host interface itself. The codeword that follows a flush codeword is located at a pre-determined position relative to and after the flush codeword. Thus, appendable points are locatable by their respective flush codewords in the compressed data stream.

Generating appendable points in encoded data

The present invention provides methods and apparatus for locating target positions within an encoded data stream, where the encoded data stream incorporates special, reserved codewords to represent host data structure information, such as file marks and record boundaries. The encoded data stream can also only be read or decoded in the forwards direction. Incorporation of the special codewords obviates an index associated with the encoded data to support navigation within the encoded data stream. The methods and apparatus locate target positions by decoding the data until the target position is encountered, and provide mechanisms to enable location of target positions that are specified as being backwards, relative to a current position in the encoded data stream.

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Bristol, United Kingdom

Richard Arthur Bickers