Network Appliance, Inc.

Emc IP Holding Company LLC

Netapp, Inc.

Emc Corporation

Other

Robert L Fair

Eric C Hamilton

John K Edwards

Ashish Prakash

Jeffrey S Kimmel

Shobhan Chinnam

Robert M English

Imran Khan

Thomas R Vanderputten

Hendrik Tanto

Joseph C Pittman

Naveen Bali

Darrell Gene Suggs

Rebecca S Beaman

Karunakara Rao Seelam

Alan Rowe

Donna Barry Lewis

Joydeep Sen Sarma

Pranay Singh

William McGovern

John A Scott

Matti Antero Vanninen

Samuel Mullis

Peter Griess

Thomas Holland

Grace Ho

Himanshu Aggarwal

Jerrold Heyman

Benjamin Whetstone

Katrina M Heiles

Robert Fulk

Matt Fair

Michael Hacker

Jason Sylvain

One example method includes connecting to a fileserver of a data protection system, initiating, at a client, an operation that is associated with a master pseudofs of the fileserver, creating, at the client, a client-specific pseudofs based upon the master pseudofs, and the client-specific pseudofs includes only those nodes of the master pseudofs that the client is authorized to access, and performing the operation using the client-specific pseudofs.

Method for dynamic pseudofs creation and management in a network filesystem

One example method includes transmitting, from a client, a remote procedure call (RPC) to a fileserver of a data protection system, the RPC including information identifying an export, then receiving, at the client, node information concerning the export, and the node information concerns a master pseudofs of the fileserver. Finally, the example method includes creating, at the client, a sparse client-specific pseudofs that is based on the node information received from the fileserver, and the sparse client-specific pseudofs includes fewer than all the master pseudofs nodes that the client is authorized to access.

Sparse creation of per-client pseudofs in network filesystem with lookup hinting

The present disclosure describes a technique for performing an efficient deduplication of compressed source data. The techniques may reduce the required storage footprint required for deduplication of compressed data. In order to reduce the storage size required, the system may perform additional decompression/recompression processes by identifying particular compression algorithms used by a source storage system. Once the compression algorithm is identified, the system may initiate decompression and then perform fingerprint analysis of the segment in the file of the uncompressed data. When a recovery process is initiated, the system may recompress the deduplicated data using the same compression algorithm used by the source storage system. Accordingly, the data recovery process may be performed in manner in which the client device receives restored data as expected and in the original compression format.

Efficient deduplication of compressed files

Disclosed is a method, apparatus, and system for a method for implementing a mutual-exclusion semantic for target update, the method comprising: receiving a tagset update request for a tagset associated with an object, the tagset update request comprising one or more metadata tags to be updated; determining whether updating the tagset based on the received tagset update request would cause a value of any existing metadata tag in the tagset to change; and in response to determining that updating the tagset based on the received tagset update request would cause a value of at least one existing metadata tag in the tagset to change, rejecting the tagset update request.

Set-based mutual exclusion using object metadata tags in a storage appliance

Disclosed is a method, apparatus, and system for a method for enforcing namespace-specific semantics based on object operations, the method comprising: detecting an operation performed on an object of a data storage system in a namespace associated with the object; determining whether additional operations on a tagset associated with the object are mandated by one or more semantics that are specific to the namespace based on the operation, a persona of the object in the namespace, and the one or more semantics; and in response to determining that additional operations are mandated by the one or more semantics, performing the additional operations mandated by the one or more semantics on the tagset.

Generic metadata tags with namespace-specific semantics in a storage appliance

Embodiments are directed to a system and method of providing consistent metadata to storage appliance objects in a network, by: obtaining environmental information that is available to deduplication backup program accessing the storage appliance objects, the environmental information comprising application name, client name, and client IP address; identifying file systems objects created by the deduplication backup program; and using a client-side generic network mount for the deduplication backup system to automatically create extended metadata for each of the identified DDR filesystem objects created through the deduplication backup program.

Automatic creation of application-centric extended metadata for a storage appliance

Embodiments are described for systems and methods that facilitate dynamic configuration of NPIV virtual ports in a Fiber Channel network environment. SCSI target endpoints are virtualized through NPIV mapping mechanisms. The assignment of many virtual ports to one or more base ports through the NPIV mapping allows data storage systems to be reconfigured dynamically or on-the-fly while the system is up and running. This also allows movement of virtual ports among physical ports, or even among different systems in the network. In a highly available system, such as critical data recovery systems, the ability to migrate data on-the-fly by moving endpoints port-to-port or system-to-system greatly facilitates the ability for data to be maintained and protected in a non-disruptive manner.

Dynamic configuration of NPIV virtual ports in a fibre channel network

A method and system manages a virtual tape library history database. The method includes triggering an update of the virtual tape library history database in response to detecting a change related to a tape in a virtual tape library state table, where the update is asynchronous from processing of small computer system interface (SCSI) or command line interface (CLI) commands handled by a virtual tape library, and adding a record to a virtual tape history table in the virtual tape library history database, the virtual tape history table corresponding to the tape, where the record includes information about the change, where the virtual tape history table functions as a log of activity for the tape.

Technique for creating a history of tape movement in a virtual tape library

Embodiments are described for systems and methods of reconfiguring logical units (LUN) in a network of SCSI target endpoints by defining a first bitmap associated with each LUN of a plurality of LUNs in the network, wherein each bit of the first bitmap represents an endpoint utilizing a corresponding LUN so that a bit pattern of the first bitmap represents a first set of endpoints utilizing the corresponding LUN, applying a lock to block I/O operations to the plurality of LUNs, updating the first bitmap to generate a second bitmap representing a second set of endpoints utilizing the corresponding LUN, and releasing the lock to update a LUN to endpoint mapping for the plurality of LUNS and the endpoints in a single update operation.

Configuring logical unit number mapping for multiple SCSI target endpoints

Embodiments are described for systems and methods that transparently virtualize SCSI transport endpoints for management purposes between Fiber Channel base nodes and virtual nodes. An N_Port ID Virtualization mapping component maps multiple endpoints to a single physical port. The endpoints are abstract objects that have attributes can be moved around the system. This allows virtual port management (e.g., port migration, moving ports, removing ports, adding ports, etc.) to be performed on many virtual ports in a unified manner. This allows storage area network to be configured with virtual endpoints that span both base and virtual ports.

Transparent virtualization of SCSI transport endpoints between base and virtual fibre channel ports

Embodiments are described for systems and methods that facilitate control of virtual endpoint failover/failback operations in a SCSI target network environment. During failover, SCSI target virtual endpoints failover to a secondary SCSI target port when the primary port fails, and failback to the primary port when the primary port is corrected. Embodiments include a method of efficiently controlling failover and failback operations of virtual endpoints where such operations may have different operating characteristics and be asynchronously initiated, and a method of globally or selectively cancelling failover and failback operations based on multiple system and operating conditions.

Method for controlling failover and failback of virtual endpoints in a SCSI network

Embodiments are described for systems and methods that facilitates dynamic configuration of NPIV virtual ports in a Fiber Channel network. A defined failure detection method in conjunction with certain SCSI target endpoint and NPIV definitions and monitor component operations allows SCSI target virtual endpoints to be dynamically created, deleted and managed during data migration and endpoint disable/enable operations in a backup storage appliance without incurring disruption of other virtual endpoints on the same appliance.

Dynamic creation, deletion, and management of SCSI target virtual endpoints

Embodiments are described for systems and methods that facilitate control of virtual endpoint failover/failback during an administrative SCSI target port disable or enable operation. In this case, SCSI target virtual endpoints may failover to a secondary SCSI target port when the primary port fails. When the primary port is corrected and enabled by the administrator the failover method pulls virtual endpoints on secondary ports back to the primary port under administrator control; and if an administrator wishes to manually disable a SCSI target port the failover operation pushes (failover) all virtual endpoints currently using the port as a primary to a secondary port.

Controlling virtual endpoint failover during administrative SCSI target port disable/enable

A data storage system can automatically improve the layout of data blocks on a mass storage subsystem by collecting optimization information during both read and write activities, then processing the optimization information to limit the impact of optimization activities on the system's response to client requests. Processing read-path optimization information and write-path optimization information through shared rate-limiting logic simplifies system administration and promotes phased implementation, which can reduce the difficulty of developing a self-optimizing storage server.

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Cary, NC, United States of America

Robert L Fair