Dell Products Inc.

International Business Machines Corporation

Dell Inc.

Stephen Gouze Luning

William Price Dawkins

Fahd Pirzada

Gaurav Chawla

Yuan-Chang Lo

Ahmad Hassan Tawil

Karl David Schubert

David T Wang

Kevin Thomas Marks

Gary Scott Delp

Gary Benedict Kotzur

Ian David Judd

Howard Thomas Olnowich

Farzad Khosrowpour

Rohit K Chawla

Christopher S Murray

William Russell Belknap

Jeffrey James Lynch

Donald J Lang

Forrest Lee Wade

Kenneth Dale Aaker

Paul W Hunter

Ashok Raj Saxena

Alan Ray Merrell

Buddy F Stansbury

Seth Feder

James W Eldridge

Everett T Eiselen

Gerald I Findley

John R Disbrow

Brandt C Centerwall

Larry William Fitchett

William Price Dawkins, Jr

Tai-Lin Chang

Robert L Berry

Louise Irene Cleary

Buddy Floyd Stansbury

Systems and methods for improving storage efficiency in an information handling system are provided. In some embodiments, an information handling system including an increased storage efficiency is provided. The information handling system may include a processor associated with a first storage resource and a plurality of second storage resources, where the first storage resource is more reliable than the plurality of second storage resources. The processor may be configured to determine a weight of a file portion, determine a number of copies of the file portion to be stored based at least on the determined weight, and store a copy of the file portion on the first storage resource if the determined number of copies of the file portion is greater than a predetermined storage threshold.

Systems and methods for improving storage efficiency in an information handling system

A method for assigning data in a plurality of physical storage resources for an information handling system is disclosed. The plurality of physical storage resources includes a first tier and a second tier with a lower performance and cost relative to capacity than the first tier. A tier manager hosted on the information handling system and in electronic communication with the plurality of physical storage resources is configured to: determine a seek distance value, operation rate, operation size value, and elapsed time value for each page; and calculate a relative randomness value for each page using the seek distance value, operation rate, operation size value, and elapsed time value determined for each page. A classification module may assign a physical location for each page such that the relative randomness value for each page in the first tier is greater than the relative randomness value for each page in the second tier.

Method for distributing random and sequential data in a tiered storage system

An information handling system includes first and second memories, and first, second, and third servers. The first server includes a first active application for servicing first input/output requests associated with a first disk, and for storing first state information in the first memory. The second server includes a second active application for servicing second input/output requests associated with a second disk, and for storing second state information in the second memory. The third server includes first and second standby applications, and is configured to monitor the first and second active applications, to detect a failure of the first active application, to suspend the second standby application and to activate the first standby application in response to the failure of first active application.

System and method for providing failover between controllers in a storage array

A method for managing the storage of a client workload is disclosed. A storage management system is provided. The storage management system is operable to communicatively connect to a remote client computing device via a network. The storage management system includes a block-based storage medium, a file-based storage medium, and an object-based storage medium. A virtual image, which is associated with a remote client computing device, is stored. Elements of the virtual image are allocated across one or more of the block-based storage medium, the file-based storage medium, and the object-based storage medium, where the allocation depends on a characterization of the elements.

Systems and methods for managing storage for client workloads

A storage device procurement system for managing storage failure and full warnings and conditions to minimize a need for storage device inventory. Such a system minimizes a need for storage system administrators to be knowledgeable with procurement options and procedures. Such a system provides for an end-to-end automated storage device procurement system by combining elements of a direct order model with elements of storage array monitoring.

Storage device procurement system

Systems and methods for appending metadata to objects are disclosed. A method may include in response to an indication to add new metadata to an existing immutable data object stored at a first location on a storage resource: (a) writing a new data object to a second location on the storage resource, the new data object including the new metadata; (b) aliasing a first unique identifier associated with the existing immutable data object to a second unique identifier associated with the new data object; and (c) associating the second unique identifier to the second location.

System and method for appending metadata to objects

This disclosure provides a method for assigning data in an information handling system including a plurality of physical storage resources comprising a first tier and a second tier which has a lower performance and cost relative to capacity than the first tier. A tier manager may be hosted on the information handling system and in electronic communication with the plurality physical storage resources. The tier manager may, for each page: determine a seek distance value, determine an operation rate, determine an operation size value, determine an elapsed time value, and calculate a relative randomness value using the seek distance value, operation rate, operation size value, and elapsed time value determined for each page. A classification module may assign a physical location for each page such that the relative randomness value for each page in the first tier is greater than in the second tier.

System and method for distributing random and sequential data in a tiered storage system

An information handling system (IHS) is provided in the context of providing a desktop image. The IHS may include a storage device and a client device. The IHS may also include a management server configured to establish communication between the storage device and the client device. In addition, the client device may be configured to boot directly from the storage device and wherein the data communication occurs only between the storage device and the client device.

Systems and methods for providing a desktop image to an information handling system

Systems and methods for providing data integrity for stored data are disclosed. A method for providing access to a remote shared image may include receiving from a first provisioning server a request to create a write space for a client communicatively coupled to the first provisioning server. The message may further include creating a partition on a first logical unit disposed in a storage array, the first logical unit communicatively coupled to the first provisioning server and associated with the client. The method may additionally include storing a thin clone of a shared image on the partition, the shared image common to the client and at least one other client and stored on a second logical unit, the thin clone comprising a write space for data specific to the client.

System and method for providing access to a shared system image

An information management system is disclosed and includes a bootstrap server and at least one additional component. Further, the system includes an animated installation manual file stored within the bootstrap server. The animated installation manual is configured to be presented to a user upon an initial boot of the bootstrap server. Additionally, the animated installation manual can be automatically generated based on configuration information received from the user.

System and method of automatically generating animated installation manuals

A system for a host-based RAID solution in a shared storage environment is provided in which the compute blades of a system are coupled to one or multiple concentrators. The concentrators serve as a switch or expander to couple each of the compute blades to a shared storage resource. Within the shared storage resource, a set of drives is configured in a RAID array. The shared disk drives are partitioned so that each partition is dedicated to one of the compute blades of the system. Multiple sets of drives may be used so that the collective set of drives can be configured as part of a RAID volume that includes mirroring between at least two of the drives of the RAID volume, such as RAID 1 or RAID 0+1, in which each set of drives is a mirror of the other set of drives and the content associated with each of the compute blades is striped across multiple drives in each of the two sets of drives.

Method for host bus adapter-based storage partitioning and mapping across shared physical drives

An intermediate system, such as a switch or storage domain manager, in a storage area network includes a plurality of clients, a file server which manages access to storage according to a file system architecture using file system parameters, and one or more storage systems. Processing resources are included in the intermediate system, which manage communication according to a storage area network protocol, such as SCSI and variations like FCP, which identifies units of storage according to storage area network parameters. The processing resources farther include logic to identify a particular message received from one of the plurality of clients under the storage area network protocol as a message relating to the file system architecture, to parse the particular message for file system parameters of an access according to the file system architecture, and to translate the file system parameters to an access using storage area network parameters. The access is then carried out in the storage area network between the client and the storage, using the such storage area network parameters. The translation of file system parameters to storage area network parameters is confined to the intermediate system, in one preferred embodiment enhancing security and efficiency of the file system transactions.

Architecture for access to embedded files using a SAN intermediate device

A method for masking logical storage devices from a host on a storage area network and a storage controller and storage system for using such a method are disclosed. The method includes receiving instructions for associating a subset of a plurality of logical storage devices with a particular host. A request from the particular host is received. The request includes a request for identification of available logical storage devices. The request is responded to by identifying the subset of logical storage devices as available.

Method for storage device masking in a storage area network and storage controller and storage subsystem for using such a method

The present disclosure describes a system and method of performing failover in a storage area network. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, a computer network includes a host and a storage system associated with the host. The storage system has a first controller with a first port and a second controller with a second port. The first controller is assigned a common node name and the first port is assigned a first port name. The second controller is assigned a common node name and the second port is assigned a second port name. More specifically a multipathing driver is operable to determine a signal path for a communication sent to a storage device associated with the first controller and the second controller and operable to perform failover operations if the signal path fails.

Growing community of inventors

Austin, TX, United States of America

Stephen Gouze Luning