Emc Corporation

Emc IP Holding Company LLC

Steven T McClure

Steven R Chalmer

Brett D Niver

Jerome Cartmell

Robert DeCrescenzo

David Reese

Preston F Crow

Serge Joseph Pirotte

Michael J Scharland

Jonathan I Krasner

Alesia Tringale

Richard Wheeler

Matthew H Fredette

Haim Kopylovitz

Robert S Mason, Jr

Uresh K Vahalia

Zhi-Gang Liu

Steve Chalmer

Susan C Nagy

Douglas Eric LeCrone

Adnan Sahin

Jason J Duquette

Eli Shagam

Hongliang Tang

Qun Fan

Michael Sgrosso

James Marriott Guyer

Jeffrey Kinne

John O'Shea

Preethi Natarajan

Velmurugan Rathnam

Mark J Halstead

John K Walton

Kendell Alan Chilton

Patrick Brian Riordan

John Forecast

Yechiel Yochai

Ofer Michael

Avinash Kallat

Stephen D MacArthur

Chakib Ouarraoui

Michael Bermingham

Julie Zhivich

James M McGillis

Kevin Granlund

Scott B Gordon

Animesh Singh

Clifford Lim

Louis Krigovski

Timothy Johnson

Matt Fredette

Lixin Pang

David L Scheffey

A method, computer program product, and computer system for receiving, by a computing device, an I/O request. It may be identified whether the I/O request is eligible for handling via a first path without also requiring handling via a second path. If the I/O request is eligible, the I/O request may be processed via the first path on a host I/O stack without processing the I/O request via the second path on a storage array I/O stack. If the I/O request is ineligible, the I/O request may be processed via the first path on the host.

System and method for accelerated I/O access using storage array driver in Off-the-shelf server

A method for processing data includes receiving an offload request by a first virtual machine (VM), issuing, in response to the offload request and based on a processing pipeline, a processing request to a processing unit, and servicing, by the processing unit, the processing request to obtain a result.

Method and system for processing data using a processing pipeline and processing units

A method, computer program product, and computer system for receiving, by a computing device, an I/O request. It may be identified whether the I/O request is eligible for handling via a first path without also requiring handling via a second path. If the I/O request is eligible, the I/O request may be processed via the first path on a host I/O stack without processing the I/O request via the second path on a storage array I/O stack. If the I/O request is ineligible, the I/O request may be processed via the first path on the host I/O stack and via the second path on the storage array I/O stack.

System and method for accelerated I/O access using storage array driver in off-the-shelf server

A high performance logical device having low latency may be provided. I/Os to the logical device may be sent only to a primary director having sole ownership of the logical device. The primary director may perform operations locally for the logical device. Such operations may include allocating global memory for use with the logical device from only a global memory portion that is local to the primary director. The global memory may be a distributed global memory including memory from multiple directors and possibly multiple engines. Cached data for the logical device may be mirrored automatically by the data storage system. Alternatively, the cached data for the logical device may be mirrored using a host-based mirroring technique.

High performance logical device

First and second virtual storage controllers represent first and second physical storage controllers that provide access to different physical storage devices that back first and second virtual disks. One or more computing nodes host a virtual storage array that includes paired virtual storage directors. Each virtual storage director has access to both the first and second virtual storage controllers. Thus, the virtual disks may be presented to the storage directors as dual-ported disks even if the physical storage devices are single-ported. The virtual storage directors and virtual storage controllers may each be hosted by a separate virtual machine or instantiated in a separate container.

Presenting virtual disks as dual ported drives to a virtual storage system

Operating a hypervisor includes running a hypervisor as a thread of an underlying operating system and loading a guest operating system using the hypervisor based on the thread of the underlying operating system, where the hypervisor runs independently of the guest operating system and independently of other hypervisors running as other threads of the underlying operating system. The hypervisor may be a first hypervisor and operating a hypervisor may further include running a second hypervisor nested with the first hypervisor, where the guest operating system may be loaded using both the first hypervisor and the second hypervisor. The underlying operating system may be an operating system of a storage system.

Nested hypervisors with peripheral component interconnect pass-through

Software emulations of physical devices allow protocol neutral communications between heterogeneous operating systems. Within a computing node of a storage cluster, a logical communications cut-through device connects a guest operating system to a front end adapter and enables the guest operating system to perform operations on an allocated portion of computing node memory without hypervisor intervention. The cut-through device may implement an industry standard memory-mapped interface, thereby enabling a guest operating system to discover the cut-through device and obtain access to memory that is shared with the hypervisor and/or another guest OS. Moreover, if guest OSs and/or the hypervisor share any communications protocol then the channel may be utilized at memory speeds. This may be advantageous in symmetric multiprocessing environments in which multiple guest OSs can have core affinities.

Virtual devices as protocol neutral communications mediators

A data storage system includes compute engines each including a CPU complex, physical memory, interfaces to host computers and physical storage devices, and a fabric interface. A non-cache-coherent fabric interconnects the compute engines as cluster members of a cluster, the fabric supporting a global lock enabling each cluster member to obtain temporary exclusive access to addressable units of non-virtual memory. The CPU complexes implement a global virtual memory (GVM) on top of the non-virtual memory, including (1) a globally shared GVM page table of global page table entries, each identifying the cluster members having a corresponding GVM page mapped, and (2) GVM page management functionality including (i) use of the global lock to obtain exclusive access to the global page table entries for page management operations, and (ii) transfer of underlying data of the pages of the GVM among the cluster members.

Data storage system with cluster virtual memory on non-cache-coherent cluster interconnect

A data storage system has first and second computing nodes that are interconnected by a switchless fabric. Each storage node includes first and second paired storage directors with an interconnecting communication link. Atomic operations sent between the computing nodes are mediated by network adapters. Atomic operations sent between paired storage directors via the interconnecting communication link are provided to a network adapter via an internal port and mediated by network adapter. The interconnecting communication links can be used as a backup path for atomic operations in the event of a link failure of the switchless fabric.

Switchless fabric based atomics via partial-proxy

Operating at least one hypervisor includes running a first hypervisor as a first thread of an underlying operating system, running a second hypervisor as a second thread of the underlying operating system, loading a first guest operating system using the first hypervisor based on the first thread of the underlying operating system, loading a second guest operating system using the second hypervisor based on the second thread of the underlying operating system, and scheduling sharing of resources of the underlying system between the first hypervisor and the second hypervisor according to a scheduler of the underlying operating system, where the first hypervisor and the second hypervisor run independently of each other. The scheduler of the underlying operating system may schedule fractional time shares for the first hypervisor and the second hypervisor to access the same resource.

Extended fractional symmetric multi-processing capabilities to guest operating systems

A non-disruptive, non-migratory hypervisor reboot is performed by suspending execution of the guest operating system, rebooting the container, and then resuming execution of the guest operating system. Suspending execution of the guest operating system can include stopping guest OS access to processing resources. Reboot includes the container loading or reloading itself while preserving the contents of the volatile memory in place. It is also possible to relocate some or all of the contents of the volatile memory to different addresses by creating an abstraction layer.

Rebooting a hypervisor without disrupting or moving an associated guest operating system

Maintaining failure survivability in a storage system includes determining a save time corresponding to an amount of time needed to transfer system data from volatile memory to non-volatile memory, determining a threshold corresponding to time for batteries to run while transferring data from volatile memory to non-volatile memory after a power loss, and providing an indication in response to the save time being greater than the threshold. The system may include a plurality of directors and the save time and the threshold may be determined for each of the directors. Determining a threshold may include determining an amount of battery time provided by battery power following power loss and multiplying the amount of battery time by a factor less than one, such as 0.8.

Adaptive failure survivability in a storage system utilizing save time and data transfer upon power loss

Causing a processor to execute a plurality of tasks includes determining a count for each task to be executed, determining a total count representing a sum of all counts for all tasks to be included in a run list, and constructing the run list by distributing corresponding entries for each task within the run list a number of times in accordance with each task's weighting factor. The weighting factor corresponds to a ratio of the each task's count with respect to a total count. Causing a processor to execute a plurality of tasks may also include executing the tasks in the run list in a round-robin manner where a particular entry in the run list is skipped in response to a corresponding task having previously relinquished a slot prior to expiration of time allotted for the task to run in the slot.

Pizza scheduler

Adaptive failure survivability in a storage system using save time and data transfer after power loss

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Steven T McClure