Dell Assigned Eight Patents

Automatic failure recovery using snapshots and replicas
Dell Products, LP, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,378,101) developed by Hsu-Hung, Damon, Sudbury, MA, and Sasi, Kannan, Nashua, NH, for a “automatic failure recovery using snapshots and replicas.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”In one embodiment, a method of data recovery in a storage system includes, upon failure to fulfill an I/O request for requested data to a primary volume, consulting a change set to determine whether the requested data are current in a snapshot or replica. Further, such an embodiment includes providing the requested data using the snapshot or replica without further accessing the change set, if the requested data are current in the snapshot or replica, or issuing an error or failure status, if the requested data are not current.“

The patent application was filed on June 30, 2015 (14/754,970).

Scalable storage management
Dell Products, LP, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,377,967) developed by Dube, Shawn Joel, Lambert, Timothy M., Austin, TX, and Brahmaroutu, Surender V., Round Rock, TX, for a “systems and methods for scalable storage management.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Systems and methods for management of scalable storage architectures are disclosed. The system includes one or more storage backplanes, each storage backplane configured to interface with one or more hard disk drives. The system includes a baseboard management controller, which includes an interface to communicate with one or more of the storage backplanes and programmable logic configured to detect the presence of one or more hard disk drives in an interfaced storage backplane and control one or more status indicators, wherein each status indicator is related to at least one of the hard disk drives in the interfaced storage backplane.“

The patent application was filed on May 27, 2009 (12/473,180).

Redundant storage enclosure processor implementation
for use in serial attached SCSI/SAS, environment
Dell Products, LP, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,361,262) developed by Zadigian, Timothy M., Round Rock, TX, and Martinez, A. Jaime, Austin, TX, for a “redundant storage enclosure processor, (SEP) implementation for use in serial attached SCSI, (SAS) environment.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”An information handling system includes a storage enclosure operable to communicate with a storage initiator. The storage enclosure includes a first controller corresponding to a first storage domain for enabling access between the storage initiator and a plurality of storage targets using a storage protocol. A second controller of the system, corresponding to a second storage domain, is operable to enable access between the storage initiator and the plurality of storage targets. A second storage enclosure subsystem is part of the second controller and a second configurable extra-protocol interconnection between the second storage enclosure subsystem and the first controller enables the second storage enclosure subsystem to function as a storage enclosure subsystem for the first controller.“

The patent application was filed on May 11, 2015 (14/708,646).

Preventing damage to storage devices within storage system
due to movement of storage system
Dell Products, LP, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,349,399) developed by Farkas, Sandor, and Ahmed, Syed S., Round Rock, TX, for a “preventing damage to storage devices within a storage system due to movement of the storage system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method implemented in a storage system that has moveable storage devices includes a motion controller receiving movement related data of a storage device from at least one sensor associated with the storage device. In response to the received movement related data indicating at least one pre-identified condition, a park command is issued that triggers the reading head of the storage device to enter a parked state in which the storage device is protected from damage that can occur due to motion of the reading head while the pre-identified condition exists.“

The patent application was filed on May 28, 2015 (14/724,768).

Preventing input/output performance decrease after disk failure
in distributed file system
Dell Products, LP, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,336,102) developed by Chen, Xin, Austin, TX, for a “systems and methods for preventing input/output performance decrease after disk failure in a distributed file system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, a method may include receiving from a plurality of data nodes of a distributed file system an indication of whether a fault condition exists with respect to a storage resource of the respective data node. The method may also include receiving an input/output request for a storage resource of a particular data node from a host information handling system communicatively coupled to the distributed file system. The method may further include, responsive to the input/output request, directing the input/output request to the particular data node if no fault condition exists with respect to storage resources of the particular data node and directing the input/output request to another data node of the distributed file system if a fault condition exists with respect to one or more storage resources of the particular data node.“

The patent application was filed on April 21, 2014 (14/257,140).

Dynamic optimization of flash cache in storage devices
Dell Products, LP, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,330,007) developed by Farhan, Munif M., Round Rock, TX, Sauber, William F., Georgetown, TX, and Eldin, Dina A., Round Rock, TX, for a “systems and methods for dynamic optimization of flash cache in storage devices.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”In various embodiments, a storage device includes a magnetic media, a cache memory, and a drive controller. In embodiments, the drive controller is configured to establish a portion of the cache memory as an archival zone having a cache policy to maximize write hits. The drive controller is further configured to pre-erase the archival zone, direct writes from a host to the archival zone, and flush writes from the archival zone to the magnetic media. In embodiments, the drive controller is configured to establish a portion of the cache memory as a retrieval zone having a cache policy to maximize read hits. The drive controller is further configured to pre-fetch data from the magnetic media to the retrieval zone, transfer data from the retrieval zone to a host upon request by the host, and transfer read ahead data to the retrieval zone to replace data transferred to the host.“

The patent application was filed on November 30, 2012 (13/691,469).

Modular dense storage array
Dell Products, LP, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,320,169) developed by Adrian, Jason D., Williamsburg, VA, and Farley, Douglas L., Round Rock, TX, for a “modular dense storage array.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Modular dense storage arrays are disclosed. In some embodiments, a modular storage array may include a chassis configured to receive a plurality of drive bay modules, a first of the plurality of drive bay modules configured to receive a first plurality of storage drives in the absence of a drive adaptor, each of the first plurality of storage drives having a first form factor, and a second of the plurality of drive bay modules configured to receive a second plurality of storage drives in the absence of the drive adaptor, each of the second plurality of storage drives having a second form factor different from the first form factor.“

The patent application was filed on July 3, 2013 (13/935,181).

SAN vulnerability assessment tool
Dell Products, LP, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,317,349) developed by Jacoby, Robert B., Merrimack, NH, and Rozmovits, Bernard Abraham, Milford, NH, for a “SAN vulnerability assessment tool.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”The invention pertains to a method and information handling system, IHS) for assessing storage device vulnerability to data unavailability or data loss. An embodiment of the method of the present invention begins by obtaining data regarding static and dynamic factors of the at least one storage device. Next, based on the obtained data, a risk score is calculated for the at least one storage device. Finally, using the obtained data, the risk score is presented to a user. In another example embodiment, a risk score indicator is associated with the at least one storage device based upon the calculated risk score.“

The patent application was filed on October 29, 2013 (14/065,825).