EMC Assigned Eighteen Patents

Securing centralized metadata distributed filesystem
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,997,198) developed by Kelley, James Alan, Waltham, MA, Tamassia, Roberto, Providence, RI, and Triandopoulos, Nikolaos, Arlington, MA, for a “techniques for securing a centralized metadata distributed filesystem.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method is performed by a data server of a plurality of data servers connected to a network, the data server including data storage managed by a remote metadata server, the metadata server managing storage of data across the plurality of data servers. The method includes, a) receiving, via the network, an access request from a client, the access request requesting access to a portion of the data storage of the data server,, b) testing whether the access request includes a data server specific token authenticating that the client has been authorized by the metadata server to access the portion of data storage, and, c) in response to testing, providing the client with access to the portion of data storage on condition that the access request includes the token authenticating that the client has been authorized by the metadata server to access the portion of data storage.“

The patent application was filed on December 31, 2012 (13/731,858).

Scalable and secure high-level storage access for cloud computing platforms
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,997,096) developed by Protopopov, Boris, Acton, MA, and Leschner, Jurgen, Lexington, MA, for a “scalable and secure high-level storage access for cloud computing platforms.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”An untrusted component exposing a high level storage object interface within an untrusted client virtual machine accepts application level storage object operations. Responsive to a storage object operation, the untrusted component passes a message through the underlying hypervisor to an associated trusted component. The trusted component processes the message by authenticating the client virtual machine and locating an internal mapping between the client virtual machine and an associated customer-specific set of backend storage resources to which the requested storage object operation is to be applied. The trusted component uses a trust relationship with the backend storage system to securely communicate the storage object operation to the backend storage system, and passes the operation results through the hypervisor back to the untrusted component in the source client virtual machine from which the storage object request originated.“

The patent application was filed on December 4, 2012 (13/693,605).

Techniques for compliance testing
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,997,091) developed by Watson, Thomas L., Richardson, TX, and Crable, Fredrick A., Allen, TX, for a “techniques for compliance testing.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Described are techniques for performing compliance testing. Configuration state information is received for one or more devices managed using a configuration management system. The configuration state information is stored in a data container. One or more compliance tests are executed using the configuration state information to determine if the one or more devices are compliant. The one or more compliance tests are defined using one or more queries and one or more compliance rules. The one or more queries are used for retrieving a portion of said configuration state information from said data container and generating one or more result sets. The one or more compliance rules specifying compliance criteria are used for determining whether the one or more result sets include configuration state information which is compliant.“

The patent application was filed on January 31, 2007 (11/700,388).

Providing multi-tenancy within data storage apparatus
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,996,837) developed by Bono, Jean-Pierre, Westborough, MA, Corniquet, Frederic, Le Pecq, France, de Forest, Miles A., Bahama, NC, Tummala, Himabindu, South Grafton, MA, and Forrester, Walter C., Berkeley Heights, NJ, for a “providing multi-tenancy within a data storage apparatus.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A technique provides multi-tenancy within a data storage apparatus. The technique involves dividing, by processing circuitry, storage units of the data storage apparatus into multiple groups of storage units. The technique further involves forming, by the processing circuitry, segregated slice pools from the multiple groups of storage units. Each segregated slice pool is formed from a different group of storage units. The technique further involves allocating, by the processing circuitry, slices from the segregated slice pools to mutually exclusive sets of virtual storage processors, VSPs) on the data storage apparatus. Each mutually exclusive set of VSPs operates as a separate tenant of the data storage apparatus.“

The patent application was filed on March 15, 2013 (13/837,869).

Creating and maintaining clones in continuous data protection
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,996,827) developed by Natanzon, Assaf, Ramat Gan, Israel, for a “creating and maintaining clones in continuous data protection.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”In traditional storage arrays, the number of clones permitted inside the storage array may be limited by the amount of available storage. Further, clones stored on the array may require significant storage resources. Thus, the number of clone stored by the storage array may also be limited by the storage system memory and not just by the disk space. Accordingly, example embodiments of the present invention allow for creating and maintaining a plurality, e.g., an unlimited number) of thin asynchronous clones in storage, even if replica storage is capable of storing only a limited number of snapshots. Further, example embodiments of the present invention allow clones to be freely attached and detached from the replication environment for various purposes.“

The patent application was filed on December 27, 2011 (13/337,678).

Providing service-provider-specific support link data to client in storage context
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,996,671) developed by Horan, Seth B., Wrentham, MA, Parenti, Mark, Milford, NH, and Costa, Michael A., Taunton, MA, for a “method of providing service-provider-specific support link data to a client in a storage context.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method of providing service-provider-specific link data to a client computer includes, a) at a storage management server, SMS, the SMS being configured to provide management services for a data storage system, sending an identification number of the SMS to a database application,, b) at the SMS, receiving, from the database application, a set of link descriptors, the set of link descriptors identifying a set of link addresses, (LAs) to a particular remote storage support server, (RMSS) of a plurality of RMSSs, the particular RMSS being associated with the identification number,, c) at the SMS, integrating system-specific status information into the LAs of the set of LAs, thereby generating the service-provider-specific link data, and, d) at the SMS, sending the service-provider-specific link data to the client computer to allow the client computer to display links to a user which allow the user to receive service-provider-specific support services from the service-provider.“

The patent application was filed on March 30, 2012 (13/435,737).

Managing logical views of directories
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,996,490) developed by Armangau, Philippe, Acton, MA, Bono, Jean-Pierre, Westborough, MA, and Davenport, William, Burlington, MA, for a “managing logical views of directories.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method is used in managing logical views of directories. A directory logical view is created from a primary logical view. The primary logical view includes a set of storage objects. The directory logical view includes a subset of the set of storage objects. A root of the directory logical view indicates a file directory. The file directory includes the subset of the set of storage objects in a hierarchy. A mapping object is created for the directory logical view. The mapping object manages access to the subset of the set of storage objects. The mapping object for the directory logical view is a version of a mapping object for the primary logical view. Information is removed from the mapping object for the directory logical view. Information remained in the mapping object after removing the information is associated with the file directory.“

The patent application was filed on December 28, 2011 (13/339,289).

Replicating the punch command
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,996,461) developed by Natanzon, Assaf, Ramat Gan, Israel, Cohen, Saar, Moshav Mishmeret, Israel, Ayzenberg, Lev, Petakh-Tikva, Israel, and Kulik, Ariel, Rehovot, Israel, for a “method and apparatus for replicating the punch command.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”The punch command may be replicated in a replication environment including a production site and a replication site. The solution includes implementing a punch command to free storage received at a replication site in a replication environment by applying the punch command to storage at the replication site and writing data being freed from the storage at the replication site to an undo stream of a journal at the replication site. If the punch command is not supported, a command to write zeros may be used. Further, an unpunch command is provided for properly undoing a punch command and storing data written to the volume before the punch command freed the storage. Additionally, large punch commands may be split into a plurality to smaller punch commands for efficient journal management. Additionally, volume space may be reclaimed by writing a punch command to the journal instead of zeros.“

The patent application was filed on March 28, 2011 (13/073,215).

Accessing image in continuous data protection using deduplication-based storage
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,996,460) developed by Frank, Shahar, Ramat Hasharon, Israel, Natanzon, Assaf, Tel Aviv, Israel, and Shemer, Jehuda, Kfar Saba, Israel, for a “accessing an image in a continuous data protection using deduplication-based storage.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”In one aspect, a method to generate a point-in-time, (PIT) snapshot of deduplication-based volume includes generating a virtual access data structure, generating a preliminary snapshot of the volume and modifying the preliminary snapshot to point to a block according to the virtual access data structure to generate the PIT snapshot of the deduplication-based volume.“

The patent application was filed on March 14, 2013 (13/827,862).

Decision tree classification for big data
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,996,436) developed by Ren, Yi, Ao, Jianwang, Yang, Guangxin, Beijing, China, and Welton, Caleb, Foster City, CA, for a “decision tree classification for big data.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method, system, and process for classifying a dataset using a decision tree is discussed. The decision tree may be stored in a novel format on a distributed architecture, and the dataset classification may be performed in parallel on the distributed architecture.“

The patent application was filed on December 20, 2012 (13/722,864).

Protected resource access control utilizing intermediate values of hash chain
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,990,905) developed by Bailey, Daniel V., Pepperell, MA, Duane, William M., Westford, MA, and Young, Eric, Brisbane, Australia, for a “protected resource access control utilizing intermediate values of a hash chain.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A processing device comprises a processor coupled to a memory and is configured to associate intermediate values of a hash chain with respective access control intervals, and to provide a given one of the intermediate values to user in order to allow the user to access a protected resource in the corresponding access control interval. A final value of the hash chain is provided to an access control module associated with the protected resource, and an initial value of the hash chain is stored in a secure manner. The hash chain may be generated by applying a one-way hash function to the initial value a designated number of times in order to obtain the intermediate values and the final value. The protected resource may comprise, for example, a storage array or other processing platform component, with the intermediate values controlling service technician access to that component.“

The patent application was filed on September 28, 2012 (13/629,771).

Direct memory access through virtual switch in device driver
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,990,799) developed by Forecast, John, Newton, MA, for a “direct memory access through virtual switch in device driver.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A virtual switch implemented in a NIC routes packets to a specific virtual machine of a group of supported virtual machines based on a unique MAC address assigned to that virtual machine. Packets which are addressed to the broadcast or a multicast address may be copied to all virtual machines associated with the virtual switch or may be passed to the NIC device driver so that it may be copied by software. The NIC operates in a selective mode whereby packets that are not addressed to a supported virtual machine are rejected or discarded. Further, the virtual switch routes the packets to the virtual machines by performing a DMA copy operation to dedicated memory associated with the virtual machine to which the packet is addressed. The NIC may also include dedicated memory for each supported MAC address in order to facilitate operation.“

The patent application was filed on January 30, 2008 (12/022,268).

Securing communications between node and server based
on hardware metadata gathered by in-memory process
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,990,550) developed by Hushon, John Daniel, Medfield, MA, Weaver, Nicholas, North Richland Hills, TX, and McSweeney, Tom, Hoquiam, WA, for a “methods and apparatus for securing communications between a node and a server based on hardware metadata gathered by an in-memory process.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Methods and apparatus are provided for securing communications between a node and a server, for example, during a boot process. In accordance with an aspect of the invention, a method is provided for securing communications between a node and a server, comprising: dynamically gathering hardware-related metadata for the node using a process running in memory, generating a unique identifier for the node using the hardware-related metadata, generating a public/private key pair for the node using the unique identifier, and securing communications between the node and the server using the public/private key pair. The process comprises, for example, an in-memory microkernel executing on a boot node. The hardware-related metadata comprises, for example, information about physical characteristics of the node. The unique identifier for the node can optionally be further based on information obtained from a Trusted Processing Module. The node can be authenticated using the public/private key pair.“

The patent application was filed on December 27, 2012 (13/728,382).

Crash consistency
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,990,533) developed by Clark, Roy E, Hopkinton, MA, Harwood, John S, Paxton, MA, and Cohen, David, Hull, MA, for a “crash consistency.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A computer implemented method, system, and program product for data consistency comprising establishing a memory-mapped file, enabling the memory-mapped file data to be paged to the non-volatile storage medium, receiving, at a consistency layer, a write IO, wherein the write IO corresponds to a space on the storage medium, issuing a read IO to the storage medium, wherein the read IO corresponds to the space on the storage medium to be overwritten by the write IO, writing the data of the read IO to a undo log and writing the write IO to the storage medium.“

The patent application was filed on November 26, 2012 (13/684,953).

Data migration with source device reuse
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,990,527) developed by Linstead, Paul, Shrewsbury, MA, for a “data migration with source device reuse.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Releasing a data set at a source device in connection with migrating data from the source device to a target device includes mapping application address space to address space containing metadata for the target device and providing additional local metadata therefor, replacing within the application the address of metadata for the source device with the address of metadata for the target device, setting a diversion flag that is part of the additional local metadata, where the diversion flag indicates a remapping of extent, and closing and unallocating the data set at the source device. Releasing a data set at a source device in connection with migrating data from the source device to a target device may also include determining if an application uses standard I/O operations. The metadata may include UCB data.“

The patent application was filed on June 29, 2007 (11/824,430).

Global memory as non-volatile random access memory for guest operating systems
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,990,520) developed by Tang, Hongliang, Hopkinton, MA, Pang, Lixin, Franklin, MA, Fredette, Matthew H., Belmont, MA, Riordan, Patrick Brian, West Newton, MA, Vahalia, Uresh, Newton, MA, McClure, and Steven T., Northboro, MA, for a “global memory as non-volatile random access memory for guest operating systems.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Global memory of a storage system may be used to provide NVRAM capabilities to guest operating systems accessing the storage system. The non-volatility of NVRAM, i.e. that retains its information when power is turned off) provides that an NVRAM device provided by global memory may be used as a journaling device to track storage operations and facilitate recovery and/or failover processing in a storage system without needing to add additional hardware and/or other installed devices. Use of the global memory according to the system described herein to provide an NVRAM device, that may function as a journaling device, provides for the speeding up of transactions, thereby improving metadata intensive operations performance and reducing recovery time and/or failover time of a storage system without adding additional hardware support.“

The patent application was filed on March 30, 2012 (13/435,328).

Storing data in RAID memory devices
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,990,495) developed by Hallak, Renen, Tel-Aviv, Israel, and Segev, Yaron, RaAnana, Israel, for a “method and system for storing data in raid memory devices.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A redundant array of independent disk, (RAID) memory storage system comprising data storage blocks arranged in a first plurality of data rows and a second plurality of data columns, wherein parity data is stored in additionally defined parity blocks, and wherein numbers of data blocks in respective columns are different, to accommodate the additional diagonal parity data block that the geometry of the system requires. The system is suitable for an SSD array in which sequential disk readout is not required.“

The patent application was filed on November 15, 2011 (13/296,334).

Transfer data storage device features
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,990,463) developed by LeCrone, Douglas E., Hopkinton, MA, Linstead; Paul A., Shrewsbury, MA, and Burt; Denis J., Plymouth, MA, for a “transfer of data storage device features.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Transferring storage device functionality includes providing a device coupled to the storage device, where the device is separate from the storage device, having the device handle I/O requests between an application and the storage device, and, in response to the application issuing an I/O request, having the device determine if the request corresponds to functionality being transferred and, if so, having the device provide the functionality. The device may be a host computer. The application may run on the host computer. A driver on the host computer may provide the functionality. The functionality may include read only functionality, data compression, data encryption, mirroring, and/or status reporting.“

The patent application was filed on December 24, 2013 (14/139,931).