EMC Assigned Fourteen Patents

File server system having tiered storage
including SSD primary storage and magnetic disk drive secondary storage
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,213,721) developed by Faibish, Sorin, Newton, MA, Stacey, Christopher H., Christchurch, NZ, Bixby, Peter, Westborough, MA, and Whitney, William C., Marlborough, MA, for a “file server system having tiered storage including solid-state drive primary storage and magnetic disk drive secondary storage.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A file server system having solid-state drive primary storage and magnetic disk drive secondary storage aggressively moves newly created files from the primary storage to selected file systems in the secondary storage to match expected access patterns upon the files to different configurations of the file systems and for load balancing upon the file systems in the secondary storage. Upon read access to a file that has been moved to the secondary storage, or upon migration of a newly created file that was read in primary storage after creation, a corresponding stub file containing file mapping metadata is created in the primary storage. The file mapping metadata in the stub file maps the extent of the file to logical storage addresses in the secondary storage.“

The patent application was filed on January 5, 2009 (12/348,866).

Securely erasing cache
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,213,648) developed by DiPietro, Guido A., Sterling, MA, Cooney, Michael J., Mendon, MA, and Cotter, Gerald E., Hopkinton, MA, for a “system, apparatus, and method of securely erasing cache.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A computer-executable method, system, and computer program product for managing a data storage system, wherein the data storage system includes a cache and a data storage array, the computer-executable method comprising receiving a request to initialize a data storage system and initializing the data storage system by purging the cache.“

The patent application was filed on December 31, 2013 (14/145,266).

Virtual appliance deployment
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,213,561) developed by LeMahieu, Paul, Pasadena, CA, Halzel, Steven, Ashland, MA, Lawler, Jane M., Lexington, MA, and Frazier, Jake, Austin, TX, for a “virtual appliance deployment.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for efficiently processing information. In some embodiments, this includes determining a physical appliance to virtualize, creating a virtual appliance based on the physical appliance, and storing the virtual appliance in a storage array. In some embodiments, creating the virtual appliance includes creating the virtual appliance from a template.“

The patent application was filed on August 14, 2014 (14/460,030).

De-duplication in virtualized storage environment
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,213,494) developed by Yueh, Jedidiah, Menlo Park, CA, for a “de-duplication in a virtualized storage environment.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”In one example, a method for de-duplicating redundant data in a virtualized storage environment includes operating a data de-duplication application on a host system that is one of a plurality of host systems in a computer architecture, where the data de-duplication application is operable to globally de-duplicate data in a pooled storage capacity that comprises a virtualization of a plurality of storage devices.“

The patent application was filed on August 20, 2013 (13/971,740).

Seeding replication
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,208,166) developed by Patterson, R. Hugo, Los Altos, CA, for a “seeding replication.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A system, method and computer program product for determining one or more candidate segments for replication. One or more but not all files stored on a deduplicated storage system are selected to be replicated. One or more segments referred to by the selected one or more but not all files are determined. A data structure is created that is used to indicate that at least the one or more segments are to be replicated. In the event that an indication based at least in part on the data structure indicates that a candidate segment stored on the deduplicating storage system is to be replicated, the candidate segment is replicated.“

The patent application was filed on July 31, 2013 (13/956,010).

Integrated search for shared storage
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,201,889) developed by Madany, Peter W., Hopkinton, MA, Hubbe, Allen B., Milford, MA, Ranganna, Navaneeth, Sunnyvale, CA, Daftardar, Suvidya S., Marlborough, MA, Oni, Oluwasoga T., Brighton, MA, Collins, Daniel S., Princeton, MA, Toor, Umer, Hopkinton, MA, Bueche, Edward C., Pleasanton, CA, Casula, Sunita, San Ramon, CA, and Stacey, Christopher, Cristchurch, New Zealand, for a “integrated search for shared storage.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method of searching shared files stored on a general purpose shared storage includes receiving a search term in a native search interface of an operating system on a computing device, and performing, on the computing device, a search based on the search term including accessing a search functionality of the general purpose shared storage, wherein the search functionality uses indexes of the shared files stored on the shared storage and updates the indexes of the shared files in response to update events generated from the shared files. In one embodiment, the method performs a federated search based on the search term.“

The patent application was filed on March 15, 2013 (13/837,511).

Caching data
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,201,803) developed by Derbeko, Philip, Modiin, Israel, Eyal, Anat, Benhanokh, Zvi Gabriel, Tel Aviv, Israel, Don, Arieh, Newton, MA, Devor, and Orly, Zichron Yaakov, Israel, for a “system and method for caching data.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method, computer program product, and computing system for storing a plurality of frontend data chunks within a cache system. The plurality of frontend data chunks correspond to a plurality of backend data chunks stored within a data array. A device weight is determined for each of the plurality of backend data chunks. The device weight is indicative of the type of storage device upon which each of the plurality of backend data chunks is stored within the data array. A deletion score is assigned to each of the plurality of frontend data chunks. Each deletion score is based, at least in part, upon the device weight determined for its corresponding backend data chunk.“

The patent application was filed on December 31, 2012 (13/731,456).

Managing read/write locks for multiple CPU cores
for efficient access to storage array resources
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,201,802) developed by Armangau, Philippe, Acton, MA, Seibel, Chris, Walpole, MA, Hassey, John A., Durham, NC, and Wang, Yubing, Southborough, MA, for a “managing read/write locks for multiple CPU cores for efficient access to storage array resources.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A technique for managing resources on a storage array having multiple CPU cores releases share locks on a resource by decrementing share lock counters associated with the CPU cores that release the share locks, regardless of whether these are the same as the CPU cores that acquired the share locks. As each CPU core changes its own share lock counter, cache trashing caused by changing share lock counters associated with other CPU cores can be avoided.“

The patent application was filed on December 31, 2012 (13/731,197).

Recovery of complex assets in distributed information processing system
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,201,736) developed by Moore, James J., Los Angeles, CA, Natanzon, Assaf, Tel Aviv, Israel, and Faibish, Sorin, Newton, MA, for a “methods and apparatus for recovery of complex assets in distributed information processing system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A distributed information processing system comprises first and second sites, which may comprise respective production and replica sites. A snapshot of a first portion of a complex asset is generated at the first site and sent to the second site, and a second portion of the complex asset is replicated at the second site. The complex asset includes one or more virtual machines provided by one or more hypervisors of a virtualization platform of the first site and at least one storage element surfaced through a storage platform of the first site, with the storage platform being external to the virtualization platform. Recovery of the complex asset is implemented at the second site utilizing, for example, a ghost complex asset preconfigured in accordance with current complex asset state information based on the snapshot of the first portion of the complex asset and the replicated second portion of the complex asset.“

The patent application was filed on September 30, 2013 (14/041,823).

Decommissioning virtual appliances
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,201,699) developed by LeMahieu, Paul, Pasadena, CA, Halzel, Steven, Ashland, MA, Lawler, Jane M., Lexington, MA, and Frazier, Jake, Austin, TX, for a “decommissioning virtual appliances.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for efficiently processing information. In some embodiments, this includes selecting a service to terminate, determining a virtual appliance associated with the service, and decommissioning the virtual appliance. In some embodiments, the virtual appliance may be deleted from the storage array.“

The patent application was filed on June 20, 2014 (14/311,157).

Native storage data collection using multiple data collection plug-ins installed
in component separate from data sources of one or more SANs
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,197,522) developed by Arakelian, Mark Adam, Shirley, MA, Chaulk, Christopher A., Franklin, MA, and Lincourt, Jr., Robert A., Pawtucket, RI, for a “native storage data collection using multiple data collection plug-ins installed in a component separate from data sources of one or more storage area networks.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A native data collection component may be implemented as a tool, appliance, application and/or utility, and including physical and/or logical implementations thereof. The native data collection component may be responsible for data orchestration, data collection, and aggregation and distribution of collected data from among multiple sources of a storage area network, SAN). The native data collection component is not required to be installed as an agent on any data source of the SAN, and the native data collection component may be independent of a particular data source and act as an independent performance characteristic collection mechanism. In an embodiment, the native data collection component may include three devices/sub-components: a data orchestration device, a data collection interface and a data aggregation and distribution device. Each sub-component may be service based and communication with each service may be done using state-less protocols.“

The patent application was filed on March 21, 2012 (13/425,528).

Offloading encryption to client
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,195,851) developed by Chandra, Surendar, Sunnyvale, CA, for a “offloading encryption to the client.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Exemplary methods for offloading encryption to a client include receiving from a first client a first encrypted data and a corresponding first encrypted key, and decrypting the first encrypted key to recover a first key, without decrypting the first encrypted data. In one embodiment, the methods further include encrypting the first key using a second key to create a second encrypted key, wherein the second key is available only to the storage system, and storing the second encrypted key and the first encrypted data as received, without having to decrypt and re-encrypt the first encrypted data.“

The patent application was filed on March 12, 2014 (14/207,078).

Snapshot data management for modeling and migration planning of data storage
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,195,400) developed by Ostapovicz, Scott, Holliston, MA, Murphy, Karen, Gunn, Fergal, Cork, Ireland, Schwartz, Michael, Hamden, CT, and Bowden, David, Cork, Ireland, for a “snapshot data management for modeling and migration planning of data storage.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Techniques for improved snapshot data management for modeling and migration planning associated with data storage systems and datacenters. For example, a method comprises the following steps. A plurality of types of representation of states of a system are generated, data from the system is imported to a first type of representation, and a second type of representation is updated, via the first type of representation, with the imported data, wherein modeling is capable of being performed in the second type of representation, and not capable of being performed in the first type of representation.“

The patent application was filed on March 15, 2013 (13/834,033).

File indexing using exclusion list of deduplicated cache system of storage system
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,189,414) developed by Shim, Hyong, Basking Ridge, NJ, Smaldone, Stephen, Monroe Township, NJ, Wallace, Grant R., Pennington, NJ, Douglis, Frederick, Basking Ridge, NJ, Hsu, Windsor W., San Jose, CA, and Shilane, Philip N., Yardley, PA, for a “file indexing using an exclusion list of a deduplicated cache system of a storage system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A computer-implemented method for indexing content stored in a cache memory device is disclosed. The method starts with maintaining a file index having a plurality of extent entries, each extent entry corresponding to one of a plurality of file extents stored in a cache memory device that caches data stored in a persistent storage device of a storage system. In response to receiving a request to read a first file region of a first file, the method continues with retrieving first data block from the persistent storage device that contains the first data block, caching the first data block at a first storage location of the cache memory device, and creating a first extent entry in the file index having at least a first node, where the first node includes an address of the first storage location and a first bitmap indicating which data blocks are valid.“

The patent application was filed on September 26, 2013 (14/038,687).