NetApp Assigned Twenty-Three Patents

Tracking block ownership
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,043,540) developed by Smith, Sean, and Rao, Anureita, Sunnyvale, CA, for a “systems and methods for tracking block ownership.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Systems and methods for, among other things, providing a storage system which allows for efficient tracking of in-use storage disk blocks using “sharing nodes”. Disk blocks are a result of low-level formatting, which breaks up the total storage capacity into a set number of blocks. High-level formatting of the disk creates the file system, and part of the file system may create metadata known as inodes, and associate an inode with each file, such that an inode tracks the disk blocks in use by that file, pointing from the file to a set of blocks. An S-node generator creates another type of metadata, complementary to an inode, known as an S-node data structure, such that an S-node data structure is associated with a block, and tracks the set of inodes using the block, pointing from the disk blocks to inodes.“

The patent application was filed on March 30, 2012 (13/436,167).

Providing storage services
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,043,791) developed by Gopal, Mohandas, Pleasanton, CA, Karinta, Vineeth, Fremont, CA, and Barve, Anagha, Sunnyvale, CA, for a “method and system for providing storage services.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Method and system are provided for managing components of a storage operating environment having a plurality of virtual machines that can access a storage device managed by a storage system. The virtual machines are executed by a host platform that also executes a processor-executable host services module that interfaces with at least a processor-executable plug-in module for providing information regarding the virtual machines and assists in storage related services, for example, replicating the virtual machines.“

The patent application was filed on January 24, 2014 (14/163,140).

Discarding sensitive data from persistent point-in-time image
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,043,614) developed by Subramanian, Ananthan, Menlo Park, CA, for a “discarding sensitive data from persistent point-in-time image.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A network storage server implements a method to discard sensitive data from a Persistent Point-In-Time Image, (PPI). The server first efficiently identifies a dataset containing the sensitive data from a plurality of datasets managed by the PPI. Each of the plurality of datasets is read-only and encrypted with a first encryption key. The server then decrypts each of the plurality of datasets, except the dataset containing the sensitive data, with the first encryption key. The decrypted datasets are re-encrypted with a second encryption key, and copied to a storage structure. Afterward, the first encryption key is shredded.“

The patent application was filed on September 20, 2013 (14/033,071).

Determining level of success of operations on abstraction of multiple logical data storage containers
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,043,573) developed by Reissner, Michael, Vancouver, Canada, for a “system and method for determining a level of success of operations on an abstraction of multiple logical data storage containers.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Various systems and methods are described for configuring a logical data storage container. In one embodiment, an instruction to perform an operation to modify an attribute of the logical data storage container that is an abstraction of a plurality of pertinent storage containers is received. A translated instruction to perform a sub-operation associated with the operation is transmitted to each of a number of the plurality of pertinent storage containers. A level of success of the performing of the operation on the logical data storage container is detected based on a comparison of a threshold value to a level of success of the performing of the sub-operation on each of the number of the plurality of pertinent storage containers. A report of the detected level of success is communicated.“

The patent application was filed on June 7, 2012 (13/490,925).

Replicating expandable storage volume
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,043,567) developed by Modukuri, Kiran K., Sunnyvale, CA, and Jennings, Logan R., Menlo Park, CA, for a “methods and systems for replicating an expandable storage volume.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Machine implemented method and system for generating a disaster recovery copy of an expandable storage volume having a namespace for storing information for accessing data objects stored at a data constituent volume is provided. A transfer operation for transferring a point in time copy of the expandable storage volume from a first location to a second location is generated. Information regarding the expandable storage volume from the first location is retrieved and a destination expandable storage volume is resized to match components of the expandable storage volume at the first location. Thereafter, the point in time copy of the expandable storage volume is transferred from the first location to the second location and configuration information regarding the point in time copy is copied from the first location to the second location.“

The patent application was filed on March 28, 2012 (13/433,170).

Single instance buffer cache
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,043,555) developed by Khona, Rahul, Periyagaram, Subramaniam, San Jose, CA, Yadav, Sandeep, Santa Clara, CA, and Pawar, Dnyaneshwar, Karnataka, India, for a “single instance buffer cache method and system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Provided is a method and system for reducing duplicate buffers in buffer cache associated with a storage device. Reducing buffer duplication in a buffer cache includes accessing a file reference pointer associated with a file in a deduplicated filesystem when attempting to load a requested data block from the file into the buffer cache. To determine if the requested data block is already in the buffer cache, aspects of the invention compare a fingerprint that identifies the requested data block against one or more fingerprints identifying a corresponding one or more sharable data blocks in the buffer cache. A match between the fingerprint of the requested data block and the fingerprint from a sharable data block in the buffer cache indicates that the requested data block is already loaded in buffer cache. The sharable data block in buffer cache is used instead thereby reducing buffer duplication in the buffer cache.“

The patent application was filed on February 25, 2009 (12/392,994).

Virtualized data storage in network computing environment
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,043,547) developed by Jeong, Wayland, Agoura Hills, CA, Kotwani, Mukul, Woodland Hills, CA, and Popovski, Vladimir, Irvine, CA, for a “virtualized data storage in a network computing environment.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Methods and systems for load balancing read/write requests of a virtualized storage system. In one embodiment, a storage system includes a plurality of physical storage devices and a storage module operable within a communication network to present the plurality of physical storage devices as a virtual storage device to a plurality of network computing elements that are coupled to the communication network. The virtual storage device comprises a plurality of virtual storage volumes, wherein each virtual storage volume is communicatively coupled to the physical storage devices via the storage module. The storage module comprises maps that are used to route read/write requests from the network computing elements to the virtual storage volumes. Each map links read/write requests from at least one network computing element to a respective virtual storage volume within the virtual storage device.“

The patent application was filed on March 18, 2014 (14/218,308).

Distributing capacity slices across storage system nodes
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,043,545) developed by Kimmel, Jeffrey S., Chapel Hill, NC, and Emami, Tim, Sunnyvale, CA, for a “distributing capacity slices across storage system nodes.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Various systems and methods are described for configuring a data storage system. In one embodiment, a plurality of actual capacities of a plurality of storage devices of the data storage system are identified and divided into a plurality of capacity slices. The plurality of capacity slices are combined into a plurality of chunks of capacity slices, each having a combination of characteristics of the underlying physical storage devices. The chunks of capacity slices are then mapped to a plurality of logical storage devices. A group of the plurality of logical storage devices is then organized into a redundant array of logical storage devices.“

The patent application was filed on January 4, 2013 (13/734,274).

Data storage within hybrid storage aggregate
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,043,530) developed by Sundaram, Rajesh, Mountain View, CA, Doucette, Douglas Paul, San Diego, CA, Grunwald, David, San Francisco, CA, Kimmel, Jeffrey S., Chapel Hill, NC, and Prakash, Ashish, Cary, NC, for a “data storage within hybrid storage aggregate.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Among other things, one or more techniques and/or systems are provided for storing data within a hybrid storage aggregate comprising a lower-latency storage tier and a higher-latency storage tier. In particular, frequently accessed data, randomly accessed data, and/or short lived data may be stored, e.g., read caching and/or write caching) within the lower-latency storage tier. Infrequently accessed data and/or sequentially accessed data may be stored within the higher-latency storage tier. Because the hybrid storage aggregate may comprise a single logical container derived from the higher-latency storage tier and the lower-latency storage tier, additional storage and/or file system functionality may be implemented across the storage tiers. For example, deduplication functionality, caching functionality, backup/restore functionality, and/or other functionality may be provided through a single file system, or other type of arrangement) and/or a cache map implemented within the hybrid storage aggregate.“

The patent application was filed on April 9, 2012 (13/442,194).

Logical block addresses with generation numbers as data fingerprints for network deduplication
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,043,430) developed by Condict, Michael N., Lexington, MA, and Kleiman, Steven R., Los Altos, CA, for a “using logical block addresses with generation numbers as data fingerprints for network deduplication.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”The technique introduced here involves using a block address and a corresponding generation number as a “fingerprint” to uniquely identify a sequence of data within a given storage domain. Each block address has an associated generation number which indicates the number of times that data at that block address has been modified. This technique can be employed, for example, to determine whether a given storage server already has the data, and to avoid sending the data to that storage server over a network if it already has the data. It can also be employed to maintain cache coherency among multiple storage nodes.“

The patent application was filed on August 12, 2013 (13/965,012).

Metadata subsystem for distributed object store in network storage system
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,043,372) developed by Makkar, Gaurav, Bangalore, India, Srinivasan, Sudhir, Acton, MA, and Kavuri, Ravi, Inver Grove Heights, MN, for a “metadata subsystem for a distributed object store in a network storage system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A network storage server system includes a distributed object store and a metadata subsystem. The metadata subsystem stores metadata relating to the stored data objects and allows data objects to be located and retrieved easily via user-specified search queries. It manages and allows searches on at least three categories of metadata via the same user interface and technique. These categories include user-specified metadata, inferred metadata and system-defined metadata. Search queries for the metadata can include multi-predicate queries.“

The patent application was filed on June 12, 2013 (13/916,389).

Retention of active data stored in memory
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,043,284) developed by Yadav, Sandeep, Santa Clara, CA, Edwards, John, Sunnyvale, CA, and Crunwald, David, Santa Clara, CA, for a “retention of active data stored in memory.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method and apparatus for retention of active data stored in memory using multiple indexing systems for data storage. An embodiment of a method for retention of active data in a storage server includes reading data into a first location of a main memory of the storage server. The data in the first location indexes data elements in a long-term data storage in a first manner. The method further provides for copying the data from the first location into a second location in the main memory of the storage server, where the data in the second location indexing the data elements in the long-term data storage in a second manner.“

The patent application was filed on July 3, 2012 (13/541,466).

Class based storage allocation
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,043,279) developed by Yucel, Sakir, Wexford, PA, and Sangpachatanaruk, Chatree, Wexford, PA, for a “class based storage allocation method and system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method and system for allocating shared storage using one or more classification schemes is provided. One allocation method receives a storage request for provisioning storage from a class storage group configurable to share storage with more than one filesystems. Part of fulfilling this request includes associating a class and at least one corresponding storage allocation constraint with the storage request. The one or more storage allocation constraints can be used subsequently to determine if there is a sufficient amount of shared storage in the class storage group to fulfill the request. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention use at least one storage allocation constraint in determining if the storage allocation constraint for the class associated with the storage request allows allocation of shared storage to fulfill the request. When the storage allocation constraint allows, one implementation performs a provisioning of storage from the shared storage in class storage group.“

The patent application was filed on August 31, 2009 (12/551,484).

Providing unified storage system that supports file/object duality
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,043,277) developed by Slik, David, Burnaby, CA, for a “system and method for providing a unified storage system that supports file/object duality.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Methods and systems that permit file protocols and object protocols to co-exist using a file namespace and an object namespace in a unified storage system are disclosed. Data stored in the unified storage system are file-objects that preserve the behaviors expected by both file clients and object clients.“

The patent application was filed on November 22, 2013 (14/088,026).

Identifying underutilized storage capacity
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,043,184) developed by Gabay, Yarom, Newton, MA, Rosa, Francisco Jose Assis, Sudbury, MA, and Gilboa, Ran, Cambridge, MA, for a “system and method for identifying underutilized storage capacity.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Described herein is a system and method for detecting underutilized capacity within a storage system environment. The technique comprises collecting performance data of various storage objects within a storage system environment for various performance measures at designated time intervals. The collected performance data may be formatted and stored to a database. One or more parameters may be received specifying at least one performance measure, at least one threshold value, and/or at least one time period. The performance data for target storage objects may be analyzed according to the received parameters to determine any underutilized storage objects. A report may be generated according to the parameters listing the storage objects and address locations of any underutilized storage objects. The report may comprise various information corresponding to the underutilized storage object, such as the business units, tiers, data centers, and levels of service they are associated with.“

The patent application was filed on October 12, 2011 (13/272,138).

Comparative load analysis in storage networks
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,042,263) developed by Yahalom, Raphael, Needham, MA, and Levy, Assaf, Brookline, MA, for a “systems and methods for comparative load analysis in storage networks.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Methods and systems for collecting, analyzing, and presenting traffic loads in each part of a storage area network are described. These methods and systems account for various resource types, logical access paths, and relationships among different storage environment components. Data traffic flow is managed in terms of resource planning and consumption. The aggregated information is stored, and may be used to estimate future data traffic loads or determine deviations between projected and actual traffic load status from which adjustments may be made to better predict and manage future data traffic load.“

The patent application was filed on April 7, 2008 (12/080,946).

Computer program products providing feedback for network congestion management
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,042,227) developed by Scheffenegger, Richard M., Vienna, Austria, for a “systems, methods, and computer program products providing feedback for network congestion management.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A computer program product having a computer readable medium tangibly recording computer program logic for providing feedback in a network, the computer program product including code to receive first data and second data over the network at a receiving device, code to increment a first counter and a second counter in response to the first data and second data, respectively, code to generate a plurality of feedback signals reflecting states of the first and second counters using at least three bits, the bits defining a set of code points mapped to the states of the first and second counters so that each individual code point represents a different one of the states and each one of the states is represented by one code point, and code to transmit the plurality of feedback signals to a sending device in the network.“

The patent application was filed on January 17, 2012 (13/351,372).

SCSI IO referral
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,037,900) developed by Fredin, Gerald J., Wichita, KS, Spry, Andrew J., Wichita, KS, Gibson, Kenneth J., Lafayette, CO, and Zwisler, Ross E., Lafayette, CO, for a “small computer system interface input output, (SCSI IO) referral.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”The method includes receiving a command at a first storage system of a block storage cluster. The command is transmitted by the initiator system to the first storage system via a network and includes a request for data. The method further includes transferring the stored data from the first storage system to the initiator system via the network when data requested in the data request is stored by the first storage system. The method further includes transmitting a referral response from the first storage system to the initiator system when a portion of the data requested in the data request is not stored by the first storage system, but is stored by a second storage. system of the block storage cluster.“

The patent application was filed on July 16, 2014 (14/333,257).

Speculative copying of data from main buffer cache to solid-state secondary cache of storage server
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,037,800) developed by Ellard, Daniel J., Belmont, MA, for a “speculative copying of data from main buffer cache to solid-state secondary cache of a storage server.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A network storage server includes a main buffer cache to buffer writes requested by clients before committing them to primary persistent storage. The server further uses a secondary cache, implemented as low-cost, solid-state memory, such as flash memory, to store data evicted from the main buffer cache or data read from the primary persistent storage. To prevent bursts of writes to the secondary cache, data is copied from the main buffer cache to the secondary cache speculatively, before there is a need to evict data from the main buffer cache. Data can be copied to the secondary cache as soon as the data is marked as clean in the main buffer cache. Data can be written to secondary cache at a substantially constant rate, which can be at or close to the maximum write rate of the secondary cache.“

The patent application was filed on June 14, 2013 (13/918,804).

Simple scale-out storage clusters
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,037,671) developed by Weber, Bret S., Wichita, KS, El-Batal, Mohamad, Westminster, CO, and Delaney, William P., Wichita, KS, for a “system and method for simple scale-out storage clusters.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Systems and associated methods for flexible scalability of storage systems. In one aspect, a storage controller may include an interface to a fabric adapted to permit each storage controller coupled to the fabric to directly access memory mapped components of all other storage controllers coupled to the fabric. The CPU and other master device circuits within a storage controller may directly address memory an I/O devices directly coupled thereto within the same storage controller and may use RDMA features to directly address memory an I/O devices of other storage controllers through the fabric interface.“

The patent application was filed on October 24, 2013 (14/062,440).

Snapshots and clones of volumes in storage system
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,037,544) developed by Zheng, Ling, Saratoga, CA, Lewis, Blake H., Los Altos Hills, CA, and Patel, Kayuri H., Cupertino, CA, for a “snapshots and clones of volumes in a storage system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”In one embodiment, snapshots and/or clones of storage objects are created and managed by a volume layer of a storage input/output, (I/O) stack executing on one or more nodes of a cluster. Illustratively, the snapshots and clones may be represented as independent volumes, and embodied as respective read-only copies, (snapshots) and read-write copies, (clones) of a parent volume. Volume metadata is illustratively organized as one or more multi-level dense tree metadata structures, wherein each level of the dense tree metadata structure, (dense tree) includes volume metadata entries for storing the metadata. Each snapshot/clone may be derived from a dense tree of the parent volume, parent dense tree). Portions of the parent dense tree may be shared with the snapshot/clone.“

The patent application was filed on January 23, 2014 (14/162,106).

Centralized storage of storage system resource data using directory server
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,037,532) developed by Pradhan, Gyanendra, Sunnyvale, CA, and Cai, Bingxue, San Jose, CA, for a “centralized storage of storage system resource data using a directory server.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method for centralized storage and management of resource data associated with storage servers includes operating multiple storage servers, each configured to provide a set of clients with access to data stored in a set of mass storage devices, and using a directory server, which is coupled to the storage servers via a network. The directory server stores and provides access to configuration information for configuring the plurality of storage servers.“

The patent application was filed on April 27, 2005 (11/116,679).

Redundant memory system and associated method thereof
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,036,444) developed by Silberman, Joshua, San Francisco, CA, Ando, Wayne, San Jose, CA, Robles, David, Granite Bay, CA, and McGovern, William, San Jose, CA, for a “redundant memory system and associated method thereof.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Method and system are provided for handling data when power failure from a primary power source of a storage system is detected. The system provides a first memory and a second memory. The first memory is primarily used to store data when the primary power source is operating. If a power failure is detected, a first indicator is set to indicate that data is stored or being transferred to the second memory. Thereafter, data is transferred from the first memory to the second memory. Any errors during the transfer are logged. Once power is restored, data is transferred back to the first memory. A second indicator is set to indicate that there is no data at the second memory.“

The patent application was filed on March 10, 2011 (13/045,287).