VMware Assigned Three Patents

Updating software on dormant disks
VMware, Inc., Palo Alto, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,949,817) developed by Le, Bich Cau, San Jose, CA, Deuel, Robert F., Menlo Park, CA, Raghuram, Sirishkumar, Sunnyvale, CA, and Zheng, Yufeng, San Jose, CA for a “updating software on dormant disks.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “In a method of updating software on a dormant disk, exposed files are accessed. The exposed files are exposed by mounting the dormant disk. The exposed files are scanned to determine the status of software residing on the dormant disk. The scanning is achieved without requiring booting of the dormant disk. It is determined whether an update is available for the software residing on the dormant disk.“

The patent application was filed on August 26, 2013 (14/010,170).

Automated space management for server flash cache
VMware, Inc., Palo Alto, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,949,531) developed by Uttamchandani, Sandeep, Cupertino, CA, Zhou, Li, Campbell, CA, Meng, Fei, Raleigh, NC, and Liu, Deng, Mountain View, CA, for a “automated space management for server flash cache.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Techniques for automatically allocating space in a flash storage-based cache are provided. In one embodiment, a computer system collects I/O trace logs for a plurality of virtual machines or a plurality of virtual disks and determines cache utility models for the plurality of virtual machines or the plurality of virtual disks based on the I/O trace logs. The cache utility model for each virtual machine or each virtual disk defines an expected utility of allocating space in the flash storage-based cache to the virtual machine or the virtual disk over a range of different cache allocation sizes. The computer system then calculates target cache allocation sizes for the plurality of virtual machines or the plurality of virtual disks based on the cache utility models and allocates space in the flash storage-based cache based on the target cache allocation sizes.“

The patent application was filed on December 4, 2012 (13/693,976).

Management of Object storage system
VMware, Inc., Palo Alto, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,949,570) developed by Desai, Komal, Fremont, CA, and Vaghani, Satyam B., San Jose, CA, for a “management system and methods for object storage system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The storage system exports logical storage volumes that are provisioned as storage objects. These storage objects are accessed on demand by connected computer systems using standard protocols, such as SCSI and NFS, through logical endpoints for the protocol traffic that are configured in the storage system. To facilitate creation and management of logical storage volumes, special application programming interfaces, APIs) have been developed. The special APIs include commands to create a logical storage volume, bind, unbind, and rebind the logical storage volume, extend the size of the logical storage volume, clone the logical storage volume, and move the logical storage volume.“

The patent application was filed on May 8, 2014 (14/273,423).