EMC Assigned Fourteen Patents

Continuous backup of storage device
EMC Corp., Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,677,087) developed by David Meiri, Cambridge, MA, and Magnus Bjornsson, West Newton, MA, for the “continuous backup of a storage device.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Continuous backup from a local storage device to a remote storage device includes subdividing the local storage device into subsections, providing a time indicator that is modified periodically, and, in response to a request to write new data to a particular subsection of the local storage device at a particular time, maintaining at the remote storage device data being overwritten by the new data according to the particular subsection and according to a value of the indicator at the particular time. Providing continuous backup from a local storage device to a remote storage device may also include restoring the local storage device to a state thereof at a particular point in time by writing the maintained data to the remote storage device and transferring the data from the remote storage device to the local storage device.”

The patent application was filed on Jan. 3, 2006 (11/325,078).

Snapshotting of performance storage system in system
for performance improvement of capacity optimized storage system
EMC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,677,052) developed by R. Hugo Patterson, Los Altos, CA, for “snapshotting of a performance storage system in a system for performance improvement of a capacity optimized storage system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A system for storing data comprises a performance storage system for storing one or more data items. A data item of the one or more data items comprises a data file or a data block. The system further comprises a segment storage system for storing a snapshot of a stored data item of the one or more data items in the performance storage system. The taking of the snapshot of the stored data item enables recall of the stored data item as stored at the time of the snapshot. At least one newly written segment is stored as a reference to a previously stored segment.”

The patent application was filed on Sept. 21, 2010 (12/887,402).

Storage system modeling
EMC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,688,878) developed by seven co-inventors for “data storage system modeling.”

The co-inventors are Sean C. Dolan, Belmont, MA, Hui Wang, Upton, MA, Marik Marshak, Newton, MA, Xiaomei Liu, Natick, MA, Owen Martin, Hopedale, MA, Alexandr Veprinsky, Brookline, MA, and Ahmet Kirac, Guttenberg, NJ.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Described is data storage system modeling. Received at a first data storage system is information representing a workload for I/O operations directed to a logical devices having storage provisioned on physical devices of a second data storage system. Information representing the workload may be obtained by performing discovery processing to discover performance characteristics of the physical devices of the second data storage system. Discovery processing may include receiving, at the first data storage system, I/O operations from a client directed to the set of one or more logical devices having storage provisioned on the physical devices of the second data storage system. The I/O operations are then issued to the second data storage system. In response, performance data is obtained at the first data storage system representing the workload for the plurality of I/O operations. Performance of the second data storage system is modeled in accordance with the workload.”

The patent application was filed on June 29, 2012 (13/538,245).

Initializing NAS for DR
EMC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,700,575) developed by three co-inventors for a system and method “for initializing a NAS system for DR.”

The co-inventors are Karthikeyan Srinivasan, Westborough, MA, Royce T. Dean, and Xun Tian, Apex, NC.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method and system for initializing a NAS system having disaster recovery capabilities uses a communication link disposed between control stations of a source and destination NAS to enable the destination NAS to consolidate configuration and mapping information at a centralized location, thereby enabling validation of disk mirroring and mapping of standby components to be performed in a consistent manner.”

The patent application was filed on June 28, 2007 (11/770,059).

Obtaining information about storage system
EMC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,700,669) developed by five co-inventors for techniques “for obtaining information about a storage system.“

The co-inventors are Keith John Glidewell, Chapel Hill, NC, Michael Bassily, Durham, NC, Jeffrey Brown, Shrewsbury, MA, Brian Tetreault, Framingham, MA, and Stephen Todd, Shrewsbury, MA.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Described are techniques for obtaining information about a data storage system. Boot code is executed on the data storage system and determines whether a flag is set. If the flag is set, an agent is executed which communicates with a central location at predetermined time intervals. At a first predetermined time interval, a first message is sent to the central location polling for a pending work item. If there are any work items pending for the data storage system, first processing is performed which includes sending a second message to the data storage system indicating whether there are any pending work items for the data storage system and including at least one work item if there are any pending work items. The at least one work item describes second processing to obtain first information about a state of the data storage system.“

The patent application was filed on Dec. 21, 2009 (12/653,790).

Determining physical storage space of de-dupe storage system
EMC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,700,578) developed by three co-inventors for a system and method “for determining physical storage space of a deduplicated storage system.”

The co-inventors are Srikant Varadan, San Jose, CA, Dheer Moghe, Belmont, CA, and Sazzala Reddy, Los Altos, CA.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Exemplary methods, apparatuses, and systems maintain a plurality of summary data structures corresponding to a plurality of logical file system namespaces representing a plurality of hierarchies of one or more directories having one or more files, each file being stored in the storage system as a plurality of segments in a deduplicated manner. In response to a request to estimate a storage usage by a first of the file system namespace, identify a first of the summary data structures corresponding to the first file system namespace, wherein the first summary data structure stores information summarizing deduplicated segments referenced by one or more files of the first file system namespace. Estimate the storage usage of the first file system namespace based on the first summary data structure and a global summary data structure, wherein the global summary data structure stores information summarizing deduplicated segments referenced by all of the file system namespaces.”

The patent application was filed on Sept. 27, 2012 (13/629,573).

Storage server having common replication architecture
for multiple storage object types
EMC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,706,833) developed by five co-inventors for “a storage server having common replication architecture for multiple storage object types.”

The co-inventors are John M. Hayden, Holliston, MA, Santosh Pasula Reddy, Marlborough, MA, Milena Bergant, North Grafton, MA, Himabindu Tummala, South Grafton, MA, and Daniel Zhu, Nashua, NH.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A data storage server is programmed with common software modules for management, version control, and scheduling of replication of data storage objects of multiple data storage object types. The multiple data storage object types include iSCSI LUNs, file systems, virtual servers, directories, and files. The version control determines if two data storage objects are the same or have a common base so that only a difference needs to be transmitted for replication or restoration. The scheduler controls the timing of snapshot creation and deletion, and replication transmission to one or more remote destinations. The scheduler may ensure that a replica of a data storage object is out-of-sync with the original of the data storage object by no more than a specified amount of time.”

The patent application was filed on Dec. 8, 2006 (11/608,770).

Virtual storage machine
EMC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,706,959) developed by five co-inventors for a method and system “for creating a virtual array in a physical array.”

The co-inventors are David Meiri, Cambridge, MA, George M. Navindra, Shrewsbury, MA, Dan Arnon, Somerville, MA, Patrick Brian Riordan, Watertown, MA, and Ian Wigmore, Westborough, MA.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The disclosure relates to a method and system for creating a virtual array in a physical array. Unassigned whole volumes in at least one physical array are identified. The identified volumes are associated with a first virtual array. Unique names are given to the identified volumes. At least one path is assigned to the first virtual array. The first virtual array may be associated with a second virtual array. Data may be migrated or replicated from the first virtual array to the second virtual array using existing array services.”

The patent application was filed on June 30, 2009 (12/459,474).

Adding file based storage hardware to block based storage system
EMC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,700,832) developed by five co-inventors for a method “for adding file based storage hardware to a block based storage system.”

The co-inventors are Ashok Ramakrishnan, Morrisville, NC, Mohamed Elayouty, Cary, NC, Phillip Leef, Brookline, MA, Russell R. Laporte, Webster, MA, and Ping He, Cary, NC.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for adding file based storage hardware to a block based storage system includes detecting, by the file based storage hardware, an electrical coupling between the file based storage hardware and the block based storage system, the block based storage system having a set of logical units (LUs) predefined as file based storage hardware specific LUs. The method includes forwarding, by the file based storage hardware, an initiator record to the block based storage system, the initiator record configured to control access by the file based storage hardware to data stored by the block based storage system and the initiator record having a file based storage hardware specific identifier. The method includes, following the block based storage system associating the initiator record having the file based storage hardware specific identifier with the predefined file based storage hardware specific LUs, establishing a communication path with the block based storage system.”

The patent application was filed on Dec. 13, 2010 (12/966,415).

Managing storage by provisioning cache as virtual device
EMC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,694,724) developed by two co-inventors for “managing storage by provisioning cache as a virtual device.”

The co-inventors are Thomas E. Linnell, Northborough, MA, and Walter A. O’Brien, III, Westborough, MA.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “There is disclosed a technique for use in managing data storage. In one embodiment, the technique comprises managing data storage in a data storage system comprising a cache and data storage devices arranged in a RAID configuration. The technique also comprises detecting the state of the data storage devices and provisioning at least a portion of the cache as a virtual hot spare device in response to detecting a failure state in connection with a data storage device.”

The patent application was filed on Sept. 6, 2011 (13/225,912).

Replicating data chunks in storage system
EMC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,712,963) developed by three co-inventors for techniques for “replicating data chunks in a storage system.”

The co-inventors are Frederick Douglis, Basking Ridge, NJ, Grant Wallace, Pennington, NJ, and Philip N. Shilane, Yardley, PA.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Techniques for replicating data chunks in a storage system are described herein. In one embodiment, in response to a request for replicating data chunks of a source storage system having a first average chunk size to a target storage system having a second average chunk size, a new chunk size is determined based on metadata of the data chunks in view of an average chunk size of the target storage system. The data chunks are resized based on the new chunk size to generate resized data chunks. The resized data chunks are transmitted from the source storage system to the target storage system for replication.”

The patent application was filed on Dec. 22, 2011 (13/334,723).

Large scale storage system with fault tolerance
EMC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,713,282) developed by two co-inventors for a “large scale storage system with fault tolerance.”

The co-inventors are Windsor W. Hsu, San Jose, CA, and Abhishek Rajimwale, Santa Clara, CA.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “According to one embodiment, a large scale data storage system with fault tolerance is described. In one example, a system includes a plurality of storage partitions, each partition including a portion of a large scale data store, and metadata corresponding to the portion of the large scale data store. At least one partition includes namespace metadata for the large scale data store including namespace data for a portion of the large scale data store outside the at least one partition.”

The patent application was filed on March 31, 2011 (13/077,679).

Providing storage for electronic records
EMC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,707,438) developed by Windsor W. Hsu, San Jose, CA, for system and method for “providing storage for electronic records.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Techniques for providing storage for electronic records are described herein. According to one embodiment, a command is received from a client through an interface of a storage system. An approval is received from an authorization agent associated with the storage system for the received command. In response to the approval received from the authorization agent for the received command, an operation associated with the received command is performed. Other methods and apparatuses are also described.“

The patent application was filed on Oct. 9, 2008 (12/248,297).

Storage server having common replication architecture
for multiple storage object types
EMC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,706,833) developed by five co-inventors for “a data storage server having common replication architecture for multiple storage object types.”

The co-inventors are John M. Hayden, Holliston, MA, Santosh Pasula Reddy, Marlborough, MA, Milena Bergant, North Grafton, MA, Himabindu Tummala, South Grafton, MA, and Daniel Zhu, Nashua, NH.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ” A data storage server is programmed with common software modules for management, version control, and scheduling of replication of data storage objects of multiple data storage object types. The multiple data storage object types include iSCSI LUNs, file systems, virtual servers, directories, and files. The version control determines if two data storage objects are the same or have a common base so that only a difference needs to be transmitted for replication or restoration. The scheduler controls the timing of snapshot creation and deletion, and replication transmission to one or more remote destinations. The scheduler may ensure that a replica of a data storage object is out-of-sync with the original of the data storage object by no more than a specified amount of time.“

The patent application was filed on Dec. 8, 2006 (11/608,770).