VMware Assigned Eleven Patents

Securing virtual machines with virtual volumes
VMware, Inc., Palo Alto, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,189,609) developed by Antony, Jinto, Bangalore, India, for a “securing virtual machines with virtual volumes.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Embodiments provide virtual volumes to virtual machines based on configuration information to secure the virtual machines. Each virtual volume, without a file system, represents a portion of a storage array and is associated with at least one of the virtual machines. A host computing device attaches the virtual volume to the virtual machine based on the configuration information. Security software executing on the virtual machine accesses security information, (e.g., encryption keys, etc.) stored in the virtual volume to provide security to the virtual machine, (e.g., during bootup). In some embodiments, the virtual volume is attached and detached from the virtual machine as a universal serial bus, (USB) device via an application programming interface to the storage array.“

The patent application was filed on June 10, 2013 (13/914,618).

Distributed, transactional key-value store
VMware, Inc., Palo Alto, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,189,513) developed by Castellano, Luca, San Jose, CA, for a “distributed, transactional key-value store.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”In one embodiment, a system for implementing a distributed, transactional key-value store is provided. The system includes a set of nodes, where each node is communicatively coupled with one or more storage devices storing a set of data log files, and where each data log file including key-value pairs for a key namespace. Each node is configured to execute, using a transaction log file specific to the node, transactions for modifying or retrieving key-value pairs in the set of data log files, where the transaction log file includes state information for the transactions. The transactions are executed in a manner that ensures the atomicity and durability of each transaction.“

The patent application was filed on August 7, 2015 (14/820,848).

Detecting and suppressing redundant input-output operations
VMware, Inc., Palo Alto, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,189,419) developed by Garthwaite, Alexander Thomas, Beverly, MA, Austruy, Maxime, Sainte-Sulpice, Switzerland, and Arya, Kapil, Boston, MA, for a “detecting and suppressing redundant input-output operations.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”In a virtual machine, swap activities of a hypervisor and a guest OS are reconciled so that redundant input-output operations, (IOs) can be avoided and a synchronous response time of the virtual machine improved. This is achieved with a map of memory pages to blocks of storage. For a write IO to write contents of a memory page into a target block, the map is examined to see if it contains a valid entry for the memory page. If the map contains the valid entry, the write IO is prevented from being issued and a data structure is updated so that subsequent IOs to the target block is redirected from the target block to a block that is associated with the physical memory page in the valid entry. On the other hand, if the map does not contain the valid entry, the write IO is issued.“

The patent application was filed on April 16, 2012 (13/448,291).

Hypervisor-based flash cache space management in multi-VM environment
VMware, Inc., Palo Alto, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,189,410) developed by Luo, Tian, Columbus, OH, and Liu, Deng, Mountain View, CA , for a “hypervisor-based flash cache space management in a multi-VM environment.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Techniques for managing space in a flash storage-based cache are provided. In one embodiment, a computer system can calculate ‘ratio of effective cache space’, (rECS) values for a plurality of VMs, where each VM has a cache allocation comprising a subset of a global pool of cache blocks in the flash storage-based cache, and where the rECS value for the VM indicates a proportion of the subset that has been populated with cached data and re-accessed by the VM within a current time window. The computer system can further determine a new cache allocation size for at least one VM in the plurality of VMs based on the rECS values. The computer system can then adjust the number of cache blocks in the at least one VM’s cache allocation based on the new cache allocation size.“

The patent application was filed on May 17, 2013 (13/897,269).

Storage architecture for VMs
VMware, Inc., Palo Alto, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,189,265) developed by Hiltgen, Daniel K., San Jose, CA, and Schmidt, Rene W., Palo Alto, CA, for a “storage architecture for virtual machines.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Some embodiments of the present invention include a method comprising: accessing units of network storage that encode state data of respective virtual machines, wherein the state data for respective ones of the virtual machines are stored in distinct ones of the network storage units such that the state data for more than one virtual machine are not commingled in any one of the network storage units.“

The patent application was filed on December 19, 2007 (11/960,460).

Lightweight remote replication of local write-back cache
VMware, Inc., Palo Alto, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,183,103) developed by Cota-Robles, Erik, Mountain View, CA, for a “lightweight remote replication of a local write-back cache.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Techniques for replicating a write-back cache are provided. In one embodiment, a first computer system can receive a write request from a virtual machine, (VM) that includes data to be written to a shared storage device. The first computer system can further save the data in a local cache device and transmit, via a network interface controller, NIC, a data packet including the data to a second computer system. Upon determining that the data packet has been transmitted via the NIC, the first computer system can communicate an acknowledgment to the VM indicating that the write request has been successfully processed.“

The patent application was filed on May 31, 2013 (13/907,341).

High availability across geographically disjoint clusters
VMware, Inc., Palo Alto, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,183,101) developed by Gondi, Anjaneya Prasad, Fremont, CA, Kalluri, Hemanth, San Jose, CA, and Kalaskar, Naveen Kumar, Sunnyvale, CA, for a “high availability across geographically disjoint clusters.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Exemplary methods, apparatuses, and systems include a first virtual infrastructure management, (VIM) server monitoring a first host device to determine if the first host device receives one or more messages within an interval of time from a first storage device indicating a failure of one or more logical disks within the first storage device. The first VIM server manages a first virtual datacenter including the first host device and the first storage device. A second VIM server manages a second virtual datacenter including a second host device and a second storage device. The logical disk is replicated on the second storage device. The first VIM server determines, that a plurality of virtual machines running on the first host device is dependent upon the logical disk(s). The first VIM server performs, in response to the dependency upon the logical disk, a failover of the virtual machines to the second host device.“

The patent application was filed on January 28, 2014 (14/166,461).

Replication of write-back cache using placeholder virtual machine
for resource management
VMware, Inc., Palo Alto, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,183,099) developed by Cota-Robles, Erik, Mountain View, CA, Farkas, Keith, San Carlos, CA, and Holler, Anne, Los Altos, CA, for a “replication of a write-back cache using a placeholder virtual machine for resource management.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Exemplary methods, apparatuses, and systems include a first host system configuring storage of the first host to serve as a primary cache for a virtual machine running on the first host. A second host system configures storage of the second host to serve as a secondary cache and boots a placeholder virtual machine. The first host transmits, in response to write operations from the virtual machine directed to the primary cache, copies of the write operations to the second host to create mirrored copies on the secondary cache. The first host acknowledges each write operation from the virtual machine when the write operation is committed to both the primary cache and the secondary cache. When the virtual machine is restarted on the second host in response to a failure or migration event, the secondary cache is promoted to serve as a new primary cache for the virtual machine.“

The patent application was filed on November 12, 2013 (14/078,185).

Implementing hybrid flash/HDD-based virtual disk files
VMware, Inc., Palo Alto, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,182,927) developed by Liu, Deng, Santa Clara, CA, Uttamchandani, Sandeep, Cupertino, CA, Zhou, Li, Campbell, CA, and Rawat, Mayank, Sunnyvale, CA, for a “techniques for implementing hybrid flash/HDD-based virtual disk files.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Techniques for utilizing flash storage as an extension of hard disk, (HDD) based storage are provided. In one embodiment, a computer system can store a first subset of blocks of a logical file in a first physical file residing on a flash storage tier, and a second subset of blocks of the logical file in a second physical file residing on an HDD storage tier. The computer system can then receive an I/O request directed to one or more blocks of the logical file and process the I/O request by accessing the flash storage tier or the HDD storage tier, the accessing being based on whether the one or more blocks are part of the first subset of blocks stored in the first physical file.“

The patent application was filed on June 28, 2013 (13/931,409).

Placing storage network device into maintenance mode
in virtualized computing environment
VMware, Inc., Palo Alto, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,164,695) developed by Antony, Jinto, and Thankappan, Sudhish Panamthanath, Bangalore, India, for a “placing a storage network device into a maintenance mode in a virtualized computing environment.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Techniques for placing a first storage network device into maintenance mode in a virtualized computing environment in which each data store is connected to at least one host computing system via a storage network device are described. In one embodiment, a first data store having an active input/output, (I/O) path to a first host computing system via the first storage network device is identified. Further, migration of virtual machine disks, (VMDKs) on the first data store and/or migration of workloads running on the first host computing system are recommended such that the VMDKs can be accessed by the workloads via any other storage network device.“

The patent application was filed on January 16, 2014 (14/156,480).

Consistent unmapping of application data
in presence of concurrent, unquiesced writers and readers
VMware, Inc., Palo Alto, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,146,766) developed by Shaikh, Faraz, Mountain View, CA, Vilayannur, Murali, Vaghani, Satyam B., and Joshi, Kiran, San Jose, CA, for a “consistent unmapping of application data in presence of concurrent, unquiesced writers and readers.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Free storage blocks previously allocated to a logical block device are released back to an underlying storage system supporting the logical block device in a manner that does not conflict with write operations that may be issued to the free storage blocks at about the same time. According to a first technique, write operations on the same storage blocks to be released are paused until the underlying storage system has completed the releasing operation or, if the write operations are issued earlier than when the underlying storage system actually performs the releasing operation, such storage blocks are not released. According to a second technique, a special file is allocated the free storage blocks, which are then made available for safe releasing.“

The patent application was filed on June 22, 2011 (13/166,486).