Dell Assigned Twenty One Patents

Supporting full volume encryption devices in client hosted virtualization system
Dell Products, LP, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,235,708) developed by Konetski, David, Austin, TX, Stufflebeam, Kenneth W., Georgetown, TX, and Dandekar, Shree, Round Rock, TX, for a “system and method for supporting full volume encryption devices in a client hosted virtualization system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A client hosted virtualization system includes a full volume encryption, (FVE) storage device, a processor, and non-volatile memory with BIOS code and virtualization manager code. The virtualization manager initializes the client hosted virtualization system, authenticates a virtual machine image, launches the virtual machine based on the image, receives a transaction from the virtual machine targeted to the FVE storage device, sends the transaction to the FVE storage device, receives a response from the FVE storage device, and sends the first response to the first virtual machine. The client hosted virtualization system is configurable to execute the BIOS or the virtualization manager.“

The patent application was filed on May 16, 2013 (13/895,925).

Datastore for non-overwriting storage devices
Dell Products, LP, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,235,352) developed by Snaman, Jr., William Edward, Nashua, NH, and Hsu-Hung, Damon, Providence, RI, for a “datastore for non-overwriting storage devices.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”The invention pertains to a method and information handling system, (IHS) for writing data to non-overwriting storage devices. A set of bands are determined per non-overwriting storage device. Then multiple pools of storage space, to which data can be written, commensurate with the determined bands are provided. A file system configured to manage the determined multiple pools of storage space and be non-WIP is provided, where the provided file system writes data to the multiple pools of storage space. The IHS includes: a non-overwriting storage device, a module for determining a set of bands per non-overwriting storage device, multiple pools of storage space commensurate with the determined set of bands and a file system configured to be non-WIP and configured to manage the multiple pools of storage space. The file system writes data to the multiple pools of storage space.“

The patent application was filed on November 21, 2012 (13/683,905).

Information handling system swappable boot storage device
Dell Products, LP, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,229,799) developed by Darnall, James, and Pereira, David M., Austin, TX, for a “information handling system swappable boot storage device.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A storage device actuator on an information handling system accepts an end user input to eject a first non-volatile storage device that stores the operating system running on the information handling system. Boot logic running on firmware of the information handling system initiates a shutdown of the operating system at the information handling system in response to an eject actuation and then permits ejection of the first non-volatile storage device. The storage device actuator detects insertion of a second non-volatile storage device into the information handling system and in response to the detection of the insertion initiates a boot by the boot logic of an operating system stored on the second non-volatile storage device..“

The patent application was filed on August 22, 2011 (13/215,051).

Write spike performance enhancement in hybrid storage systems
Dell Products, LP, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,229,653) developed by McHale, Gregory J., Brookline, NH, Nadeau, Brian G., Nashua, NH, Panner, Brian K., Windham, NH, Hunter, Peter J., Amherst, NH, Hsu-Hung, Damon, Sudbury, MA, and Lacy, Janice, Temple, NH, for a “write spike performance enhancement in hybrid storage systems.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”In an embodiment, a hybrid storage array one uses two or more storage device tiers provided by solid state drives, (SSDs) and hard disk drives, (HDDs). Random writes are collected and written to a write cache extension, such as a portion of the SSD storage tier. The write cache extension absorbs such accesses that would otherwise be written to HDD storage directly. Data structures are created in a cache memory local to an array controller representing the location on the write cache extension to which the writes were committed and a location in the storage system where they were originally intended to go. The write cache extension can be enabled all of the time, or only when the array controller write cache experiences certain operating conditions, such as when its utilization exceeds a predetermined amount. The approach improves the overall performance of the hybrid array.“

The patent application was filed on July 2, 2014 (14/322,181).

Supplemental storage tray for increasing storage capacity
within information handling system
Dell Products, LP, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,229,496) developed by Cravens, Zachary A., and, Hamand, Karl Isaac, Round Rock, TX, for a “supplemental storage tray for increasing storage capacity within an information handling system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”An information handling system includes a chassis having walls that define an interior cavity within the chassis. A backplane is mounted to a bottom wall of the chassis and a processor is connected to the backplane. A primary storage device is connected to the chassis and is communicatively coupled to the processor. A supplemental storage tray has perimeter plates that define a bay within the supplemental storage tray. The supplemental storage tray is suspended above the processor by at least one wall of the chassis. A supplemental storage device is disposed in the bay and is communicatively coupled to the processor. The supplemental storage device provides additional storage capacity to the information handling system.“

The patent application was filed on August 8, 2013 (13/962,004).

Storage and retrieval of neighboring switch tokens
Dell Products, LP, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,225,670) developed by Janardhanan, Pathangi Narasimhan, Tamilnadu, India, for a “system and method for storage and retrieval of neighboring switch tokens.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A system and method for storage and retrieval of neighboring switch tokens includes a switch including one or more processors, memory storing a first token, and a first port configured to couple the switch to a second switch. The one or more processors are configured to send a first token storage request to the second switch, send a first token retrieval request to the second switch requesting the information associated with the first token, and receive a first retrieved token message from the second switch. The first token storage request includes information associated with the first token. The first retrieved token message includes first information associated with the first token.“

The patent application was filed on February 28, 2013 (13/781,232).

Pro-active MPIO based rate limiting
to avoid iSCSI network congestion/incast for clustered storage systems
Dell Products, LP, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,219,671) developed by Chinnaiah Sankaran, Ananda M., Round Rock, TX, and Zabka, Ireneusz Jan, Austin, TX, for a “pro-active MPIO based rate limiting to avoid iSCSI network congestion/incast for clustered storage systems.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”In an embodiment, a method of managing inbound throughput for at least one storage read request can include analyzing, at a server, a given storage read request to determine required network throughput at network ports of the server. Each of the storage read requests can be directed to a storage device. The method can further include queuing, at the server, the given storage read request if the required throughput of the given storage read request combined with throughput of outstanding storage read requests previously sent to the storage device saturates the available bandwidth of the network ports of the server. The method can additionally include sending the given storage request from the server to the storage device if the required throughput of the storage read request along with throughput of the outstanding read requests is below the level of available bandwidth of the network ports of the server.“

The patent application was filed on December 6, 2013 (14/099,500).

Storage device security system
Dell Products, LP, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,218,301) developed by Gupta, Chitrak, Kolkata, India, and Basavarajaiah, Sushma, Tumkur, India, for a “storage device security system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A storage device security system includes a server that is coupled to a storage device, a storage controller, a configuration IHS, and a remote access controller. The remote access controller receives a storage device access key request and a storage controller Globally Unique Identifier, (GUID) from the storage controller. The remote access controller also receives a server GUID from the server. The remote access controller also receives a security key from the configuration IHS over a network. The remote access controller is configured to use a remote access controller Media Access Control, (MAC) address, the storage controller GUID, the server IHS GUID, and the security key to generate a storage device access key. The remote access controller may then provide the storage device access key to the storage controller, and storage controller may use the storage device access key to access the storage device coupled to the server IHS.“

The patent application was filed on October 24, 2013 (14/061,841).

Intercept of UEFI block I/O protocol services for BIOS
based hard drive encryption support
Dell Products, LP, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,208,105) developed by Joshi, Anand Prakash, Round Rock, TX, and Tonry, Richard M., Austin, TX, for a “system and method for intercept of UEFI block I/O protocol services for BIOS based hard drive encryption support.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”An information handling system and method performs Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, (UEFI) interception and pre-processing of data associated with block input/output, (I/O) commands targeting encrypted storage devices. A UEFI interceptor block, (IB) I/O driver intercepts each block I/O command targeting block addresses on a storage device and identifies whether any of the target block addresses is encrypted. In response to identifying an encrypted block address among the target block addresses, the UEFI IB I/O driver forwards data associated with the encrypted block address to an encryption-decryption module to perform one of an encryption and a decryption of the data. Final handling of the block I/O command is performed using a block I/O driver chained to the UEFI IB I/O driver. Data associated with I/O commands targeting encrypted block addresses is first processed by the encryption-decryption module before final handling of the I/O command is performed by the block I/O driver.“

The patent application was filed on May 30, 2013 (13/905,200).

Storage optimization manager
Dell Products, LP, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,201,890) developed by Jayaraman, Vinod, San Francisco, CA, Dinkar, Abhijit, Taylor, Mark, San Jose, CA, Rao, Goutham, Los Altos, CA, Root, Michael E., San Jose, CA, and Bashyam, Murali, Fremont, CA, for a “storage optimization manager.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Techniques and mechanisms provide a storage optimization manager. Data may be optimized and maintained on various nodes in a cluster. Particular nodes may be overburdened while other nodes remain relatively unused. Techniques are provided to efficiently optimize data onto nodes to enhance operational efficiency. Data access requests for optimized data are monitored and managed to allow for intelligent maintenance of optimized data.“

The patent application was filed on June 10, 2011 (13/158,292).

Restoring temporal locality in global and local deduplication storage systems
Dell Products, LP, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,201,800) developed by Bolla, Ratna, Hyderabad, India, and Jayaraman, Vinod, San Franisco, CA, for a “restoring temporal locality in global and local deduplication storage systems.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Techniques and mechanisms described herein facilitate the restoration temporal locality in global and local deduplication storage systems. According to various embodiments, when it is determined that cache memory in a storage system has reached a capacity threshold, each of a plurality of data dictionary entries stored in the cache memory may be associated with a respective merge identifier. Each data dictionary entry may correspond with a respective data chunk. Each data dictionary entry may indicate a storage location of the respective data chunk in the storage system. The respective merge identifier may indicate temporal locality information about the respective data chunk. The plurality of data dictionary entries may be stored to disk memory in the storage system. Each of the stored plurality of data dictionary entries may include the respective merge identifier.“

The patent application was filed on July 8, 2013 (13/936,344).

Network switching system using software defined networking applications
Dell Products, LP, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,197,548) developed by Nguyen, Cuong, Austin, TX, Hamdi, Rabah S., Spring, TX, and Farrell, Joseph B., Austin, TX, for a “network switching system using software defined networking applications.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A network switching system includes a storage device including a plurality of application-provided flow-based rules provided by a plurality of applications. A packet processor is coupled to the storage device and includes a flow-based handler that is operable to receive a packet, determine that the packet is associated with a flow session, and associate a plurality of the application-provided flow-based rules with the packet based the association of the packet with the flow session. The packet processor also includes a flow-based rule processing engine that is operable to determine a priority for the plurality of application-provided flow-based rules and apply at least one of the plurality of application-provided flow-based rules to the packet according to the priority. The system allows a plurality of SDN applications to operate in a network switching system independently and without knowledge of each other.“

The patent application was filed on August 15, 2012 (13/586,550).

User configuration of device names
Dell Products, LP, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,195,580) developed by Cantwell, Thomas, Liberty Hill, TX, and Nijhawan, Vijay B., Austin, TX, for a “systems and methods for user configuration of device names.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A system includes a device, a BIOS, and a processor. The BIOS includes a storage operable to store predefined identifier/user defined name pairs. The processor is operable to, detect the device, determine a predefined identifier for the device, and access the storage to locate a predefined identifier/user defined name pair corresponding to the predefined identifier. The processor is further operable to provide a user defined name of the predefined identifier/user defined name pair when the predefined identifier/user defined name pair is present, and provide the predefined identifier of the predefined identifier/user defined name pair when the predefined identifier/user defined name pair is not present.“

The patent application was filed on February 21, 2013 (13/772,610).

Mirroring virtual functions in chassis configured
to receive plurality of modular information handling systems
and plurality of modular information handling resources
Dell Products, LP, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,195,483) developed by Devarapalli, Kiran Kumar, and Koladi, Krishnaprasad, Bangalore, India, for a “systems and methods for mirroring virtual functions in a chassis configured to receive a plurality of modular information handling systems and a plurality of modular information handling resources.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method may include, in a chassis configured to receive a plurality of modular information handling systems and a plurality of modular information handling resources, exposing a first virtual function instantiated on a management processor disposed in the chassis to a switch interfaced between a modular information handling system and the management processor. The method may also include communicating, by the management processor, an input/output request from the modular information handling system received by the first virtual function to at least one of a second virtual function instantiated on a first storage controller communicatively coupled to the management processor and a third virtual function instantiated on a second storage controller communicatively coupled to the management processor. The method may further include receiving, by the management processor, an acknowledgment of completion of the input/output request from at least one of the second virtual function and the third virtual function.“

The patent application was filed on January 28, 2013 (13/751,291).

Accessing storage resources
Dell Products, LP, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,189,286) developed by Lambert, Timothy M., Austin, TX, Hoang, Quy N., Round Rock, TX, and Dube, Shawn Joel, Austin, TX, for a “system and method for accessing storage resources.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Systems and methods for accessing configurable storage resources are provided. In some embodiments, an access controller for use in an information handling system is provided. The access controller may include a processor, a plurality of configurable storage resources coupled to the processor, and a network interface communicatively coupled to the processor and configured to allow simultaneous in-band and out-of-band access to the plurality of configurable storage resources. The processor may be configured to determine a configuration of the plurality of configurable storage resources, map the configuration to the plurality of configurable storage resources, and execute an application for managing the simultaneous access of the plurality of configurable storage resources.“

The patent application was filed on January 14, 2010 (12/687,475).

Data storage device carrier system
Dell Products, LP, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,176,915) developed by Fu, Chi-Chang, Banciao, Taiwan, Huang, Kuo Ching, Taipei, Taiwan, Su, Feng-Cheng, Chiayi County, Taiwan, and Yelinek, Jason Alan, Diamond Bar, CA, for a “data storage device carrier system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A data storage device carrier system includes a carrier configured to support one or more data storage devices, a backplane, including one or more coupling connector devices configured to electrically couple with a motherboard, and an interposer board operable to couple a plurality of the data storage devices supported by the carrier with the backplane. In an embodiment, the one or more coupling connector devices are operable to transfer communication signals and electrical power. The interposer board is operable to provide the electrical power from a single port on the backplane to each of the plurality of the data storage devices. The interposer board is also operable to pass communication signals between a primary port on the backplane to a first one of the plurality of the data storage devices, and to pass communication signals between a secondary port on the backplane to a second one of the plurality of the data storage devices.“

The patent application was filed on April 30, 2009 (12/433,544).

Thermal control of storage enclosure
Dell Products, LP, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,176,564) developed by Coxe, Jr., William K., Round Rock, TX, and Mundt, Kevin, Austin, TX, for a “systems and methods for thermal control of a storage enclosure.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”In accordance with these and other embodiments of the present disclosure, a controller for thermal control of an enclosure comprising one or more storage resources may be configured to receive an indication of a physical quantity indicative of a power delivered from at least one power supply module to information handling resources of the enclosure. The controller may also be configured to, based on the physical quantity indicative of the power delivered from the at least one power supply module, determine a desired rate of the flow of air from at least one air mover configured to cool one or more storage resources received by the enclosure by delivering a flow of air within the storage enclosure and cause the at least one air mover to deliver the flow of air in accordance with the desired rate.“

The patent application was filed on December 18, 2013 (14/132,196).

Dynamically detecting storage drive type
Dell Products, LP, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,164,862) developed by Paul, Indrani, Round Rock, TX, and Loffink, John S., Raleigh, NC, for a “system and method for dynamically detecting storage drive type.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”An information handling system includes a cable, a backplane, and a processor. The cable is connected to a storage controller of the information handling system. The backplane is configured to connect a drive to the information handling system. The processor is in communication with the cable and with the backplane. The processor is configured to detect a presence of the drive, to output a pulse in response to the detection of the presence of the drive, to determine a first storage technology of the drive in response to the output pulse, to determine a second storage technology of the storage controller, to determine whether there is a misconfiguration between the first storage technology and the second storage technology, and to generate a notification when the misconfiguration is determined.“

The patent application was filed on September 30, 2013 (14/041,758).

Automatic failure recovery using snapshots and replicas
Dell Products, LP, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,141,495) developed by Hsu-Hung, Damon, Providence, RI, and Sasi, Kannan, Nashua, NH, for a “Automatic failure recovery using snapshots and replicas.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”In one embodiment, a method of coordinating data recovery in a storage stack with a hierarchy of layers includes, upon an input/output, (I/O) request from a layer of the stack, issuing a help response to recover the data from a higher layer in hierarchy order. The method further includes processing the help response, at the higher layer, by issuing a return code of success or further help response to an even higher layer.“

The patent application was filed on March 12, 2013 (13/796,876).

Create resilient site master-key for automated access
Dell Products, LP, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,122,888) developed by Devi, Yogesh M., Bangalore, India, for a “system and method to create resilient site master-key for automated access.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A system encrypts a private key with a master key and includes a storage device for storing a protected private key at a site location, a processor that determines a plurality of derivatives by selecting an order of site characteristics from a plurality of disjoint sets of site characteristics unique to a software installation or site location, wherein the processor applies a hash algorithm to each site characteristic. The system further includes a buffer storage device for storing an order of random selections of the site characteristics for the derivatives. The system encrypts the master key with the derivatives and additionally stores the encrypted form of the master key in a storage device.“

The patent application was filed on July 22, 2013 (13/947,352).

Backup objects on object storage platform
Dell Products, LP, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,122,647) developed by Tian, Xiaoyang, Austin, TX, Nandigam, Srikanth, Round Rock, TX, and Chen, Wendy, Austin, TX, for a “system and method to backup objects on an object storage platform.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method and system enable tape back-up of objects stored to an object storage platform and also enable efficient backup to a secondary storage device data objects. An offline-replica bit within a metadata of an object being stored is set to a first value, indicating that the stored object is available for secondary storage to a second storage device. In response to receiving a request for backup of one or more objects from the object storage platform: the storage controller: identifies which objects have an offline-replica bit value that is the first value, and provides only those objects requested that have their offline-replica bit value equal to the first value. An external backup tracking mechanism identifies which objects have been backed-up to the secondary storage, and only those objects that have not previously been backed up are backed up during a subsequent backup request.“

The patent application was filed on October 16, 2012 (13/652,675).