Dell Assigned Thirteen Patents

Dynamic enablement of storage media associated with access controller
Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,495,997) developed by Perusse, Jr., Charles T., Pflugerville, TX, Gujarathi, Manoj Sharad, Round Rock, TX, and Yacoub, Yousef, Cedar Park, TX, for a “system and method for dynamic enablement of storage media associated with an access controller.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Systems and methods for reducing problems and disadvantages associated traditional approaches to provisioning using access controllers are disclosed. A method may include storing a definition data structure in storage media associated with an access controller in an information handling system, the definition data structure including one or more parameters. The access controller may create a storage partition on the storage media based at least on the one or more parameters.“

The patent application was filed on January 6, 2009 (12/349,296).

Error simulation and code testing
Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,495,268) developed by Floeder, Anthony J., St. Anthony, MN, and Dean, Lawrence A., Vadnais Heights, MN, for a “systems and methods for error simulation and code testing.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for error simulation in a data storage subsystem providing abstractions of one or more storage devices. The method includes dividing the data storage subsystem into two or more hierarchically organized subsystems, wherein the subsystems interact using IO Request Packets, (IORPs), such that relatively higher level subsystems create and populate IORPs and pass them to relatively lower level subsystems for corresponding processing. The method further includes defining an IORP modifier configured to attach to matching IORPs based on one or more attributes of the IORP modifier and to modify at least one of the processing and one or more attributes of the IORP in order to simulate errors in the data storage subsystem.“

The patent application was filed on March 13, 2015 (14/657,239).

Virtual snapshot
Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,495,253) developed by Pittelko, Michael H., Chaska, MN, and Olson, Mark David, Bloomington, MN, for a “virtual snapshot system and method.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The present disclosure relates generally to a method and system for creating, replicating, and providing access to virtual snapshots of a disk storage block of a disk storage system or subsystem. In one embodiment, the present disclosure relates to a virtual snapshot accessible to local users of a local data storage device. The virtual snapshot may direct local users to a snapshot stored on computer-readable storage medium at a remote data storage site, but give the appearance as if data of the corresponding snapshot is stored locally. The virtual snapshot is replaced by replication of the snapshot from the remote data storage site to the local data storage device. Each snapshot may relate to data of a logical data volume, the logical data volume being an abstraction of data blocks from one or more physical storage devices.“

The patent application was filed on March 13, 2015 (14/656,998).

Continuous data backup using real time delta storage
Dell Software, Inc., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,495,252) developed by Zhu, Shunhui, San Jose, CA, Yanovsky, Boris, Saratoga, CA, Dunn, William, Cupertino, CA, and Cotton, Matthew W., Santa Clara, CA, for a “continuous data backup using real time delta storage.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A continuous data backup using real time delta storage has been presented. A backup appliance receives a backup request from a backup agent running on a computing machine to backup data on the computing machine. The computing machine is communicatively coupled to the backup appliance. Then the backup appliance performs block-based real-time backup of the data on the computing machine. The backup appliance stores backup data of the computing machine in a computer-readable storage device in the backup appliance.“

The patent application was filed on March 14, 2014 (14/214,013).

Transferring data between different raid data storage types
for current data and replay data
Dell International L.L.C., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,489,150) developed by Aszmann, Lawrence E., Prior Lake, MN, and Klemm, Michael J., Minnetonka, MN, for a “system and method for transferring data between different raid data storage types for current data and replay data.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The present disclosure relates to a data storage system including a RAID subsystem having a first and second type of RAID storage. A virtual volume configured to accept I/O is stored on the first type of RAID storage, and snapshots of the virtual volume are stored on the second type of RAID storage. A method of the present disclosure includes providing an active volume that accepts I/O and generating read-only snapshots of the volume. In certain embodiments, the active volume is converted to a snapshot. The active volume includes a first type of RAID storage, and the snapshots include a second type of RAID storage. The first type of RAID storage has a lower write penalty than the second type of RAID storage. In typical embodiments, the first type of RAID storage includes RAID 10 storage and the second type of RAID storage includes RAID 5 and/or RAID 6 storage.“

The patent application was filed on May 7, 2012 (13/465,724).

Milestone based dynamic multiple watchdog timeouts
and early failure detection
Dell Software, Inc., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,477,490) developed by Liddicott, Samuel, Wafkefield West Yorkshire, Great Britain, for a “milestone based dynamic multiple watchdog timeouts and early failure detection.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A dynamic, milestone-based solution for managing computer operations, as may be embodied by various systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media, may involve analyzing a computer operation invoked by an invoking module. The solution may involve identifying and classifying discrete steps or phases within the invoked operation and applying context-specific watchdog timers and operational milestones based on the detected phases. The solution may involve monitoring the progress of the operation and terminating the operation when an operational milestone is not achieved before an applied watchdog timer expires during a given phase.“

The patent application was filed on January 5, 2015 (14/589,760).

Software based self-encrypting drive, (SED) sleep resuming
Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,477,489) developed by Wu, Dongli, Allen, TX, for a “software based self-encrypting drive, (SED) sleep resuming method.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method that can stably and reliably resume SED from operating system power saving mode is disclosed. The solution comprises a storage lower filter driver and an extra external SCSI I/O queue. The storage lower filter driver is coupled to the storage class driver and configured to provide a SED power saving transaction in response to an operation system power function. An extra external SCSI queue and correspondingly a unique SCSI I/O queue state machine trigger mechanism are included in order to avoid overwhelming the capability of any particular host adapter. A dummy SCSI package is inserted into internal SCSI queue in last phase of operating system power down transaction so that internal SCSI queue can be activated during operation system power resuming.“

The patent application was filed on July 9, 2015 (14/795,781).

Restoring data in degraded computer system
Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,471,256) developed by Seibert, Philip M., Swierk, Todd, Huber, Gary Douglas, Andrews, Carlton A., Austin, TX, and Farhan, Munif Mohammed, Round Rock, TX, for a “systems and methods for restoring data in a degraded computer system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Methods and systems for restoring data in a degraded computer system are presented. In an embodiment, a method includes storing user data to a hard disk drive that is local to a user interface device. The method may also include storing a sub-set of the user data to a internal data storage device that is local to the user interface device. Additionally, the method may include copying the sub-set of the user data from the internal data storage device to a remote data storage device in response to a degradation of system performance of the user interface device. In an embodiment, the data may be retrieved from the internal data storage by an external system, even when the user interface device is in a degraded or unresponsive state.“

The patent application was filed on March 31, 2014 (14/231,668).

Mirroring virtual functions in chassis configured
to receive plurality of modular information handling systems
Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,471,234) developed by Devarappalli, 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 resource.“

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 October 6, 2015 (14/875,866).

Detection of elephant flows
Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,461,901) developed by Janarthanan, Kesava Vijaya Krupakaran, and Venkataswami, Balaji Venkat, TamilNadu, India, for a “system and method for detection of elephant flows.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A system and method for detection of elephant flows includes a switching device. The switching device includes one or more ports, a memory, and a control unit coupled to the ports and the memory. The control unit is configured to detect storage locations information included in one or more first messages. The storage locations information identifies a storage node and is forwarded to a computing device. The control unit is further configured to detect opening of a connection between the computing device and the storage node based one or more second messages received for forwarding on one or more of the ports and determine identifying characteristics of an elephant flow based on information associated with the connection. In some embodiments, the control unit is further configured to forward network packets using an altered forwarding strategy when the network packets are associated with the elephant flow.“

The patent application was filed on October 9, 2014 (14/510,675).

Synchronized storage system operation
Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,460,178) developed by Bashyam, Murali, Fremont, CA, and Garigala, Sreekanth, Sunnyvale, CA, for a “synchronized storage system operation.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Techniques and mechanisms described herein facilitate the performance of duplicate data block instruction identification. According to various embodiments, a data block update operation message may be received at a communications interface in a secondary storage node. The secondary storage node may be configured to store secondary data mirroring primary data stored on a primary storage node. The primary data and the secondary data may each include a respective plurality of data blocks. The data block update operation message may include a data block update instruction for updating a designated one of the plurality of secondary storage node data blocks. The data block update operation message may include a primary storage node data block sequence number designating an update operation status. When it is determined that the data block update instruction is not a duplicate, the data block update instruction may be performed.“

The patent application was filed on January 14, 2014 (14/154,961).

Single unit height storage sled with lateral storage device assembly
supporting hot-removal of storage devices
Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,456,519) developed by Bailey, Edmond, Cedar Park, TX, Pike, Jimmy, Georgetown, TX, and Vivio, Joseph Andrew, Santa Rosa, CA, for a “single unit height storage sled with lateral storage device assembly supporting hot-removal of storage devices and slidable insertion and extraction from an information handling system rack.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A rack-based information handling system, (IHS) includes a rack containing at least one chassis having a plurality of bays open to laterally receive sleds that contain a plurality of information technology, (IT) components that, when operational, enable the rack to function as an IHS. A storage sled including a stationary tray received in the chassis and a moveable trace received in the stationary tray. One or more hot swap bays that are horizontally arrayed in the storage sled in less than one, (1) Server System Infrastructure, (SSI) rack unit of height, wherein the moveable tray is extendable from the rack to a service position to expose all of its hot swap bays. Storage devices are insertable into a respective one of the hot swap bays of the storage sled. Each storage device may include a latching handle to lift and downward position the storage device in the corresponding hot swap bay.“

The patent application was filed on December 23, 2013 (14/139,833).

SAN performance analysis tool
Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,454,423) developed by Jacoby, Robert B., Merrimack, NH, and Arnold, Howard Earnest, Londonderry, NH, for a “SAN performance analysis tool.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The present invention is directed to a method and information handling system, (IHS) for improving system performance in a storage area network. An embodiment of the present invention begins by obtaining diagnostic data for the storage area network by asking a user one or more questions and storing results to the one or more questions. Next, test data is obtained by running one or more testing modules on at least one component of the storage area network. A performance analysis of the storage area network is executed, including the obtained diagnostic data and the obtained test data. Then, one or more performance issues and one or more action plans for resolution are identified based upon the analysis. Finally, a report to one or more users is provided including the one or more identified performance issues and the one or more action plans.“

The patent application was filed on March 25, 2014 (14/224,601)