Hitachi Assigned Ten Patents

Storage system
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (9,830,258) developed by Akutsu, Hiroaki, Yamamoto, Akira, Homma, Shigeo, Yamamoto, Masanobu, and Ohira, Yoshinori, Tokyo, Japan, for a “storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A storage system monitors the first access frequency of occurrence which is the access frequency of occurrence from a host device during a first period, and the second access frequency of occurrence which is the access frequency of occurrence from a host device during a second period shorter than the first period. Along with performing data relocation among the tiers, (levels) in the first period cycle based on the first access frequency of occurrence, the storage system performs a decision whether or not to perform a second relocation based on the first access frequency of occurrence and the second access frequency of occurrence, synchronously with access from a host device. Here the threshold value utilized in a decision on whether or not to perform the first relocation is different from the threshold value utilized in a decision on whether or not to perform the second relocation.”

The patent application was filed on September 18, 2014 (14/489,598).

Storage system
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (9,823,955) developed by Satoyama, Ai, Eguchi, Yoshiaki, and Nonaka, Yusuke, Tokyo, Japan, for a “storage system which is capable of processing file access requests and block access requests, and which can manage failures in A and storage system failure management method having a cluster configuration.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Failures in a storage system are managed at low cost and with high reliability. A storage system is coupled to a file command issuing apparatus and a block command issuing apparatus, and processes commands from both. The storage system is provided with: a first control portion which is provided extending across a plurality of clusters and which is configured to control block access requests to a disk device, a plurality of second control portions which are configured to process file access requests and provided respectively in the clusters, and operate on virtual machines managed by a virtualization control portion, failure detecting portions which are configured to detect failures within each of the clusters, and a failure information management portion which is provided in the first control portion and which is configured to consolidate and manage failure information relating to failures detected by the failure detecting portions.”

The patent application was filed on April 23, 2013 (14/762,850).

Storage system and data storing
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (9,817,768) developed by Ueda, Keisuke, Uehara, Go, Ninose, Kenta, and Hirayama, Hiroshi, Tokyo, Japan, for a “storage system and data storing method.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Provided is a storage system including: a storage medium including a plurality of physical storage areas having an upper limit number of rewrites, and a medium controller that controls I/O, (input/output) of data to/from the plurality of physical storage areas, and a storage controller connected to the storage medium, wherein when any of the physical storage areas is not allocated to a write destination logical storage area among a plurality of logical storage areas, the medium controller allocates a vacant physical storage area among the plurality of physical storage areas to the write destination logical storage area and writes write target data to the allocated vacant physical storage area, and the plurality of logical storage areas includes an available logical area group determined based on a relationship between an available capacity of a logical storage capacity and a rewrite frequency of the plurality of physical storage areas.”

The patent application was filed on October 10, 2013 (14/773,116).

Computer system and cache control
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (9,811,465) developed by Aikoh, Kazuhide, and Hatasaki, Keisuke, Tokyo, Japan, for a “computer system and cache control method.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A plurality of nodes includes an I/O, (Input/Output) node and a plurality of computation nodes. Each computation node sends an I/O request to the I/O node. The I/O node includes a first storage device which stores data to be written or read according to the I/O request and a first memory device on which a first cache area is based to temporarily store the data written in the first storage device or read from the first storage device. The computation node includes a second memory device on which the second cache area is based to temporarily store the data according to the I/O request. At least one of the I/O node and the computation node stores management information which contains information on a physical storage area in the cache area of the other one of the I/O node and the computation node, and information on a virtual storage area which is associated with the physical storage area and has a part of its own cache area. A target node in the plurality of nodes controls arrangement of data stored in the second cache area based on the management information of the computation node or the management information of the I/O node.”

The patent application was filed on July 2, 2013 (14/412,335).

Storage management calculator, and storage management
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (9,807,170) developed by Kaneko, Satoshi, Sakashita, Yukinori, Shibayama, Tsukasa, Tokyo, Japan, for a “storage management calculator, and storage management method.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “In one mode, a management calculator is connected to a host calculator and a storage device, and stores, in a memory, composition information and function setting information. The composition information shows multiple logic storage regions provided by the storage device, and objects that are stored in one logic storage region from among the multiple logic storage regions and that are executed by the host calculator, the logic storage regions and the objects being shown in association with one another. Meanwhile, the function setting information shows storage functions set for the logic storage regions.”

The patent application was filed on June 14, 2013 (14/766,212).

Storage system and cache control
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (9,798,661) developed by Mimata, Yoshifumi, Matsui, Yuko, and Kudo, Shintaro, Tokyo, Japan, for a “storage system and cache control method.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A receiving controller which receives a read request out of first and second storage controllers transfers the read request to an associated controller which is associated with a read source storage area out of the first and second storage controllers when the receiving controller is not the associated controller. It is however the receiving controller that reads the read-target data from a read source storage device, writes the read-target data to a cache memory of the receiving controller, and transmits the read-target data written in the cache memory of the receiving controller to a host apparatus.”

The patent application was filed on October 15, 2013 (14/766,911).

Storage system and control
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (9,794,342) developed by Chiba, Takeru, Saito, Hideo, and Kawaguchi, Tomohiro, Tokyo, Japan, for a “storage system and control method for storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A virtual storage apparatus based on a plurality of storage apparatuses including a first storage apparatus and a second storage apparatus is provided to a host computer. A first logical unit of the first storage apparatus and a second logical unit of the second storage apparatus are provided to the host computer in a form of a virtual logical unit. The first storage apparatus is configured to return a response to an inquiry about port statuses from the host computer designating the virtual logical unit, the response indicating that the status of the first port is a status as indicated by the first port management information and the second storage apparatus is unavailable to respond to the inquiry about port statuses. The second storage apparatus is configured to return no response to the inquiry.”

The patent application was filed on August 20, 2013 (14/770,589).

Computer system, storage and control
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (9,785,520) developed by Kajiwara, Yuta, Kato, Tomoyuki, and Tokoro, Ken, Tokyo, Japan, for a “computer system, storage apparatus and control method.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A computer system has a storage system including a first port and a second port, and a relay apparatus which couples the first port to an initiator apparatus. The storage apparatus stores relay apparatus information indicating a relay apparatus, and initiator information indicating an initiator apparatus. The storage apparatus establishes communications between the first port and a first relay apparatus, and based on communications with the relay apparatus recognizes the initiator apparatus with which the first relay apparatus has established communications. The storage apparatus also stores, in pathway information, a first pathway containing the first port, the first relay apparatus and the initiator apparatus. The storage apparatus creates a virtual port, which is a virtual port to which the first port is allocated, and when an initiator apparatus establishes communications with the virtual port, this apparatus adds a first virtual port associated pathway, in which the virtual port is associated with the first pathway, to the pathway information.”

The patent application was filed on April 04, 2014 (14/424,176).

Storage device and configuring raid group
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (9,785,372) developed by Takamura, Yukiyoshi, and Ogasawara, Tomohisa, Tokyo, Japan, for a “storage device and method for configuring raid group.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A storage subsystem capable of satisfying conditions such as storage capacity and access performance requested by users and to enable expansion of storage drives that are not in RAID group,(RG) units is provided at a low cost. The storage subsystem includes a first storage drive for storing data sent from a host computer, a second storage drive having a property that differs from the first storage drive for storing data sent from the host computer, and a processor for controlling the first storage drive and the second storage drive, wherein a processor receives RG configuration requirements from the host computer and determines whether an RG satisfying the RG configuration requirements can be configured, and if the processor determines that an RG can be configured, the first storage drive and the second storage drive are combined to configure the RG.”

The patent application was filed on May 17, 2013 (14/769,559).

Storage system
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (9,778,986) developed by Yoshihara, Tomohiro, Yamamoto, Akira, Homma, Shigeo, and Ogawa, Junji, Tokyo, Japan, for a “storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The storage system according to the present invention comprises a controller, and multiple storage device constituting a RAID group. When storing write data to multiple discontinuous areas within stripes of a storage device, the storage system transmits a new data transmission command containing information for specifying the multiple discontinuous areas and a write data to the storage device, and thereafter, receives an intermediate parity generated from multiple write data and data before update of the multiple write data from the storage device, and then transmits the received intermediate parity and an intermediate parity transmission command to the storage device storing the parity. Thereafter, a data commitment command containing information for specifying multiple discontinuous areas is transmitted to multiple storage devices, and the storage device storing the parity generates a parity after update from the received intermediate parity and a parity before update corresponding to the intermediate parity, and stores the parity after update in a storage media.”

The patent application was filed on March 28, 2014 (14/426,716).