Dell Assigned Fourteen Patents

RAID surveyor
Dell International L.L.C., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (10,025,666) developed by Floeder, Anthony J., St. Anthony, MN, and Anderson, Derek J., Plymouth, MN, for a “RAID surveyor.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for surveying a data storage subsystem for latent errors before a failing disk drive of the data storage subsystem fails and recovering unreadable data usable to reconstruct data of the failing disk drive. The method includes determining that a disk drive of a plurality of disk drives of the data storage subsystem meets a threshold for being identified as a failing disk drive, and prior to failure of the failing disk drive, surveying at least a portion of the data on the remaining plurality of disk drives to identify data storage areas with latent errors. The identified data storage areas may be reconstructed utilizing, at least in part, data stored on the failing disk drive.”

The patent application was filed on August 11, 2015 (14/823,497).

Protocol independent way to selectively restrict write-access
for redirected USB mass storage devices
Dell Products, L.P. , Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (10,021,217) developed by Vajravel, Gokul Thiruchengode, Bangalore, India, for a “protocol independent way to selectively restrict write-access for redirected USB mass storage devices.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Universal serial bus,(USB) mass storage devices may be redirected to a server to create USB virtual mass storage devices. For characteristics of the redirected device to be propagated to other users, accessing the redirected device via the virtual device) it is necessary to alter the Mode Sense data. In one embodiment, certain users may be given only read-only access to the redirected device. In another embodiment only some of the redirected devices are write-protected. By saving characteristics of a redirected device in the server registry or active directory, the USB virtual bus driver may impose, for example, write-protection on one or more devices connected by one or more users.”

The patent application was filed on August 24, 2015 (14/833,531).

Copying directory structures
Dell Products, L.P. , Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (10,019,185) developed by Vidyadhara, Sumanth, Singh, Ankit, S, Shekar Babu, and Sinha, Prasoon Kumar, Bangalore, India, for a “system and method for copying directory structures.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method, storage control system and information handling system, IHS) provides copying of a first directory containing a first plurality of files from a client to a target server. The method includes receiving, via a first processor of the client, a request to copy the first directory containing the first plurality of files from a first storage device to the target server. The first directory is parsed into a first i-node tree. Metadata corresponding to the first i-node tree is generated and transmit from the client to the target server. A second processor at the target server is triggered to generate a second directory based on the metadata corresponding to the first i-node tree. The first plurality of files contained in the first directory from the first storage device is transmitted to the target server.”

The patent application was filed on March 15, 2017 (15/459,316).

On-demand snapshot and prune in storage system
Dell International L.L.C., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (10,019,183) developed by Sundarrajan, Pradeep, Minneapolis, MN, and D’Souza, Melwyn, Edina, MN, for an “on-demand snapshot and prune in a data storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method of data progression in a data storage system having at least two tiers of storage space. A first tier may include storage space in a SLC SSD and a second tier may include storage space in a MLC SSD. The method may include setting a predetermined free space threshold for the first tier of storage space, monitoring free space in the first tier of storage space, and when the amount of available free space in the first tier of storage space decreases to the predetermined free space threshold, generating an on-demand snapshot of at least a portion of the data of the first tier of storage space by designating that data as read-only. The on-demand snapshot may then be transferred to the second tier of storage space, thereby freeing the corresponding portion of data of the first tier of storage space for new writes.”

The patent application was filed on November 4, 2016 (15/343,436).

Secure transport of data from an operating system
to pre-operating system environment
Dell Products, L.P. , Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (10,013,565) developed by Martinez, Ricardo L., Leander, TX, and Joshi, Anand P., Round Rock, TX, for a “system and method for secure transport of data from an operating system to a pre-operating system environment.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “An information handling system includes a trusted platform module,(TPM) and a storage device, the TPM provides boot authentication for the information handling system such that, during a pre-boot phase, the TPM can access a platform configuration register,(PCR). During a first instance of the pre-boot phase, the information handling system provides a public/private key pair including a public key and a private key, stores the private key to an encrypted storage of the TPM, seals the private key in the encrypted storage to the PCR, and stores the public key to the storage device. During an operating system phase that is after the first instance of the pre-boot phase, the information handling system retrieves the public key from the storage device, encrypts transfer data using the public key, and stores the encrypted transfer data to the storage device.”

The patent application was filed on August 18, 2014 (14/462,199).

Replacing storage devices
Dell Products, L.P. , Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (10,007,432) developed by Atluri, Anup, Bangalore, India, Vellimalai, Ashokan, Round Rock, TX, Singh, Amit Pratap, Allahabad, India, Agarwal, Sandeep, Bangalore, India, and Sreedhar M, Deepu Syam, Calicut, India, for a “system and method for replacing storage devices.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for copying data from a storage device that has been identified for replacement or has failed to a spare storage device. The method includes a storage controller tracking input/output statistics for several storage devices. The storage controller determines if a first storage device storing first data has been identified for replacement within the storage devices. In response to the first storage device having been identified for replacement, a first least written to data address space within the first storage device is determined based on the input/output statistics. First data contained in the first least written to data address space is copied from the first storage device to the spare storage device.”

The patent application was filed on October 13, 2015 (14/882,409).

Improve read/write performance in object storage applications
Dell Products L.P. , Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (10,003,649) developed by Narayanan, Rajesh, San Jose, CA, and Xu, Ke, Vacaville, CA, for “systems and methods to improve read/write performance in object storage applications.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Various embodiments of the invention optimize and improve object storage performance in large-scale distributed networks. In certain embodiments, this is accomplished by taking advantage of the algorithm that determines a map that contains information about storage locations of object replica. This information directly translates to flow-information in real-time and is used by an SDN controller to generate dynamic flow information for traffic within the network. The SDN controller may apply QoS policies and assign QoS priorities to preferred traffic.”

The patent application was filed on May 7, 2015 (14/706,803).

Optimized utilization of storage resources
Dell Producs LP., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (10,001,938) developed by B, Kanaka Charyulu, Bangalore, India, Sreedhar M, Deepu Syam, Calicut, India, Agarwal, Sandeep, Bangalore, India, Billingsley, Gary E., Austin, TX, and Khande, Abhijit Rajkumar, Bangalore, India, for “systems and methods for optimized utilization of storage resources based on performance and power characteristics.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, a method may include receiving requirements for building a virtual storage resource from an array of physical storage resources, receiving performance metrics and power metrics of the physical storage resources of the array available for inclusion in the virtual storage resource, determining a plurality of unique combinations of the available physical storage resources that could be used to build the virtual storage resource, determining an effective performance, an effective performance penalty, a total power consumption, and an effective power penalty for each of the plurality of unique combinations, and selecting a single combination of the plurality of unique combinations for the virtual storage resource based on effective performances, effective performance penalties, total power consumptions, and effective power penalties of the plurality of unique combinations.”

The patent application was filed on January 7, 2016 (14/990,453).

Storage device security system
Dell Products LP., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,998,464) 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 December 3, 2015 (14/958,642).

Zone page allocation for shingled media recording disks
Dell Products LP., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,977,613) developed by Floeder, Anthony, St. Anthony, MN, and Klemm, Michael J., Minnetonka, MN, for “systems and methods for zone page allocation for shingled media recording disks.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, a disk drive system may include a RAID subsystem comprising a pool of storage and a disk manager having at least one disk storage system controller. The at least one disk system controller may be configured to create a plurality of zones in the pool of storage, each zone comprising a plurality of stripes, each of the plurality of stripes striped across all of the physical disks within a logical disk comprising the zone, and manage pages of write input/output operations in order to group pages of write input/output operations together within the plurality of stripes of a zone.”

The patent application was filed on December 30, 2015 (14/984,198).

GUID partition table based hidden data store
Dell Products LP., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,971,532) developed by Suryanarayana, Shekar Babu, Bangalore, India, and Joshi, Neeraj, Puducherry, India, for a “GUID partition table based hidden data store system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A GUID partition table,(GPT) based Hidden Data Store,(HDS) system includes first computing systems that include networked storage devices and that are coupled to a second computing system through a network. The second computing system include local storage devices that provide a GPT having a GPT entry that identifies local HDS elements that provides an HDS and that are included on the local storage devices, and networked HDS elements that provide the HDS and that are included on the networked storage devices. The second computing system also includes an HDS engine that receives the GPT entry and authorization credentials, determines that the authorization credentials allow access to the HDS and, in response, provides access to the local HDS elements that are included on the local storage devices, and provide access to the networked HDS elements that are included on the networked storage devices.”

The patent application was filed on February 24, 2016 (15/052,666).

Improve USB mass storage device arrival acceleration
for redirected USB mass storage devices
Dell Products LP., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,965,431) developed by Venkatesh, Ramanujam K., and Vajravel, Gokul T., Bangalore, India, for a “system and method to improve USB mass storage device arrival acceleration for redirected USB mass storage devices.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “In certain information handling system environments, physical devices connected to a client are redirected to a server or other information handling system. The time to redirect a universal serial bus, (USB) mass storage device may be lengthy given that the same metadata must be read several times. Arrival time of a redirected USB mass storage device may be decreased by collecting the complete metadata at the client and transmitting that complete metadata to the server. The server builds a metadata cache to store the metadata received from the client. Efficiencies are achieved by caching the complete metadata associated with the redirected device at the server instead of making repeated transactions requesting the same metadata from the client.”

The patent application was filed on August 26, 2015 (14/836,310).

Scalable storage management
Dell Products LP., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,965,223) developed by Dube, Shawn Joel, Lambert, Tim, Austin, TX, and Brahmaroutu, Surender V., Round Rock, TX, for “systems and methods for scalable storage management.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Systems and methods for management of scalable storage architectures are disclosed. The system includes one or more storage backplanes, each storage backplane configured to interface with one or more hard disk drives. The system includes a baseboard management controller, which includes an interface to communicate with one or more of the storage backplanes and programmable logic configured to detect the presence of one or more hard disk drives in an interfaced storage backplane and control one or more status indicators, wherein each status indicator is related to at least one of the hard disk drives in the interfaced storage backplane.”

The patent application was filed on May 27, 2016 (15/167,297).

Dynamic optimization of flash cache in storage devices
Dell Products LP., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (9,959,210) developed by Farhan, Munif F., Round Rock, TX, Sauber, William F., Georgetown, TX, and Eldin, Dina A., Clyde Hill, WA, for “systems and methods for dynamic optimization of flash cache in storage devices.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “In various embodiments, a storage device includes a magnetic media, a cache memory, and a drive controller. In embodiments, the drive controller is configured to establish a portion of the cache memory as an archival zone having a cache policy to maximize write hits. The drive controller is further configured to pre-erase the archival zone, direct writes from a host to the archival zone, and flush writes from the archival zone to the magnetic media. In embodiments, the drive controller is configured to establish a portion of the cache memory as a retrieval zone having a cache policy to maximize read hits. The drive controller is further configured to pre-fetch data from the magnetic media to the retrieval zone, transfer data from the retrieval zone to a host upon request by the host, and transfer read ahead data to the retrieval zone to replace data transferred to the host.”

The patent application was filed on April 20, 2016 (15/133,697).