Pure Storage Assigned Ten Patents

Locally providing cloud storage array services
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,027,757) developed by Borowiec, Benjamin P., Santa Clara, CA, and Noonan, Terence W., Vadnais Heights, MN, for “locally providing cloud storage array services.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Locally providing cloud storage array services for a storage array of a data center when the storage array is not connected to a remote cloud-based storage array services provider includes initiating, by a primary storage array, one or more cloud storage array services and locally providing the cloud storage array services. Such local providing of the cloud storage array services also includes generating, by the cloud storage array services, metadata describing one or more real-time storage array characteristics and presenting the metadata to a user through a local area network.”

The patent application was filed on January 30, 2017 (15/419,551).

Managing storage array using client-side services
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,021,170) developed by Hu, Jimmy T., Foster City, CA, Noonan, Terence W., Vadnais Heights, MN, Vachharajani, Neil A., San Francisco, CA, and Zuo, Daquan, Sunnyvale, CA, for “managing a storage array using client-side services.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Managing a storage array includes: receiving, by a client-side array services module from a cloud-based security module through data communications on a wide area network, a token representing authentication of user credentials, and managing, by the client-side array services module, a storage array only through data communications on a local area network, including sending, to the storage array, the token with a management instruction.”

The patent application was filed on May 29, 2015 (14/726,442).

Reservations over multiple paths over fabrics
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,019,201) developed by Coleman, Gordon James, Los Altos, CA, Dreier, Roland, and Kirkpatrick, Peter E., Mountain View, CA, for “reservations over multiple paths over fabrics.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method includes receiving, by a storage drive and from a storage controller, a modified first reservation command including a first logical unit identifier. The first reservation command includes a first host identifier to identify a first host controller was previously received by the storage controller from the first host controller. The first reservation command was modified by the storage controller to replace the first host identifier with the first logical unit identifier. The method also includes responsive to receiving the modified first reservation command, identifying, by the storage drive, a first logical unit of storage based on the first logical unit identifier of the modified reservation command. The method includes granting, by the storage drive, a reservation for access to the storage drive on behalf of the first host controller by associating the reservation for the first logical unit with a second logical unit of storage.”

The patent application was filed on August 2, 2017 (15/667,529).

Restoring volume in storage system
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,013,317) developed by Colgrove, John, Los Altos, CA, Miller, Ethan, Santa Cruz, CA, Hayes, John, Mountain View, CA, Sandvig, Cary, Palo Alto, CA, Golden, Christopher, Mountain View, CA, and Cao, Jianting, Sunnyvale, CA, for “restoring a volume in a storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A system and method for performing search optimization operations. In order to optimize lookups for received data requests, a storage controller attempts to collapse the medium graph, thus reducing the number of mediums in which the storage controller must look to find a given block. One technique for collapsing the medium graph involves promoting individual mappings from a lower-level medium to a higher-level medium. Another technique for collapsing the medium graph involves pushing medium range pointers higher up in the medium mapping table to reduce the number of mediums that must be searched.”

The patent application was filed on October 12, 2016 (15/291,373).

Performance tuning in storage system that includes one or more storage devices
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,007,459) developed by Fernandez, Argenis, Redmond, WA, Karr, Ronald, Palo Alto, CA, Whitlock, David, New Orleans, LA, and Zhuravlev, Sergey, Bellingham, WA, for a “performance tuning in a storage system that includes one or more storage devices.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Performance tuning in a storage system that includes one or more storage devices, including: storing, by a primary controller of the storage system, data corresponding to one or more computer processes into one or more of the one or more storage devices, determining, by a secondary controller that is configured similarly to the primary controller, one or more utilization patterns of the data, and initiating, in dependence upon the one or more utilization patterns of the data, a modification to a manner in which the one or more computer processes access the data stored in the one or more storage devices.”

The patent application was filed on July 6, 2017 (15/642,958).

Distributed transactions with token-associated execution
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,007,457) developed by Hayes, John, Lee, Robert, Ostrovsky, Igor, and Vajgel, Peter, Mountain View, CA, for “distributed transactions with token-associated execution.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method of processing transactions associated with a command in a storage system is provided. The method includes receiving, at a first authority of the storage system, a command relating to user data. The method includes sending a transaction of the command, from the first authority to a second authority of the storage system, wherein a token accompanies the transaction and writing data in accordance with the transaction as permitted by the token into a partition that is allocated to the second authority in a storage device of the storage system.”

The patent application was filed on December 22, 2015 (14/978,073).

Path selection in storage system
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,001,951) developed by Karr, Ronald, Palo Alto, CA, and Mansperger, John, San Jose, CA, for a “path selection in a data storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Managing input/output, (I/O) queues in a data storage system, including: receiving, by a host that is coupled to a plurality of storage devices via a storage network, a plurality of I/O operations to be serviced by a target storage device, determining, for each of a plurality of paths between the host and the target storage device, a data transfer maximum associated with the path, determining, for one or more of the plurality of paths, a cumulative amount of data to be transferred by I/O operations pending on the path, and selecting a target path for transmitting one or more of the plurality of I/O operations to the target storage device in dependence upon the cumulative amount of data to be transferred by I/O operations pending on the path and the data transfer maximum associated with the path.”

The patent application was filed on August 4, 2017 (15/668,881).

Generating and optimizing summary index levels in deduplication storage system
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,983,822) developed by Karr, Ronald, Palo Alto, CA, Miller, Ethan L., Santa Cruz, CA, Sandvig, Cary A., Palo Alto, CA, Wang, Feng, and Zhang, Wei, Santa Clara, CA, for a “path selection in a data storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The method generates a first deduplication map,(DDM) level of a DDM pyramid. The DDM pyramid identifies locations of data stored in the persistent storage resource of the deduplication system. The method further determines a first false positive rate target for a first index summary,(IS) level of an index pyramid based on a memory footprint for the first IS level and an aggregate false positive rate target for the index pyramid. The first IS level accelerates lookup into the first DDM level. The first false positive rate target indicates a rate that a hit for a value found in the first IS level is not found in the first DDM level. The method also generates the first IS level with a first false positive rate based on the determined first false positive rate target.”

The patent application was filed on October 31, 2016 (15/339,673).

Optimizing flattening in multi-level data structure
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,977,600) developed by Sanvido, Marco, Belmont, CA, Hankins, Richard, San Jose, CA, McAuliffe, Mark, East Palo Alto, CA, and Vachharajani, Neil, Menlo Park, CA, for an “optimizing flattening in a multi-level data structure.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A system and method for efficiently maintaining metadata stored among a plurality of solid-state storage devices. A data storage subsystem supports multiple mapping tables. Records within a mapping table are arranged in multiple levels. Each level stores at least pairs of a key value and a physical pointer value. The levels are sorted by time. New records are inserted in a created new highest, youngest) level. No edits are performed in-place. A data storage controller determines both a cost of searching a given table exceeds a threshold and an amount of memory used to flatten levels exceeds a threshold. In response, the controller incrementally flattens selected levels within the table based on key ranges. After flattening the records in the selected levels within the key range, the records may be removed from the selected levels. The process repeats with another different key range.”

The patent application was filed on June 30, 2017 (15/638,912).

Hardware support to track and transition flash LUNs into SLC mode
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,971,537) developed by Kannan, Hari, Lee, Robert, and Zhao, Randy, Mountain View, CA, for a “hardware support to track and transition flash LUNs into SLC mode.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for tracking and transitioning flash memory modes, performed by a storage system, is provided. The method includes tracking memory modes of a plurality of portions of flash memory, on a per portion basis, in a data structure in a first memory and determining, based on the data structure, whether the tracked memory mode of a portion of flash memory matches a memory mode for an I/O, (input/output) command relating to the flash memory. The method includes sending at least one command to the flash memory to change the memory mode of the portion of flash memory, responsive to determining the tracked memory mode does not match the memory mode for the I/O command, and performing the I/O command with the memory mode of the portion of flash memory changed to match the memory mode for the I/O command.”

The patent application was filed on October 26, 2016 (15/335,135).