NetApp Assigned Twenty Four Patents

Cache flushing and interrupted write handling in storage
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,235,288) developed by Banerjee, Arindam, Boulder, CO, Humlicek, Donald R, and Terrill, Scott, Wichita, KS, for “cache flushing and interrupted write handling in storage systems.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Systems and techniques for cache management are disclosed that provide improved cache performance by prioritizing particular storage stripes for cache flush operations. The systems and techniques may also leverage features of the storage devices to provide atomicity without the overhead of inter-controller mirroring. In some embodiments, the systems and techniques include a storage controller that stores data in a cache. The data is associated with one or more sectors of a storage stripe that is defined over plurality of storage devices. The storage controller identifies a locality of dirty sectors of the one or more sectors, classifies the storage stripe into a category based on the locality, provides a category ordering of the category relative to at least one other category, and flushes the storage stripe from the cache to the plurality of storage devices according to the category ordering.”

The patent application was filed on October 2, 2015 (14/874,157).

Technique for maintaining consistent I/O processing throughput in storage
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,235,059) developed by Patel, Chaitanya, Morrisville, NC, and Shiwalkar, Shailesh Ajay, Fremont, CA, for a “technique for maintaining consistent I/O processing throughput in a storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A technique maintains consistent throughput of processing of input/output,( I/O) requests by a storage system when changing configuration of one or more Redundant Array of Independent Disks, (RAID) groups of storage devices, such as disks, within the storage system. The configuration of a RAID group, (i.e., RAID configuration) may be represented by RAID objects, e.g., reference-counted data structures) stored in a memory of the storage system. Illustratively, the RAID objects may be organized as a RAID configuration hierarchy including a top-level RAID object, (e.g., RAID group data structure) that is linked, (e.g., via one or more pointers) to one or more intermediate-level RAID objects, (e.g., disk and segment data structures) which, in turn, are linked to one or more low-level RAID objects, (e.g., chunk data structures). According to the technique, a snapshot of a current RAID configuration, (i.e., current configuration snapshot) may be created by incrementing a reference count of the current top-level object of the hierarchy and attaching, (e.g., via a pointer) the current configuration snapshot to a current I/O request processed by the storage system.”

The patent application was filed on December 1, 2015 (14/955,973).

Computer system configuration analysis
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,230,579) developed by Ackerman, Ross, Cary, NC, and Lippmann, Maarten, Del Mar, CA, for “techniques for computer system configuration analysis.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A misconfiguration crowdsourcing system arranged to analyze computer system configuration. The computer system configuration may be analyzed with respect to a population of computer systems. In some embodiments, sets of configuration options may be compared for one or more computer systems in a population set. Based on the comparison, a frequency of at least one setting for a client configurable option may be determined. A target characteristic may be identified for a setting of a configuration option based on the frequency of the at least one setting for the configuration option with the population. Computer systems with configuration settings conflicting with target characteristics may be identified as unhealthy.”

The patent application was filed on April 28, 2016 (15/141,401).

Visualizing storage cluster system configurations and events
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,229,178) developed by Pasupathy, Shankar, Sunnyvale, CA, Ackerman, Ross, Raleigh, NC, Mueller, Garrett, Raleigh, NC, and Viswanath, Deepak, Sunnyvale, CA, for “techniques for visualizing storage cluster system configurations and events.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Various embodiments are generally directed to techniques for generating effective visualizations of some or all of a storage cluster system. An apparatus includes a processor component, a rendering component to generate a visualization of at least a portion of a storage cluster system for presentation on a display, the visualization to comprise a depiction of an object that corresponds to a component of the storage cluster system, and an interpretation component to interpret received indications of operation of an input device to select the depicted object and to select a first time and a second time along a timeline presented on the display, and to generate a command to request information indicating a change in state of the object between the first and second times.”

The patent application was filed on October 30, 2015 (14/928,247).

Preserving state across failure and devices thereof
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,229,010) developed by CaraDonna, Joseph, Ashland, MA, Duffy, Donna, Arlington, MA, and McCarthy, Brian, Nashua, NH, for “methods for preserving state across a failure and devices thereof.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method, non-transitory computer readable medium, and computing device that determines when a software failure associated with a virtual storage controller has occurred. At least a portion of a transaction log corresponding to the virtual storage controller is stored in a stable storage device, when the determining indicates that the software failure associated with the virtual storage controller has occurred. A determination is made when the virtual storage controller has rebooted. The at least a portion of the transaction log is retrieved from the stable storage device, when the determining indicates that the virtual storage controller has rebooted. Thereby, state can be preserved and transactions pending, but not yet committed to storage server devices, can be replayed and proceed with minimal or no impact on the client devices originating the transactions.”

The patent application was filed on November 23, 2016 (15/359,827).

Optimized file system layout for distributed consensus protocol
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,229,009) developed by Muth, John, Scotts Valley, CA, and Gomez, Juan C., San Jose, CA, for an “optimized file system layout for distributed consensus protocol.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A layout of a file system is optimized to meet storage requirements of a distributed consensus protocol implemented on a plurality of nodes of a cluster. Illustratively, the file system has an on-disk layout representation that enables efficient input/output, (I/O) operation performance. The on-disk layout of the file system embodies a plurality of file system objects: membership, snapshot and log objects. Each object is allocated an area or region, (e.g., a contiguous storage space) on-disk. In addition, each object has two or more storage container instances, (e.g., files. In the case of snapshot and membership objects, the two files of each object are used in a circular, alternating) fashion so that write operations directed to a first file storing a current copy of the snapshot/membership content may be performed without destroying a previous committed copy of the snapshot/membership content stored in a second file.”

The patent application was filed on December 16, 2015 (14/971,807).

Storage layer based orchestration method for virtual machine migration
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,228,964) developed by CaraDonna, Joseph P., Ashland, MA, and Ryu, Sungwook, Palo Alto, CA, for a “storage layer based orchestration method for virtual machine migration across disparate virtualization environments.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A storage layer based orchestration method can efficiently migrate a virtualized, enterprise scale system across disparate virtualization environments. A copy of a source logical storage container with multiple virtual disks of virtual machines, (VMs) can be created in a public cloud destination as a destination logical storage container. Each of the VMs is associated with at least one virtual disk that includes boot data, (boot disk) for the VM. With application programming interface function calls and/or scripted task automation and configuration management commands, the orchestration method coordinates different applications and tools to convert the boot disks into canonical storage representations, e.g., logical unit numbers, (LUNs), to instantiate VMs in the destination environment, and to chain load the boot disks to launch the VMs in a different virtualization environment.”

The patent application was filed on December 21, 2016 (15/387,416).

Enabling data integrity checking and faster application recovery in synchronous replicated datasets
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,228,871) developed by Patnaik, Pranab, Cary, NC, and Kaushik, Akhil, San Jose, CA, for an “enabling data integrity checking and faster application recovery in synchronous replicated datasets.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”One or more techniques and/or computing devices are provided for utilizing snapshots for data integrity validation and/or faster application recovery. For example, a first storage controller, hosting first storage, has a synchronous replication relationship with a second storage controller hosting second storage. A snapshot replication policy rule is defined to specify that a replication label is to be used for snapshot create requests, targeting the first storage, that are to be replicated to the second storage. A snapshot creation policy is created to issue snapshot create requests comprising the replication label. Thus a snapshot of the first storage and a replication snapshot of the second storage are created based upon a snapshot create request comprising the replication label. The snapshot and the replication snapshot may be compared for data integrity validation, (e.g., determine whether the snapshots comprise the same data) and/or quickly recovering an application after a disaster.”

The patent application was filed on February 22, 2016 (15/049,410).

Handling data extent size asymmetry during logical replication in storage
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,223,375) developed by Lewis, Blake, Los Altos Hills, CA, Edwards, John K., Sunnyvale, CA, Deshmukh, Vijay, Kumar, Kapil, Mountain View, CA, and Desai, Rajesh, Sunnyvale, CA, for a “handling data extent size asymmetry during logical replication in a storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A technique to name data is disclosed to allow preservation of storage efficiency over a link between a source and a destination in a replication relationship as well as in storage at the destination. The technique allows the source to send named data to the destination once and refer to it by name multiple times in the future, without having to resend the data. The technique also allows the transmission of data extents to be decoupled from the logical containers that refer to the data extents. Additionally, the technique allows a replication system to accommodate different extent sizes between replication source and destination while preserving storage efficiency.”

The patent application was filed on September 20, 2011 (13/237,760).

Restoring data container archived at object-based storage
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,223,361) developed by Srinivasan, Kiran Nenmeli, Los Gatos, CA, Kyathanahalli, Sumeeth, Mountain View, CA, and Nagaraj, Sudhindra Tirupati, San Jose, CA, for “methods and systems for restoring a data container archived at an object-based storage.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Methods and systems for an object based storage are provided. As an example, a method for generating a metadata object for an archive data container having a plurality of data containers is disclosed. The method includes generating a first metadata signature for the archive data container using an archive data container identifier, a number of data containers within the archive data container, and placement information of each data container within the archive data container, assigning a plurality of blocks for storing data for the plurality of data containers at an object based storage to an intermediate logical object, updating a payload signature with placement information of the plurality of blocks within the intermediate logical object, and placing the first metadata signature and the updated payload signature within the metadata object, wherein the metadata object is used to retrieve location information for a specific data container within the archive data container.”

The patent application was filed on January 18, 2017 (15/408,736).

Preventing non-detectable data loss during site switchover
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,223,223) developed by Cho, Yong, Saratoga, CA, and Deshmukh, Prachi, San Jose, CA, for a “preventing non-detectable data loss during site switchover.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Methods, systems, and computer program products for preventing non-detectable data loss during site switchover are disclosed. A computer-implemented method may include receiving a request to perform a switchover from a first node to a second node, determining whether to place a storage volume involved in the switchover in a suspended state, setting the storage volume in the suspended state based on determining that the storage volume is to be placed in the suspended state, and maintaining the storage volume in the suspended state after completing the switchover. In an example, the storage volume may be placed in a suspended state based on examining a volume-specific attribute indicating whether the storage volume is to be suspended when involved in a switchover. In one example, each storage volume involved in a switchover may be placed in a suspended state when indicated as part of a switchover request.”

The patent application was filed on May 26, 2016 (15/165,033).

Recovering unreadable data for vaulted volume
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,216,597) developed by Jibbe, Mahmoud K., and Holt, Keith, Wichita, KS, for a “recovering unreadable data for a vaulted volume.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method, a computing device, and a non-transitory machine-readable medium for replacing an unreadable sector in a storage system is provided. In some embodiments, the method includes identifying a sector from a plurality of sectors in a physical memory of a storage device in a storage system as an unreadable sector. An unreadable sector is a sector that includes data that had been corrupted and cannot be recovered from data in the storage system. In some embodiments, the unreadable sector is recovered by receiving a copy of a sector identified as the unreadable sector from a cloud storage, where the copy of the sector stores readable data and the cloud storage is a separate storage from the storage system. The method then includes replacing the unreadable sector with the copy at the sector at a memory location in the physical memory occupied by the unreadable sector.”

The patent application was filed on April 29, 2016 (15/142,659).

Techniques for virtual machine shifting
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,216,531) developed by Shilmover, Barry, Issaquah, WA, Deodhar, Akshay, Ramdass, Dennis, Sunnyvale, CA, and Sizemore, Glenn, Raleigh, NC, for “techniques for virtual machine shifting.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Techniques for virtual machine shifting are described. An apparatus may comprise shifting component operative to shift a virtual machine, (VM) between a hypervisor having one type of hypervisor platform and a destination hypervisor having an alternative type of hypervisor platform through use of a clone of the VM. The shifting is bi-directional between the host and the destination hypervisor. The apparatus may comprise a universal application programming interface, (API) used for reconfiguring one or more network interfaces and one or more disks of the VM onto the destination hypervisor. Other embodiments are described and claimed.”

The patent application was filed on October 31, 2014 (14/530,135).

Mirror vote synchronization
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,216,450) developed by Long, Brandon Taylor, Raleigh, NC, Riedle, Linda Ann, Cary, NC, Kulkarni, Manali, Bangalore, India, Nirmale, Sandeep T., and Krishnamurthy, Vikram Harakere, Santa Clara, CA, for a “mirror vote synchronization.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for mirror vote synchronization. For example, a first storage device is located at a first storage site, and a second storage device is located at a second storage site. The second storage device is configured according to a data mirroring configuration where data from the first storage device is mirrored to the second storage device. Mirror vote metadata is generated based upon an up-to-date state of the data mirroring configuration. The mirror vote metadata indicates whether the first storage device and/or the second storage device are up-to-date or not. The mirror vote metadata may be replicated between the first storage site and the second storage site. If the first storage site fails, then the second storage site may provide switchover operation using the second storage device based upon the mirror vote metadata.”

The patent application was filed on May 26, 2016 (15/165,006).

Capacity accounting for heterogeneous storage
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,210,192) developed by Gabay, Yarom, Newton, MA, Anur, Nagananda Sriramaiah, Nashua, NH, and Vinnik, Alexander, Brookline, MA, for a “capacity accounting for heterogeneous storage systems.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Techniques to account for storage consumption and capacity allocation across heterogeneous storage objects are disclosed. A capacity accountability system can ascertain a set of heterogeneous storage objects provisioned for a storage consumer, where the heterogeneous storage objects is categorized by storage object hierarchy levels. The capacity accountability system can then identify an association between the storage consumer and a storage object hierarchy level and account for storage object consumption and storage capacity allocation of the storage consumer by normalizing storage consumption data and capacity allocation data at the storage object hierarchy level across the heterogeneous storage objects.”

The patent application was filed on June 20, 2016 (15/186,868).

Rate matching technique for balancing segment cleaning and I/O workload
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,210,082) developed by Patel, Dhaval, Sunnyvale, CA, Swaminathan, Manish, Fremont, CA, McClanahan, Edward D., Danville, CA, and Muth, John, Scotts Valley, CA, for a “rate matching technique for balancing segment cleaning and I/O workload.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A rate matching technique may be configured to adjust a rate of cleaning of one or more selected segments of the storage array to accommodate a variable rate of incoming workload processed by a storage input/output, (I/O) stack executing on one or more nodes of a cluster. An extent store layer of the storage I/O stack may clean a segment in accordance with segment cleaning which, illustratively, may be embodied as a segment cleaning process. The rate matching technique may be implemented as a feedback control mechanism configured to adjust the segment cleaning process based on the incoming workload. Components of the feedback control mechanism may include one or more weight schedulers and various accounting data structures, e.g., counters, configured to track the progress of segment cleaning and free space usage. The counters may also be used to balance the rates of segment cleaning and incoming I/O workload, which may change depending upon an incoming I/O rate. When the incoming I/O rate changes, the rate of segment cleaning may be adjusted accordingly to ensure that rates are substantially balanced.”

The patent application was filed on April 28, 2017 (15/581,800).

Filesystem metadata caching to improve failover performance and devices thereof
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,210,056) developed by Kesavan, Ram, Bangalore, India, Subramanian, Ananthan, San Ramon, CA, Gulbeden, Aziz, Compton, Christian, Tadipatri, Jawahar, Cary, NC, Tomar, Bipin, Morrisville, NC, and Brown, Jr., Joseph Allen, Raleigh, NC, for “methods for filesystem metadata caching to improve failover performance and devices thereof.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method, non-transitory computer readable medium, and device that assists with caching filesystem metadata to a partner non-volatile random-access memory, (NVRAM) includes caching metadata related to an incoming data modifying operation generated by a client computing device to at least one storage controller device in a cluster. A service interruption event that makes a data block present in the storage device of a hosting storage node inaccessible to the client computing device is determined for during the caching. The requested metadata block from the at least one NVRAM is retrieved when the service interruption event is determined. The cache is warmed using the retrieved metadata block from the at least one NVRAM.”

The patent application was filed on March 31, 2016 (15/087,401).

Managing service level objectives in networked storage
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,210,023) developed by Dimnaku, Alma, Wellesley, MA, and MacFarland, Jeffrey Scott, Wake Forest, NC, for “methods and systems for managing service level objectives in a networked storage environment.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Methods and systems for a networked storage system are provided. One method includes assigning by a processor executable management module a service level objective, (SLO) for a workload, where the SLO is allotted a plurality of performance parameters for tracking performance of the workload for storing data in a networked storage environment, tracking historical performance of the workload to determine a duration when SLO allotment defined by the plurality of performance parameters is being under-utilized, adjusting automatically the SLO allotment for the workload during the duration when the SLO allotment is under-utilized, and re-allocating automatically the available performance capacity of a resource used by the workload to another workload whose assigned SLO is not being under-utilized.”

The patent application was filed on April 5, 2016 (15/090,878).

Location-based resource availability management in partitioned distributed storage
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,205,782) developed by Maredia, Sahir, Maharashtra, India, George, Martin, Cochin, India, Srinivas, Gargi, and Popuri, Sriram, Bangalore, India, for a “location-based resource availability management in a partitioned distributed storage environment.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”In some embodiments, a cluster computing system notifies a host system that a first path to a resource in the cluster computing system is optimized and that a second path to the resource is non-optimized. The resource is owned or managed by a first computing node of the cluster computing system. The first path includes the first computing node. The second path includes a second computing node and an intra-cluster connection between the second computing node and the first computing node. A disruption in the intra-cluster connection, which prevents communication between the first and second computing nodes via the intra-cluster connection, is identified. During a time period in which the disruption exists, the host system is notified that the first path is optimized and that the second path is unavailable, and input/output operations between the host system and the resource via the first path are continued.”

The patent application was filed on April 29, 2016 (15/142,098).

Dynamically aligning partition with block size boundary
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,203,902) developed by Krishnamurthi, Baskaran, Bangalore, India, Mercer, Matthew, Raleigh, NC, and Subramanian, Chandramouli, Bangalore, India, for “techniques for dynamically aligning a partition with a block size boundary.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Various embodiments are generally directed to an apparatus and method for creating a target data structure on a target storage system, the target data structure including a prefix region, a data region and a suffix region for storing information from a source data structure. Further, embodiments are directed to setting a size of the prefix region to align a partition of the source data structure with a block size boundary of the target data structure.”

The patent application was filed on February 26, 2014 (14/190,821).

Managing networked storage system resources
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,200,473) developed by Sprague, John Jason, Westford, MA, Holden, James Stephen, Concord, MA, Kessel, Omri, Newton, MA, Strunk, John, and Klosterman, Andrew Joseph, Cary, NC, for “methods and systems for managing networked storage system resources.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Methods and systems for a networked storage environment are provided. One method includes mirroring a plurality of requests from a switch and transmitting the mirrored plurality of requests to a remote acquisition unit, extracting application layer protocol data units from assembled transport layer packets, parsing the application layer protocol data units to obtain file system requests, identifying storage volume identifiers from the parsed file system requests that are associated with a greatest number of operations, identifying network addresses for client systems initiating the greatest number of operations for the storage volumes and network addresses of target storage systems managing the storage volumes, and providing a total number of operations for the plurality of requests in a given time, the identified storage volume identifiers, the network addresses of the client systems and the network addresses of the target storage systems to a management console.”

The patent application was filed on March 23, 2017 (15/467,316).

Dynamic selection of solutions to storage cluster system trouble events
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,198,307) developed by Heroor, Srirang, Joseph, Michael Antony, Santa Clara, CA, and Xue, Yichao, Sunnyvale, CA, for “techniques for dynamic selection of solutions to storage cluster system trouble events.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Various embodiments are generally directed to techniques for dynamic diagnosis and/or prediction of trouble events in a storage cluster system and automated selection of solutions thereto. An apparatus includes a retrieval component to, in response to a trouble event with a first component of a storage cluster system at a usage level under a first usage type, retrieve a component model of a second component associated with a second usage type from a model database, wherein the second usage type comprises operations that differ from operations of the first usage type by no more than a predetermined threshold of difference, and a selection component to apply the first usage level to the component model to derive a resulting level of performance and determine whether to recommend installation of the second component in the first storage cluster system to address the trouble event based on the resulting level of performance.”

The patent application was filed on March 31, 2016 (15/087,475).

Shared dense tree repair
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,191,674) developed by Purohit, Prahlad, Sunnyvale, CA, Venkitakrishnan, Vidhyalakshmi, San Jose, CA, and Li, Anthony J., Los Altos, CA, for a “shared dense tree repair.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A consistency checker is configured to perform repairs to one or more multi-level dense tree metadata structures shared between volumes managed by a volume layer of a storage input/output, (I/O) stack executing on one or more nodes of a cluster. The volumes include a parent volume and a snapshot and/or clone, wherein the snapshot/clone may be represented as an independent volume, and embodied as a respective read-only copy, (snapshot) or read-write copy, (clone) of the parent volume. Illustratively, the consistency checker verifies and/or fixes, (i.e., repairs) on-disk structures of the volume layer, e.g., the shared dense tree, according to a distributed repair procedure that maintains consistency properties across all volumes in a volume family and avoid cyclic repairs made in the context of different volumes sharing the dense tree.”

The patent application was filed on April 15, 2016 (15/130,087).

Managing replacement in distributed cache environment and devices
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,187,488) developed by Condict, Michael, Hurdle Mills, NC, for “methods for managing replacement in a distributed cache environment and devices thereof .“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method, device, and non-transitory computer readable medium that manages replacement in a distributed cache environment includes determining a cache value of a new item associated with one of a plurality of I/O cache resources. A cache value of a least valuable other item in the plurality of I/O cache resources is obtained. A determination is made when the cache value of the new item is greater than the cache value of the least valuable other item in the plurality of I/O cache resources. The least valuable other item is replaced with the new item when the determination indicates the cache value of the new item is greater than the cache value of the least valuable other item.”

The patent application was filed on February 25, 2015 (14/630,997).