Pure Storage Assigned Twenty Patents

Ensuring crash-safe forward progress of system configuration update
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,353,777) developed by Bernat, Andrew, Mountain View, CA, Brennan, Timothy, Chui, Jimmy Chi-Wai, San Francisco, CA, Driscoll, Alan, Fremont, CA, Inozemtsev, Grigori, San Jose, CA, Scholbrock, Benjamin, Sunnyvale, CA, and Vachharajani, Neil, San Francisco, CA, for an “ensuring crash-safe forward progress of a system configuration update.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Ensuring crash-safe forward progress of a system configuration update in a storage system that includes a storage array controller and a plurality of storage devices, including: determining a number of storage devices in the storage system, determining a number of unavailable storage devices in the storage system, and determining, for the one or more system configurations, whether the system configuration can be reconstructed in dependence upon the number of storage devices in the storage system and the number of unavailable storage devices in the storage system.”

The patent application was filed on October 30, 2015 (14/927,977).

System resource utilization balancing in storage
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,353,743) developed by Frandzel, Yuval, Foster City, CA, and Vijayasankar, Kiron, Santa Clara, CA, for a “system resource utilization balancing in a storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Ensuring the fair utilization of system resources using workload based, time-independent scheduling, including: receiving an I/O request associated with an entity, determining whether an amount of system resources required to service the I/O request is greater than an amount of available system resources in a storage system, responsive to determining that the amount of system resources required to service the I/O request is greater than the amount of available system resources in the storage system: queueing the I/O request in an entity-specific queue for the entity, detecting that additional system resources in the storage system have become available, and responsive to detecting that additional system resources in the storage system have become available, issuing an I/O request from an entity-specific queue for an entity that has a highest priority among entities with non-empty entity-specific queues.”

The patent application was filed on April 30, 2018 (15/967,040).

Data control across multiple logical arrays
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,353,635) developed by Hayes, John, and Botes, Par, Mountain View, CA, for “data control across multiple logical arrays.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A storage cluster is provided. The storage cluster includes a plurality of storage nodes coupled together as the storage cluster. The plurality of storage nodes is configured to assign data to two or more logical arrays and the plurality of storage nodes is configured to establish data striping across the plurality of storage nodes for user data of each of the two or more logical arrays.”

The patent application was filed on July 31, 2018 (16/050,465).

Simultaneously servicing high latency operations in storage
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,353,630) developed by Colgrove, John, Los Altos, CA, Hayes, John, Mountain View, CA, Hong, Bo, Palo Alto, CA, Wang, Feng, Sunnyvale, CA, Miller, Ethan, Santa Cruz, CA, and Harmer, Craig, San Francisco, CA, for a “simultaneously servicing high latency operations in a storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A system and method for effectively scheduling read and write operations among a plurality of solid-state storage devices. A computer system comprises client computers and data storage arrays coupled to one another via a network. A data storage array utilizes solid-state drives and Flash memory cells for data storage. A storage controller within a data storage array comprises an I/O scheduler. The characteristics of corresponding storage devices are used to schedule I/O requests to the storage devices in order to maintain relatively consistent response times at predicted times. In order to reduce a likelihood of unscheduled behaviors of the storage devices, the storage controller is configured to schedule proactive operations on the storage devices that will reduce a number of occurrences of unscheduled behaviors.”

The patent application was filed on September 26, 2018 (16/142,690).

Distributed management of storage
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,348,675) developed by Engel, Joern, Mountain View, CA, Driscoll, Alan, Fremont, CA, Vachharajani, Neil, San Francisco, CA, and Karr, Ronald S., Palo Alto, CA, for a “distributed management of a storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Systems, apparatuses, methods, and computer-readable storage mediums for performing lease-based fencing using a time-limited lease window. During the time-limited lease window, writes to a shared storage medium are permitted, while writes are denied for expired leases. When a successful heartbeat is generated for a primary storage controller, the lease window is extended for the primary storage controller from the time of a previous heartbeat. Accordingly, a prolonged stall between successive heartbeats by the primary storage controller will result in the newly extended lease being expired at the time it is granted. This scheme prevents a split brain scenario from occurring when a secondary storage controller takes over as the new primary storage controller in response to detecting the stall.”

The patent application was filed on September 1, 2016 (15/254,293).

Replication and snapshots for flash storage
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,346,084) developed by Golden, Christopher, Emerald Hills, CA, Cao, Jianting, Sunnyvale, CA, Grunwald, David, San Francisco, CA, Sharpe, Malcolm, Mountain View, CA, and Hodgson, Steve, Sunnyvale, CA, for “replication and snapshots for flash storage systems.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A system and method for exposing volumes with underlying read-write mediums to user operations. When a medium is in the process of being replicated to a storage array, a volume which relies on the medium can be exposed to user operations, (e.g., snapshots, read and write operations) once the portions of the medium which underlie the volume have been replicated. The volume can be exposed to user operations while one or more other portions of the medium are unfilled and while the medium is in an intermediate read-write state.”

The patent application was filed on November 6, 2017 (15/804,402).

Adaptive computing for data compression
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,346,043) developed by Golden, Christopher, Mountain View, CA, Hankins, Richard, San Jose, CA, Karumbunathan, Aswin, San Francisco, CA, Neelakantam, Naveen, Mountain View, CA, and Vachharajani, Neil, San Francisco, CA, for an “adaptive computing for data compression.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Intelligently compressing data in a storage array that includes a plurality of storage devices, including: prioritizing, in dependence upon an expected benefit to be gained from compressing each data element, one or more data elements, receiving an amount of processing resources available for compressing the one or more of the data elements, and selecting, in dependence upon the prioritization of the one or more data elements and the amount of processing resources available for compressing one or more of the data elements, a data compression algorithm to utilize on one or more of the data elements.”

The patent application was filed on December 28, 2015 (14/980,632).

Ensuring appropriate utilization of system resources using weighted workload based, time-independent scheduling
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,331,588) developed by Frandzel, Yuval, Foster City, CA, and Vijayasankar, Kiron, Santa Clara, CA, for an “ensuring the appropriate utilization of system resources using weighted workload based, time-independent scheduling.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Ensuring the appropriate utilization of system resources using weighted workload based, time-independent scheduling, including: receiving an I/O request associated with an entity, determining whether an amount of system resources required to service the I/O request is greater than an amount of available system resources in a storage system, responsive to determining that the amount of system resources required to service the I/O request is greater than the amount of available system resources in the storage system: queueing the I/O request in an entity-specific queue for the entity, detecting that additional system resources in the storage system have become available, and issuing an I/O request from an entity-specific queue for an entity that has a highest priority, where a priority for each entity is determined based on the amount of I/O requests associated with the entity and a weighted proportion of resources designated for use by the entity.”

The patent application was filed on September 6, 2017 (15/697,022).

Tuning storage system in dependence upon workload access patterns
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,331,370) developed by Fernandez, Argenis, Redmond, WA, Karr, Ronald, Palo Alto, CA, Whitlock, David, New Orleans, LA, and Zhuravlev, Sergey, Campbell, CA, for a “tuning a storage system in dependence upon workload access patterns.“

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 June 14, 2018 (16/008,648).

Partially replicating snapshot between storage systems
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,326,836) developed by Chawla, Deepak, Redwood City, CA, Colgrove, John, Los Altos, CA, Noonan, Terence, Vadnais Heights, MN, Perneti, Vinay, and Su, Jikui, Mountain View, CA, for “partially replicating a snapshot between storage systems.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Synchronizing snapshots between storage systems, including: receiving, from a source storage system, an identification of a snapshot to be replicated to a destination storage system, identifying, from hint information stored on the destination storage system, a most recent version of the snapshot that is stored on the destination storage system, issuing, to the source storage system, a request for an identification of the differences between the snapshot to be replicated to the destination storage system and the most recent version of the snapshot that is stored on the destination storage system, receiving, from the source storage system, the identification of the differences, and issuing a request to transfer, from the source storage system to the destination storage system, data associated with the differences.”

The patent application was filed on December 8, 2015 (14/962,887).

Error recovery in storage cluster
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,324,812) developed by Davis, John D., Hayes, John, Kannan, Hari, Miladinovic, Nenad, and Tan, Zhangxi, Mountain View, CA, for an “error recovery in a storage cluster.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A plurality of storage nodes within a single chassis is provided. The plurality of storage nodes is configured to communicate together as a storage cluster. The plurality of storage nodes has a non-volatile solid-state storage for user data storage. The plurality of storage nodes is configured to distribute the user data and metadata associated with the user data throughout the plurality of storage nodes, with erasure coding of the user data. The plurality of storage nodes is configured to recover from failure of two of the plurality of storage nodes by applying the erasure coding to the user data from a remainder of the plurality of storage nodes. The plurality of storage nodes is configured to detect an error and engage in an error recovery via one of a processor of one of the plurality of storage nodes, a processor of the non-volatile solid state storage, or the flash memory.”

The patent application was filed on November 14, 2016 (15/351,303).

Stateless storage system controller in direct flash storage
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,318,196) developed by Seppanen, Eric D., Mountain View, CA, for a “stateless storage system controller in a direct flash storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Dynamically managing control information in a storage device, including: querying, by an array management module executing on a storage array controller, the storage device for a location of control information for the storage device, the control information describing the state of one or more memory blocks in the storage device, and issuing, by the array management module in dependence upon the location of the control information for the storage device, a request to retrieve the control information for the storage device.”

The patent application was filed on January 25, 2017 (15/414,760).

Layering communication fabric protocols
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,310,760) developed by Dreier, Roland, Mountain View, CA, Hodgson, Steven, San Jose, CA, and Karr, Ronald, Palo Alto, CA, for a “layering communication fabric protocols.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Layering communication fabric protocols, including: allocating storage resources on an initiating storage system for a data transfer, wherein a command protocol to implement the data transfer specifies an exchange of multiple messages, receiving, from a target storage system and into the allocated storage resources at the initiating storage system, data within a single message corresponding to the command protocol that specifies an exchange of multiple messages to implement the data transfer, and in response to receiving the data within the single message corresponding to the command protocol that specifies an exchange of multiple messages to implement the data transfer, generating a status message indicating receipt of the data.”

The patent application was filed on October 30, 2018 (16/175,316).

Capacity attribution in storage
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,310,753) developed by Cao, Jianting, Sunnyvale, CA, Harriman, Martin, Aptos, CA, Hayes, John, Mountain View, CA, and Sandvig, Cary, San Jose, CA, for a “capacity attribution in a storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Attributing consumed storage capacity among entities storing data in a storage array includes: identifying a data object stored in the storage array and shared by a plurality of entities, where the data object occupies an amount of storage capacity of the storage array, and attributing to each entity a fractional portion of the amount of storage capacity occupied by the data object.”

The patent application was filed on April 30, 2018 (15/967,250).

Aligning memory access operations to geometry of storage device
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,310,740) developed by Colgrove, John, Los Altos, CA, and Kirkpatrick, Peter E., Mountain View, CA, for “aligning memory access operations to a geometry of a storage device.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Aligning memory access operations to a geometry of a storage device, including: receiving, by a storage array controller, information describing the layout of memory in the storage device, determining, by the storage array controller, a write size in dependence upon the layout of memory in the storage device, and sending, by the storage array controller, a write request addressed to a location within the memory unit in dependence upon the layout of memory in the storage device.”

The patent application was filed on June 23, 2015 (14/748,194).

Rebuilding data across storage nodes
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,303,547) developed by Hayes, John, Colgrove, John, Lee, Robert, Robinson, Joshua,and Ostrovsky, Igor, Mountain View, CA, for a “rebuilding data across storage nodes.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method for proactively rebuilding user data in a plurality of storage nodes of a storage cluster is provided. The method includes distributing user data and metadata throughout the plurality of storage nodes such that the plurality of storage nodes can read the user data, using erasure coding, despite loss of two of the storage nodes. The method includes determining that one of the storage nodes is unreachable and determining to rebuild the user data for the one of the storage nodes that is unreachable. The method includes reading the user data across a remainder of the plurality of storage nodes, using the erasure coding and writing the user data across the remainder of the plurality of storage nodes, using the erasure coding. A plurality of storage nodes within a single chassis that can proactively rebuild the user data stored within the storage nodes is also provided.”

The patent application was filed on June 4, 2015 (15/315,676).

Resolving fingerprint collisions in flash storage
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,303,390) developed by Colgrove, John, Los Altos, CA, Karr, Ronald, Palo Alto, CA, and Miller, Ethan, Santa Cruz, CA, for “resolving fingerprint collisions in flash storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Handling fingerprint collisions in a storage system that includes one or more storage devices, including: determining whether a fingerprint associated with a first data segment matches a fingerprint associated with a data segment stored within the storage system, responsive to determining that the fingerprint associated with the first data segment matches the fingerprint associated with the data segment stored within the storage system, determining whether the first data segment matches the data segment stored within the storage system, and responsive to determining that the first data segment does not match the data segment stored within the storage system, resolving a fingerprint collision between the first data segment and the data segment stored within the storage system.”

The patent application was filed on April 28, 2017 (15/581,660).

Access control in flash storage
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,296,469) developed by Engel, Joern, Mountain View, CA, Driscoll, Alan, Fremont, CA, Vachharajani, Neil, San Francisco, CA, and Karr, Ronald S., Palo Alto, CA, for an “access control in a flash storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Systems, apparatuses, methods, and computer-readable storage mediums for performing lease-based fencing using a time-limited lease window. During the time-limited lease window, writes to a shared storage medium are permitted, while writes are denied for expired leases. When a successful heartbeat is generated for a primary storage controller, the lease window is extended for the primary storage controller from the time of a previous heartbeat. Accordingly, a prolonged stall between successive heartbeats by the primary storage controller will result in the newly extended lease being expired at the time it is granted. This scheme prevents a split brain scenario from occurring when a secondary storage controller takes over as the new primary storage controller in response to detecting the stall.”

The patent application was filed on July 24, 2014 (14/340,169).

Optimized boot operations within flash storage array
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,296,354) developed by Sanvido, Marco, Belmont, CA, Hankins, Richard, San Jose, CA, McAuliffe, Mark, East Palo Alto, CA, Cheng, HuiHui, Fremont, CA, Doshi, Nidhi, Neelakantam, Naveen, Mountain View, CA, and Vachharajani, Neil, San Francisco, CA, for “optimized boot operations within a flash storage array.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A system and method for efficiently starting up a plurality of solid-state storage devices. A computing system includes one or more storage devices storing data in multiple allocation units, (AUs). In a boot region, a data storage controller maintains an AU management set that identifies a state of various AUs in the system. In various embodiments, the management set includes an identification of a subset of free AUs, transitional AU, unincorporated AUs, and speculative AUs. At various times, information corresponding to the AU management set is stored to non-volatile storage. During a boot sequence, the AU management set information is accessed and the identified AUs are searched to identify allocated AUs rather than performing a search of all of the AUs in the system.”

The patent application was filed on January 21, 2015 (14/602,052).

Offloading data storage to decentralized storage network
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,296,258) developed by Richardson, Michael, Kansas City, MO, for an “offloading data storage to a decentralized storage network.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Offloading data storage to a decentralized storage network, including: identifying a plurality of decentralized storage networks that the storage system can utilize for storing data, selecting, in dependence upon characteristics of each decentralized storage network and requirements associated with storing the data, one or more decentralized storage networks for storing the data, and initiating storage of the data on the selected one of more decentralized storage networks.”

The patent application was filed on March 9, 2018 (15/916,599).