EMC IP Holding (Dell) Assigned Sixteen Patents

Clustered storage
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (10,826,990) developed by Kamran, Lior, Rishon LeZion, Israel, Alkalay, Amitai, Kadima, Israel, Schneider, Zvi, Tel Aviv, Israel, Shveidel, Vladimir, Pardes-Hana, Israel, and Baruch, Oran, Tel Aviv, Israel, for a “clustered storage system configured for bandwidth efficient processing of writes at sizes below a native page size.“
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A control module of a clustered storage system in one embodiment is configured to receive a write request for a data block of a page, to retrieve an existing content-based signature for the page, to identify from the existing content-based signature a first one of the data modules currently storing the page, and to compute a content-based signature of the data block. The control module is further configured to send the content-based signature of the data block to the first data module, to receive from the first data module an updated content-based signature for the page computed utilizing the content-based signature of the data block, to identify from the updated content-based signature a second one of the data modules that will store the page as updated to include the data block, and to provide information regarding the data block and the updated content-based signature to the second data module for utilization in storage of the updated page.”

The patent application was filed on July 23, 2018 (16/042,544).

Transactional I/O scheduler using media properties
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (10,824,577) developed by Ugale, Rahul, Santa Clara, CA, and Zou, Colin, San Jose, CA, for “transactional I/O scheduler using media properties to achieve guaranteed read, write, and mixed I/O performance in virtual and cloud storage.“
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Embodiments are described for prioritizing input/output (I/O) operations dispatched from a storage media to a host bus adapter in a virtual or cloud network by: determining certain latency properties of the storage media, tagging, in an I/O tagging module, the I/O operations in a file system supporting applications generating the I/O operations, wherein all child I/O operations initiated from a parent I/O operation are tagged with a same unique tag ID, and dispatching, in a transactional I/O scheduler, all sibling I/O’s of the parent I/O operation based on a unique tag ID for the sibling I/Os, the storage media latency properties, and defined quality of service (QoS) requirements. The I/O operations may be sequential, random, or internal I/O operations with random I/O operations being more latency dependent and prioritized over the sequential or internal operations.”

The patent application was filed on October 18, 2019 (16/657,869).

Processing input/output operations while snapshot and extent copy operations are in progress for logical storage volume
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (10,824,513) developed by Chandrashekhara, Sandeep, Shrewsbury, MA, Tsang, David T., Sudbury, MA, Ferrari, Michael, Douglas, MA, Wilson, Jeffrey, Franklin, MA, and Halstead, Mark J., Holliston, MA, for “processing input/output operations while snapshot and extent copy operations are in progress for a logical storage volume.“
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”An apparatus in one embodiment comprises at least one processing device having a processor coupled to a memory. The processing device is configured to maintain, for logical storage volumes of a storage system, device sequence numbers for snapshot and extent copy operations. The processing device is also configured to maintain, for at least one track of the logical storage volumes, a track sequence number representing the state of the track with respect to the snapshot and extent copy operations. The processing device is further configured to receive input/output operations directed to the logical storage volumes from host devices coupled to the storage system while at least one snapshot or extent copy operation for the logical storage volumes is in progress, and to utilize the track sequence numbers and the device sequence numbers to determine processing of the received input/output operations while the snapshot or extent copy operations are in progress.”

The patent application was filed on April 30, 2019 (16/398,879).

Managing journaling resources with copies stored in multiple locations
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (10,824,512) developed by Resnik, Inna, Tel Aviv, Israel, Schneider, Zvi, Hod Hasharon, Israel, and Shemesh, Dani, Ramat-gan, Israel, for “managing journaling resources with copies stored in multiple locations.“
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A storage system in one embodiment comprises a storage controller and a plurality of storage devices comprising a plurality of memory portions. The storage controller is configured to monitor a plurality of servers for a failure event. The servers store a plurality of copies of the memory portions. The storage controller is further configured to mark as invalid a copy of a memory portion on a failed server, search for and identify a location on an operational server for storing a new version of the copy, and communicate the copy invalidity and the identified location to a client device using the memory portion. The client device is configured to generate the new version of the copy for storage on the operational server, and the storage controller receives a notification from the client device regarding whether the new version of the copy was generated and stored on the operational server.”

The patent application was filed on July 31, 2018 (16/051,194).

Environment independent data protection in highly available data system
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (10,824,510) developed by Doshi, Girish, and Ghodake, Ganesh, Pune, India, for an “environment independent data protection in a highly available data system.“
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Systems and methods for providing data protection services are provided. In one example, data protection services are provided in a high availability system. Server side copies of the data stored in or by nodes or servers of the high availability system are generated. The server side copies are independent of the operating systems and storage hierarchies associated with the actual data. The resulting backup copies can be generated by storing metadata that includes references to the original data. The backup copies can also be restored without being hindered by the operating systems and storage hierarchies of the highly available system.”

The patent application was filed on October 2, 2017 (15/722,778).

Changing data reliability type within storage
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (10,824,361) developed by Sun, Ree, Gao, Jian, Gao, Hongpo, Zhuo, Baote, Kang, Jamin, and Gong, Shaoqin, Beijing, China, for “changing data reliability type within a storage system.“
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Implementations of the present disclosure relate to a method, system and computer program product for managing a storage system. Specifically, in one implementation of the present disclosure there is provided a method for managing a storage system. The storage system comprises at least one stripe, a stripe of the at least one stripe comprising multiple extents among which respective extents being from respective storage devices in a resource pool. The method comprises: in response to receiving a converting request to convert the storage system from a first type to a second type, determining a target storage device associated with the converting request in the resource pool, for a stripe of the at least one stripe, updating metadata associated with the stripe so as to remove from the stripe an extent that is located at the target storage device, and converting the storage system from the first type to the second type on the basis of the updated metadata. In other implementations of the present disclosure, there is provided a corresponding system and computer program product.”

The patent application was filed on October 25, 2018 (16/170,143).

Optimizing inline deduplication during copies
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (10,824,359) developed by Armangau, Philippe, Acton, MA, Gillono, John, North Chelmsford, MA, Kachmar, Maher, Marlborough, MA, and Seibel, Christopher A., Walpole, MA, for “optimizing inline deduplication during copies.“
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A technique for storing data in a data storage system detects that a read is being performed pursuant to a data copy request. In response, the data storage system stores a digest of the data being read in an entry of a digest cache. Later, when a write pursuant to the same copy request arrives, the storage system obtains the entry from the digest cache and completes the write request without creating a duplicate copy of the data.”

The patent application was filed on October 31, 2017 (15/798,740).

Recovery of tree data in geographically distributed environment
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (10,817,388) developed by Danilov, Mikhail, Saint Petersburg, Russia, and Buinov, Konstantin, Prague, Czech Republic, for “recovery of tree data in a geographically distributed environment.“
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”The described technology is generally directed towards recovery of an impacted (damaged) tree in an impacted zone in a geographically distributed data storage environment, using a peer tree in a remote zone. A peer zone is selected for recovery, and updated to have current data. Logic at the impacted zone requests recovery of an impacted tree, identifying one or more recovery ranges for which recovery data is needed. Logic at the peer zone locates missing objects via the peer tree, and provides recovery information to the impacted zone, by which recovery of the impacted tree is able to be accomplished. For example, a replication journal may be returned as a tree recovery journal comprising add leaf (object) instructions, whereby the impacted zone processes the journal with respect to a reduced representation of the impacted tree to obtain a recovered tree.”

The patent application was filed on July 21, 2017 (15/656,382).

Storage with backup control utilizing content-based signatures
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (10,817,385) developed by Meiri, David, Somerville, MA, and Kucherov, Anton, Dudley, MA, for a “storage system with backup control utilizing content-based signatures.“
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A content addressable storage system in one embodiment comprises a plurality of storage devices and a storage controller. The content addressable storage system is configured to receive from another storage system a plurality of snapshots for at least one storage volume designated for backup from the other storage system to the content addressable storage system. For each of a plurality of pages of a given one of the snapshots, the content addressable storage system generates a content-based signature for the page, compares the content-based signature for the page to a previous content-based signature generated for a corresponding page having the same address in a previous one of the snapshots, and stores the page of the given snapshot in one or more of the storage devices of the content addressable storage system responsive to an absence of a match between the compared content-based signatures. The content-based signatures illustratively comprise respective hash handles.”

The patent application was filed on July 31, 2018 (16/050,051).

Managing data backup
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (10,817,383) developed by Ke, Li, Li, Jie, He, Tao, Chengdu, China, Yu, Jing, Shanghai, China, and Wang, Yun, Chengdu, China, for “method, apparatus and computer program product for managing data backup.“
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method, apparatus and computer program product for managing a data backup. The method comprises determining a first data amount to be involved in an addressing operation and a second data amount to be involved in a copy operation for an extent to be backed up on a source storage device, the addressing operation addressing a starting address of the extent and the copy operation copying an amount of data corresponding to a length of the extent. The method further comprises obtaining, based on an identifier of the source storage device, a first historical time elapsed for a previous addressing operation having the first data amount and a second historical time elapsed for a previous copy operation having the second data amount.”

The patent application was filed on January 18, 2019 (16/251,333).

Migration of versioned data between storage devices
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (10,817,204) developed by Danilov, Mikhail, and Borisov, Mikhail, Saint Petersburg, Russia, for a “migration of versioned data between storage devices.“
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Facilitating migration of versioned data in a reverse chronological order is provided herein. A system can comprise a processor and a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, facilitate performance of operations. The operations can comprise initiating a migration of information from a source storage device to a target storage device. The information can comprise a current object version of data and previous object versions of the data. The current object version of data can comprise portions of the previous object versions of the data. The operations can also comprise facilitating a first migration of the current object version prior to the migration of the previous object versions. Further, the operations can comprise facilitating a second migration of the previous object versions in a reverse migration order.”

The patent application was filed on October 11, 2017 (15/730,143).

Determining physical storage space of deduplicated storage
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (10,810,161) developed by Varadan, Srikant, San Jose, CA, Moghe, Dheer, Belmont, CA, and Reddy, Sazzala, Los Altos, CA, for “system and method for determining physical storage space of a deduplicated storage system.“
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Exemplary methods, apparatuses, and systems maintain a plurality of summary data structures corresponding to a plurality of logical file system namespaces representing a plurality of hierarchies of one or more directories having one or more files, each file being stored in the storage system as a plurality of segments in a deduplicated manner. In response to a request to estimate a storage usage by a first of the file system namespace, identify a first of the summary data structures corresponding to the first file system namespace, wherein the first summary data structure stores information summarizing deduplicated segments referenced by one or more files of the first file system namespace. Estimate the storage usage of the first file system namespace based on the first summary data structure and a global summary data structure, wherein the global summary data structure stores information summarizing deduplicated segments referenced by all of the file system namespaces.”

The patent application was filed on February 18, 2014 (14/183,061).

Techniques for use with physical media types having varying allowable write quotas
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (10,809,931) developed by Martin, Owen, Hopedale, MA, BenHanokh, Gabriel, Tel-Aviv, Israel, and Don, Arieh, Newton, MA, for “techniques for use with physical media types having varying allowable write quotas.“
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Described are data movements techniques may include: receiving a plurality of write quotas for a plurality of physical media types, determining a first physical storage device of a first physical media type that is over utilized with respect to a write quota, selecting a first data portion of the first physical storage device for data movement, determining a target device that is not over utilized with respect to a write quota, determining an expected total write I/O workload of the target device after hypothetically moving the first data portion thereto, determining whether the expected total write I/O workload exceeds a write quota of the target device, and responsive to determining the total write I/O workload does not exceed the write quota for the target device, moving the first data portion to the target storage device.”

The patent application was filed on June 24, 2016 (15/191,988).

Providing data protection to destination storage objects on remote arrays
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (10,809,922) developed by Zhang, Tianming, Sheelvant, Girish, Hopkinton, MA, Jin, Qi, Sudbury, MA, Haravu, Nagasimha, Apex, NC, Zeldich, Michael, Newton, MA, and Janamanchi, Sathish, Shrewsbury, MA, for “providing data protection to destination storage objects on remote arrays in response to assignment of data protection to corresponding source storage objects on local arrays.“
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A data protection technique involves, based on a first set of policies on a first storage array, generating a second set of policies on a second storage array to track the first set. The first array maintains a first storage object, and the second array maintains a second storage object as a replica of the first storage object. The technique further includes detecting assignment of the first set of policies to the first storage object and, in response to such detection, assigning the second set of policies to the second storage object. Application of a set of storage policies to a storage object may be delayed if the storage object is a replication destination. A policy group may identify multiple data protection rules or policies, which may include a snapshot rule and/or replication rule, and a user may be prevented from directly making a rule modification to a policy group. An orphan policy group cleanup operation may be performed to delete orphan policy groups.”

The patent application was filed on July 30, 2018 (16/048,486).

Cache performance on storage system
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (10,809,918) developed by Martin, Owen, Hopedale, MA, Halstead, Mark J., Holliston, MA, and Smith-Vaniz, William R., Sudbury, MA, for a “cache performance on a storage system.“
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Options for handling write operations may be selected based on a determined probability that a read operation for a portion of data will occur while the data portion is still in an I/O cache as a result of a write operation. As used herein, a ‘read-after-write’ event (RAW) is an occurrence of a read operation for a portion of data while the data portion is still in an I/O cache as a result of a write operation. The probability of a RAW may be determined by applying Bayesian inference, and may include applying exponential smoothing to calculations made on historical I/O information so that more recent I/O events have greater weight in determining RAW probability. Based on the determined RAW probability, write data may either be journaled in a write journal or written to a cache slot and de-staged to a physical storage device as part of write-in-place processing.”

The patent application was filed on January 31, 2019 (16/263,541).

Support synchronous replication failover
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (10,802,935) developed by Chen, Xiangping, Sherborn, MA, and Kucherov, Anton, Dudley, MA, for a “method to support synchronous replication failover.“
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”In one aspect, synchronous replication failover support is provided for a storage system that includes a source site and a target site. The failover support includes locating a recovery snap set on the source site. The source site is identified as a subject of a failover event, and the recovery snap set includes a snap set that contains a subset of data content that is also stored at the target site. The recovery snap set also has a time of creation that is equal to or greater than a timeout value for serving input/outputs (IOs) to the target site. The failover support further includes sending a difference between volumes of the source site and the recovery snap set to the target site. The difference is configured to enable in sync status between the source site and the target site.”

The patent application was filed on July 23, 2018 (16/042,363).