Dell Products Assigned Fifteen Patents

Automatic rollback to target for synchronous replication
Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (11,163,799) developed by Chen, Xiangping, Sherborn, MA, and Kronrod, Svetlana, Concord, MA, for an “automatic rollback to target for synchronous replication.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method is disclosed for use in a storage system including a source system that is coupled to a target system, the method comprising: detecting a rollback event that is associated with a source volume Vs, and performing a rollback of the source volume Vs in response to the rollback event, wherein performing the rollback of the source volume Vs includes: identifying a target snapset Sr to be rolled back to, the target snapset Sr having a creation time Tr, identifying a snapset recovery pair including a source snapset Sk and a target snapset Sk’, the source snapset having a creation time Ts, and the target snapset having a creation time Tt, such that Tr.ltoreq.Ts.ltoreq.Tt, assigning the source volume Vs to the source snapset Sk, and update the source volume Vs based on a difference between the target snapset Sr and the target snapset Sk’.”

The patent application was filed on October 29, 2019 (16/667,453).

Discovery controller registration of NVMe elements in NVMe-oF system
Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (11,163,716) developed by Smith, Erik, Douglas, MA, White, Joseph LaSalle, San Jose, CA, Black, David, Acton, MA, and Subbiah, Raja, Chennai, India, for a “discovery controller registration of non-volatile memory express (NVMe) elements in an NVMe-over-fabrics (NVMe-oF) system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Presented herein are embodiments for registering elements of a non-volatile memory express, NVMe) entity in an NVMe-over-Fabric (NVMe-oF) environment. In embodiments, a method for registering with a centralized storage fabric service component via a discovery controller (DC) of the centralize service comprises transmitting a DC registration command to the DC. In embodiments, the DC registration command includes a number of registration entries that the NVMe entity will be submitting for registration. In embodiments, the identified number of NVMe registration entries are transmitted to the centralized service and are stored in a registry. The NVMe registration entry may include an entry type for indicating an NVMe registration entry type, an NVMe qualified name, NQN) for identifying the NVMe entity, and a transport address for specifying an address of the element of the NVMe entity. Other NVMe entities may query the registry to obtain information about NVMe elements in the system.”

The patent application was filed on March 16, 2020 (16/820,547).

RAID storage multi-step command
Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (11,163,501) developed by Kotzur, Gary Benedict, Austin, TX, Lynn, William Emmett, Round Rock, TX, Marks, Kevin Thomas, Georgetown, TX, Nelogal, Chandrashekar, Giannoules, James Peter, Round Rock, TX, and Bolen, Austin Patrick, Austin, TX, for a “RAID storage multi-step command system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A RAID storage multi-step command system includes a RAID storage system coupled to a RAID storage controller device. The RAID storage controller device identifies a RAID storage system configuration of the RAID storage system and, based on the RAID storage system configuration, generates a first multi-step command definition file for a first RAID storage device in the RAID storage system, and transmits it to the first RAID storage device. The first multi-step command definition file defines first steps that each include first operation(s). Subsequent to transmitting the first multi-step command definition file, the RAID storage controller device generates a first multi-step command that references the first multi-step command definition file and includes first parameter(s) for use in performing each first operation(s) included in the first steps defined by the first multi-step command definition file, and transmits the first multi-step command to the first RAID storage device.”

The patent application was filed on March 27, 2020 (16/832,348).

Opportunistic migration of digital assets
Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (11,163,467) developed by Enders, Kevin, Round Rock, TX, for “system and methods for opportunistic migration of digital assets.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “An information handling system for migrating digital assets may include a storage medium configured to store information regarding digital assets to be migrated from a source system to a target system and a processor configured to determine a size of a digital asset to be migrated from the source system to the target system and select a mode of data transfer from the source system to the target system for the digital asset based on the size of the digital asset.”

The patent application was filed on February 4, 2019 (16/266,688).

Configurable method to associate drive slot to bus number
Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (11,157,427) developed by Leyendecker, Robert R., and An, Rui, Austin, TX, for a “configurable method to associate drive slot to bus number.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “An information handling system may include a basic input/output system, BIOS, a management controller configured to provide out-of-band management of the information handling system, a plurality of communications bus root complex ports, and a storage backplane having a plurality of slots configured to receive respective storage resources. The information handling system may be configured to: store, at the management controller, an initial data structure containing a correspondence between the plurality of communications bus root complex ports and the plurality of slots, transmit, from the BIOS to the management controller, information regarding bus numbers for a plurality of enumerated information handling resources coupled to the communications bus, and determine, by the management controller, a correspondence between the bus numbers and the plurality of slots.”

The patent application was filed on March 6, 2020 (16/812,024).

Distributed RAID storage-device-assisted data rebuild
Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (11,157,363) developed by Kotzur, Gary Benedict, Austin, TX, Lynn, William Emmett, Round Rock, TX, Marks, Kevin Thomas, Georgetown, TX, Nelogal, Chandrashekar, Giannoules, James Peter, Round Rock, TX, and Bolen, Austin Patrick, Austin, TX, for a “distributed raid storage-device-assisted data rebuild system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A distributed RAID storage-device-assisted data rebuild system includes a first RAID data storage device, provided in response to data unavailability, that retrieves respective first data for a first data stripe from each of the other RAID data storage devices, performs an XOR operation on the respective first data to generate first rebuilt data for the first data stripe, and stores the first rebuilt data as part of the first data stripe. A second RAID data storage device retrieves respective second data for a second data stripe from third RAID data storage devices, performs an XOR operation on the respective second data and third data for the second data stripe stored on the second RAID data storage device to generate second rebuilt data for the second data stripe, and provides the second rebuilt data for storage on the first RAID data storage device as part of the second data stripe.”

The patent application was filed on March 25, 2020 (16/829,124).

Minimizing boot time when using unique key encryption key per storage resource in secure enterprise key management provisioning
Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (11,153,075) developed by Rao, Balaji B., Austin, TX, Nelogal, Chandrashekar, Round Rock, TX, Neti, Swathi Prasad, Georgetown, TX, Nagaratna, Chandrashekara Lingaiah, Austin, TX, Vijayvargiya, Divya, Cedar Park, TX, and Natarajan, Diwahar, Austin, TX, for “systems and methods for minimizing boot time when using a unique key encryption key per storage resource in secure enterprise key management provisioning.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, a key management utility may be configured to, during boot of an information handling system, prioritize retrieval of key encryption keys of bootable storage resources of a plurality of storage resources over retrieval of key encryption keys of non-bootable storage resources of the plurality of storage resources and prioritize decryption of media encryption keys of bootable storage resources of the plurality of storage resources using their corresponding key encryption keys over decryption of media encryption keys of non-bootable storage resources of the plurality of storage resources using their corresponding key encryption keys.”

The patent application was filed on January 8, 2020 (16/737,704).

Host-based read performance optimization of content addressable storage
Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (11,151,048) developed by Kamran, Lior, Rishon LeZion, Israel, and Alkalay, Amitai, Kadima, Israel, for a “host-based read performance optimization of a content addressable storage system.“

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 comprising a processor coupled to a memory, with the processing device being configured to maintain a content-based signature cache for a plurality of data pages. For each of a plurality of read operations to be directed to a distributed content addressable storage (CAS) system, the processing device determines if a data page targeted by the read operation has a corresponding content-based signature in the content-based signature cache. Responsive to the data page having a content-based signature in the content-based signature cache, the processing device identifies a particular storage node that stores the data page in the distributed CAS system, and directs the read operation to the identified storage node using the content-based signature to specify the data page targeted by the read operation. The processing device illustratively comprises a host device coupled to the CAS system over a network.”

The patent application was filed on October 25, 2019 (16/663,499).

Managing UEFI boot device path based on custom selection
Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (11,150,911) developed by Kondapi, Srikanth, Austin, TX, Vidyadhara, Sumanth, Bangalore, India, and Kozlowski, Joseph, Hutto, TX, for “system and method for managing UEFI boot device path based on custom selection.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A system for configuring a processor is disclosed that includes a processor, a memory, and a firmware startup algorithm stored in the memory at a first predetermined location, the firmware start-up algorithm has one or more user-configurable driver algorithm memory storage locations. A driver algorithm stored at one of the user-configurable driver algorithm memory storage locations is configured to modify an operating system memory storage location for use by the firmware startup algorithm.”

The patent application was filed on June 15, 2018 (16/009,510).

Enhanced vault save with compression
Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (11,144,454) developed by Guyer, James, Northboro, MA, and Duquette, Jason, Milford, MA, for an “enhanced vault save with compression.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Metadata in volatile memory is selectively compressed and destaged to non-volatile storage in the event of an emergency shutdown due to loss of like power. Compression offload hardware that is normally used for data compression is used to compress the metadata, e.g. at line speed. The compressed metadata and any uncompressed metadata that was not selected for compression may be destaged to vault drives along with compressed and uncompressed data that is in the volatile memory. Compression during vaulting may decrease power consumption when operating under standby battery power.”

The patent application was filed on November 22, 2019 (16/691,657).

Use of compression domains that are more granular than storage allocation units
Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (11,144,445) developed by Yu, Rong, West Roxbury, MA, Scharland, Michael, Franklin, MA, and O’Hare, Jeremy, Westborough, MA, for “use of compression domains that are more granular than storage allocation units.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Within a storage array, allocation of physical storage capacity within a storage array may be managed in standard size allocation units of uncompressed data, e.g. 128kb tracks, while smaller sub-allocation unit compression domains e.g. 32kb quarter tracks, are used for compressed data. The data within a sub-allocation unit may be compressed to a size that is less than the capacity of the sub-allocation unit. Data associated with sub-allocation units that are not required to service a read or write may not need to be compressed or decompressed in order to service the read or write. Consequently, resource usage may be more efficient.”

The patent application was filed on March 28, 2016 (15/082,679).

Cluster member transfer for RAID system expansion
Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (11,144,413) developed by Hua, Kuolin, Natick, MA, and Gao, Kunxiu, Boxborough, MA, for a “cluster member transfer for RAID system expansion.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “In a storage system that implements RAID (D+P) with an existing cluster of drives in which the drives have (D+P) partitions that are protection group members, cluster member transfer code creates a new drive cluster when fewer than D+P new drives are added to the storage system. The cluster member transfer code moves one or more drives from the existing cluster into a new cluster so that the number of new drives plus the number of moved drives equals D+P. One or more protection groups may be moved to the new cluster.”

The patent application was filed on February 21, 2020 (16/797,018).

APeriodic snapshot creation recommendation engine
Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (11,144,403) developed by Doddaiah, Ramesh, Westborough, MA, for an “aperiodic snapshot creation recommendation engine.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “An aperiodic snapshot recommendation engine running in a storage system aperiodically generates hints that a new snapshot should be created. The hints are sent to host servers to prompt snapshot generation commands to be sent to the storage system. The hints may be generated based on current storage system workload conditions using a model of a snapshot scheduler running on a host server for which the storage system maintains data. The model may be created using a machine learning technique. For example, machine learning may be used to model the host’s snapshot scheduler in terms of storage system workload conditions existing when the snapshot scheduler commands generation of new snapshots during a training phase.”

The patent application was filed on November 20, 2019 (16/689,133).

RAID reliability with provisional spare disk
Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (11,144,396) developed by Hua, Kuolin, Natick, MA, Gao, Kunxiu, Boxborough, MA, and Scharland, Michael, Franklin, MA, for a “RAID reliability with a provisional spare disk.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Disks of equal storage capacity in a disk cluster have M*W partitions, where RAID width W=D+P. RAID (D+P) protection groups are implemented on the disks with protection group members stored in individual partitions. An amount of storage capacity equal to the storage capacity of one disk is distributed across multiple disks in spare partitions. The spare partitions may be distributed such that no more than one spare partition resides on a single disk. M may be selected to optimize rebuild latency. The protection group members of a failed disk are rebuilt in the distributed spare partitions and subsequently relocated to a provisional spare drive. The populated provisional spare drive replaces the failed drive.”

The patent application was filed on January 27, 2021 (17/159,282).

Update failover process by running basic input/output (BIOS) system boot code from NVME
Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (11,144,328) developed by Suryanarayana, Shekar Babu, and Vidyadhara, Sumanth, Bangalore, India, for a “system method to update failover process by running basic input/output (BIOS) system boot code from non-volatile memory express device (NVME).“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A BIOS boot and update failover process is provided. A computing system can include flash storage on which the BIOS is stored, an embedded controller and an NVMe drive. After the BIOS successfully performs a boot process, a failover module can be executed to create a BIOS namespace on an NVMe namespace and then store a copy of the BIOS on the NVMe namespace. The failover module can also create a device path that identifies where the copy of the BIOS is stored on the NVMe namespace and store the device path on the embedded controller. The embedded controller can be configured to detect when the BIOS on the flash storage fails to initiate a subsequent boot process and, in response, employ the device path to locate and load the copy of the BIOS from the NVMe namespace to thereby cause the computing system to be booted.”

The patent application was filed on February 3, 2020 (16/780,372).