Huawei Assigned Twelve Patents

File migration method and apparatus, and storage device
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China, has been assigned a patent (10,417,186) developed by Xia, Feng, Chengdu, China, for “file migration method and apparatus, and storage device.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method for migrating a file in a storage device. The storage device obtains a snapshot of metadata of the file. The snapshot includes logical addresses of data blocks of the file and first write time points of the data blocks. The storage device identifies a logical address of a target data block and a first write time point of the target data block. Then, the storage device obtains a second write time point from the metadata of the file. The second write time point indicates a latest time point of writing the target data block into the storage device. If the first write time point of the target data block is identical to the second write time point, the storage device migrates the target data block to pre-allocated continuous storage space. Thereby, disk defragmentation can be achieved.”

The patent application was filed on March 30, 2016 (15/085,626).

Creating selective snapshots of database
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China, has been assigned a patent (10,417,097) developed by Levy, Eliezer, Hod Hasharon, Israel, Iliopoulos, Antonios, Munich, Germany, Goikhman, Shay, Hod Hasharon, Israel, and Gold, Israel, Munich, Germany, for “system and method for creating selective snapshots of a database.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A system is provided for creating selective snapshots of a database that is stored as one or more segments, wherein a segment comprises one or more memory pages. The system includes a memory storage comprising instructions and one or more processors in communication with the memory. The one or more processors execute the instructions to determine whether a snapshot process is configured to access a selected segment of the one or more segments, assign a positive mapping status to an accessed segment for which the determining unit has determined that it is accessed by the snapshot process and to assign a negative mapping status to a non-accessed segment, and create a snapshot comprises a step of forking the snapshot process with an address space that comprises a subset of the one or more segments.”

The patent application was filed on September 11, 2017 (15/700,564).

Data conversion method and backup server
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China, has been assigned a patent (10,409,694) developed by Zhang, Lei, and Fu, Gaoding, Chengdu, China, for “data conversion method and backup server.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”In a method for implementing data conversion in a cloud data center, a backup server receives a read request from a block storage server. The read request includes a uniform resource locator, (URL) address of a to-be-read virtual image object on the backup server and an address range of target data in the to-be-read virtual image object. The backup server obtains an address mapping bitmap and a storage path of backup data in a backup replica corresponding to the to-be-read virtual image object according to the URL address. Thereafter, the backup server obtains the target data from a storage device according to the address range of the target data and the address mapping bitmap and the storage path. Further, the backup server sends the target data to the block storage server. Hence, the conversion time of a backup data object may be shortened.”

The patent application was filed on May 7, 2018 (15/972,527).

Network topology determining, and centralized network status information storage
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China, has been assigned a patent (10,404,544) developed by Zheng, Xiuli, Beijing, China, for “network topology determining method and apparatus, and centralized network status information storage device.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A network topology determining method and apparatus, and a centralized network status information storage device. The method includes obtaining first network status information, where the first network status information includes device information of first switching devices, link information between the first switching devices, device information of second switching devices that are connected to the first switching devices and that are not controlled by a first centralized network status information storage device, and link information between the first switching devices and the second switching devices that are respectively connected to the first switching devices, receiving second network status information sent by a second centralized network status information storage device, and determining, according to the first network status information and the second network status information, a network topology of a management domain or an autonomous system to which the first centralized network status information storage device belongs.”

The patent application was filed on March 23, 2017 (15/467,495).

Data reconstruction method in distributed storage
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China, has been assigned a patent (10,387,255) developed by Zeng, Yongqiang, Shenzhen, China, for “data reconstruction method in distributed storage system, apparatus, and system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A data reconstruction method is performed in a distributed storage system. A primary storage node in the distributed storage system performs EC encoding on to-be-written data to generate an EC stripe, and stores, on each storage node, each EC block in the EC stripe. When a fault occurs on some storage nodes and causes a write failure of EC blocks, the primary storage node locally stores an EC block allocated to a storage node to which the write fails and generates metadata information required for data reconstruction. After the storage node recovers from the fault, the primary storage node sends, to the storage node, the stored EC block allocated to the storage node to which the write fails and the metadata information corresponding to the EC block, so that the storage node that recovers from the fault completes the data reconstruction.”

The patent application was filed on March 31, 2017 (15/475,303).

Storage network element discovery
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China, has been assigned a patent (10,372,673) developed by Guo, Haitao, Hangzhou, China, Zhang, Yu, Shenzhen, China, and Chen, Yajun, Hangzhou, China, for “storage network element discovery method and apparatus.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A storage network element discovery method and an apparatus, where the method includes broadcasting or multicasting, by a control network element, a heartbeat message to at least one storage network element, where the heartbeat message includes address information of the control network element, receiving, by the control network element, a response message returned by at least one storage network element according to the heartbeat message, and determining an accessible storage network element according to the response message, where the response message includes network parameter information of the corresponding storage network element. Therefore, in a storage array, by broadcasting or multicasting a heartbeat message and according to a reply from a storage network element, a control network element may determine a storage network element that can be accessed by the control network element.”

The patent application was filed on May 18, 2017 (15/599,005).

Storage system
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China, has been assigned a patent (10,372,343) developed by Chang, Sheng, Hou, Xinyu, and Guo, Haitao, Hangzhou, China, for “storage system, method, and apparatus for processing operation request.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”According to a storage system, method, and apparatus for processing an operation request provided by embodiments of the present invention, a controller directly encapsulates a SCSI protocol operation request into an Ethernet operation request packet at the MAC layer instead of using the TCP/IP protocol layer and a disk enclosure decapsulates the Ethernet operation request to obtain the SCSI protocol operation request and sends the SCSI protocol operation request to a target disk, thereby reducing layers of encapsulation, reducing a processing delay of the storage system, and improving performance of the storage system.”

The patent application was filed on August 14, 2018 (16/103,871).

Data distribution method in storage
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China, has been assigned a patent (10,372,340) developed by Xu, Huifeng, Zha, Wei, Chengdu, CN, Wu, Yadong, Shenzhen, China, Yu, Baifeng, Hangzhou, China, Zhang, Yu, Shenzhen, China, and Ma, Changkun, Hangzhou, China, for “data distribution method in storage system, distribution apparatus, and storage.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a storage system, including a distribution apparatus and a storage device, the storage device includes at least two storage controllers and multiple storage units, where each storage unit is configured with any one of the at least two storage controllers as a home storage controller, and the distribution apparatus includes a front-end interface and at least two back-end interfaces, where the front-end interface is configured to connect to a host device, and each back-end interface is connected to each storage controller in a one-to-one correspondence manner. According to the technical solutions provided in the present disclosure, the distribution apparatus parses an IO read/write instruction, so that the IO read/write instruction can be accurately sent to the home storage controller, which avoids forwarding the IO read/write instruction between the storage controllers, thereby improving IO processing efficiency of the storage system.”

The patent application was filed on June 23, 2017 (15/631,888).

Write request processing method and memory controller
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China, has been assigned a patent (10,372,337) developed by Shu, Jiwu, Sun, Long, Beijing, China, and Wang, Yuangang, Shenzhen, China, for “write request processing method and memory controller.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A write request processing method and a memory controller, where the method includes, determining a second write request set, by the memory controller, after determining that a quantity of write requests in a to-be-scheduled first write request set is less than a quantity of unoccupied storage units in a memory, where the write request in the first write request set is located before a first memory barrier, where a write request in the second write request set is a log write request, and where the write request in the second write request set is located behind the first memory barrier. The memory controller sends the write request in the first write request set and the write request in the second write request set in parallel to different unoccupied storage units in the memory.”

The patent application was filed on November 10, 2017 (15/809,447).

File access
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China, has been assigned a patent (10,372,336) developed by Xu, Jun, Hangzhou, China, Wang, Yuangang, and Zhu, Guanyu, Shenzhen, China, for “file access method, system, and host.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A file access method, a system, and a host are provided. According to the method, after obtaining information about first virtual space of a target file, a host allocates, in local virtual address space of the host, second virtual space to the target file, where the first virtual space is space allocated in global virtual address space by a management node in a distributed storage system to the target file. The host converts, according to a correspondence between the first virtual space and the second virtual space, a second access request of accessing the second virtual space into a first access request, where an address of the first virtual space in the first access request includes device information of a first storage node. Then, the host sends the first access request to a network device to route the first access request to the first storage node.”

The patent application was filed on April 28, 2017 (15/582,283).

Distributed storage system, cluster node and range management
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China, has been assigned a patent (10,348,827) developed by Liu, Zhe, and Shen, Ke, Hangzhou, China, for “distributed storage system, cluster node and range management method thereof.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Disclosed are a distributed storage system, a cluster node, and a range management method thereof, including: partitioning, by the cluster node according to a configuration parameter, a range corresponding to a first routing table entry in a local routing table into at least two subranges, where the first routing table entry refers to a routing table entry in which information that indicates the cluster node is recorded in replica information, separately establishing, by the cluster node, a log queue for each of the subranges, determining, by the cluster node, a corresponding subrange according to a key field of a data operation request from a client, executing a corresponding data read/write operation according to the determined subrange, and updating, according to the data read/write operation, a log queue corresponding to the determined subrange.”

The patent application was filed on December 30, 2015 (14/983,853).

Storage system, storage device, and hard disk drive scheduling
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China, has been assigned a patent (10,346,094) developed by Xiao, Shihai, Hangzhou, China, Chang, Le, Shenzhen, China, Yang, Wei, Hangzhou, China, and Chen, Chen, Beijing, China, for “storage system, storage device, and hard disk drive scheduling method.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”This application discloses a storage system, a storage device, and a hard disk drive scheduling method. The storage system includes M disk groups, a power supply system, and a controller, and M is a natural number not less than 3. Each of the M disk groups includes at least one hard disk drive. The controller is configured to control a hard disk drive in a first disk group of the M disk groups to be in an active state to process a first group of service requests, and control a hard disk drive in a second disk group of the M disk groups to switch from the inactive state to a spin up state when the hard disk drive in the first disk group is in the active state.”

The patent application was filed on May 15, 2018 (15/980,584).