IBM Assigned Fifteen Patents

Storage volume record management for application-level recovery
International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (11474728) developed by Gallaher, Shannon Lyn, Wilcock, Glenn Randle, Tucson, AZ,and Cammarata, James B., La Grange Park, IL, for a “data storage volume record management for application-level recovery.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Provided are a computer program product, system and method for data storage volume record management for application-level recovery in accordance with the present description. In one embodiment, logical volume movement is addressed when performing enterprise application recovery. In one embodiment, a host-based recovery product in accordance with the present description, can detect logical volume movement from one physical device to another and proactively prevent application level recovery that potentially may result in data loss. In one embodiment, a time-based capturing of pairings of logical and physical volume identifiers or descriptors within storage configuration records and sub-records are used to surgically recover volumes of an application from enterprise level protection copy of physical media. This history of pairings facilitates many types of logical volume to physical media remapping, such as the regular migration of data to replacement storage controllers which can occur at various times.”

The patent application was filed on 2020-11-25 (17/105350).

Data loss recovery in secondary storage controller from primary storage controller
International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (11474707) developed by Carson, Matthew D.,Pasadena, CA, Mellgren, Carol S., Nielsen, Karl A., Sanchez, Matthew, and Sorenson, Todd C., Tucson, AZ, for a “data loss recovery in a secondary storage controller from a primary storage controller.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A secondary storage controller determines one or more tracks of one or more volumes in which data loss has occurred in the secondary storage controller. The secondary storage controller suspends a peer to peer remote copy operation between the secondary storage controller and a primary storage controller. Information on the one or more tracks of the one or more volumes in which the data loss has occurred is transmitted to the primary storage controller.”

The patent application was filed on 2016-06-03 (15/172774).

Managing data replication sessions in response to nability to access storage volume
International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (11475040) developed by Trujillo, Damian, Pima, AZ, Ciaravella, Anthony, Schull, Pamela, Tucson, AZ, McBride, Gregory E., Vail, AZ, and Rooney, William J., Hopewell Junction, NY, for “managing data replication sessions in response to an inability to access a storage volume.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A computer-implemented method according to one approach includes identifying an inability to access a first storage volume during a first data replication session, creating a second data replication session including the first storage volume, and removing the first storage volume from the first data replication session.”

The patent application was filed on 2019-01-08 (16/242916).

Dynamic mapping of logical to physical memory for increased performance
International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (11474920) developed by Pozidis, Charalampos, Thalwil, Switzerland, Mittelholzer, Thomas, Zurich, Switzerland, Papandreou, Nikolaos, Thalwil, Switzerland, and Stanisavljevic, Milos, Adliswil, Switzerland, for a “dynamic mapping of logical to physical memory for increased performance.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Data protection systems and techniques that include: receiving data for storage in a non-volatile memory (NVM) array having a total number of physical packages that includes a number of spare physical packages, wherein each one of the physical packages is mapped to one of a plurality of logical packages, storing a respective portion of component codewords on the non-spare physical packages, and in response to one of the non-spare physical packages failing, dynamically remapping the failed physical package to one of the logical packages mapped to one of the available spare physical packages. In an aspect, reading at least the failed physical package and inserting virtual zeros into the respective portion of the component codewords corresponding to the failed physical package, performing erasure decoding to recover the data from the failed package, and rewriting the recovered data from the failed package into the one of the available spare physical packages.”

The patent application was filed on 2020-03-31 (16/835697).

I/O operations in log structured arrays
International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (11467735) developed by Szczepanik, Grzegorz Piotr, Palus, Lukasz Jakub, Cracow, Poland, Patel, Kushal S., and Patel, Sarvesh S., Pune, India, for “I/O operations in log structured arrays.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method, system, and computer program product for managing input/output (I/O) operations in log structured arrays (LSA) is provided. The method receives a write request for a storage volume. The write request including a set of data. The method determines the set of data for a target extent of the storage volume is not copied to a target location based on a target map for a flash copy volume. An LSA is instructed to perform an internal copy-on-write (COW) for the set of data during a next IO operation for the storage volume. Based on the internal COW instruction, the method moves an internal pointer of the target location from a virtual volume to the flash copy volume.”

The patent application was filed on 2020-12-01 (17/108068).

Non-disruptive storage volume migration between storage controllers
International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (11461031) developed by Moran, Timothy Andrew, Southampton, Great Britain, Bulmer, Christopher, Kings Worthy, Great Britain, Canto, Christopher, and Hawkins, Warren, Winchester, Great Britain, for a “non-disruptive storage volume migration between storage controllers.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A migration replication relationship for data migration between a migration-source volume on a first storage controller and a migration-target volume on a second storage controller, a volume represents a virtualized device. The method presents the migration-source volume and the migration-target volume as a same volume to a host whilst using differentiated target port descriptors to define different discoverable paths to the each. During data migration, the method allows input/output operations to the migration-source volume by presenting target ports of the first storage controller in an available and deters input/output operations to the migration-target volume by presenting target ports on the second storage controller in a standby whilst allowing host discovery of paths to the migration-target volume. Once the data migration is complete, the method switches target port s to allow input/output operations to the migration-target volume and to deter input/output operations to the migration-source volume.”

The patent application was filed on 2021-06-22 (17/304464).

Storage volume recovery management
International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (11461193) developed by Goodall, Lourie, Tucson, AZ, Dawson, Erika, Tucons, AZ, and Swingler, Joseph M., Phoenix, AZ, for a “data storage volume recovery management.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Provided are a computer program product, system and method for restoring volumes in a data storage system. A virtual restoration of a volume of data stored in storage is performed using a target volume. In one embodiment, the virtual restoration includes configuring metadata associated with the target volume, to map the target volume to the recover volume as a virtual restoration of the recover volume. In response to a request by a host for data stored on the recover volume, physical restoration of data of the recover volume is performed using the target volume. In one embodiment, the physical restoration includes transferring data to the target volume from the recover volume to which the target volume is mapped by the virtual restoration. In addition, transferred data is relabeled as target volume data instead of recover volume data.”

The patent application was filed on 2020-09-24 (17/031276).

Distributed data deduplication reference counting
International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (11455279) developed by Porat-Stoler, Asaf, Tel Aviv, Israel, Shatsky, Yosef, Karnei Shomron, Israel, Bab-Dinitz, Avraham, Rehovot, Israel, and Haklay, Omer, Shoham, Israel, for a “distributed data deduplication reference counting.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Methods that can provide distributed data deduplication reference counting are disclosed herein. One method includes generating, by a processor, a secondary reference in response to a determination that a data chunk is a copy of the primary reference in which the primary reference includes a pointer to an existing data chunk stored on a storage device. The method further includes incrementing a secondary reference counter on the primary reference in response to generating the secondary reference. Apparatus and computer program products that can include, perform, and/or implement the methods are also disclosed herein.”

The patent application was filed on 2018-11-05 (16/180880).

Testing storage protection hardware in secure virtual machine environment
International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (11455398) developed by Heller, Lisa Cranton, Rhinebeck, NY, Busaba, Fadi Y., Poughkeepsie, NY, for “testing storage protection hardware in a secure virtual machine environment.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for testing storage protection hardware includes receiving by a non-trusted entity that is executing on a host server, a request to dispatch a secure entity. It is determined, by a secure interface control of the host server, whether the host server is in an auxiliary-secure (AS) debug mode for testing an AS entity. Based on determining that the host server is in the AS debug mode, a secure guest entity is loaded from a descriptor for the secure entity into an AS entity in hardware to test, upon dispatch of the secure entity, accesses to pages in a memory that are registered as secure and as belonging to the AS entity.”

The patent application was filed on 2019-03-08 (16/296310).

Synchronizing data across multiple instances of application in cloud
International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (11443026) developed by Justin, Josephine E., and Nanduri, Srinivasan, Bangalore, India, for “synchronizing data across multiple instances of an application in a cloud.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method and system are provided for data synchronization. The method includes registering, in a database accessible by nodes in a cloud cluster system, node information for each node during an initialization of an application context for an application having at least one instance running on each node. The method further includes storing an update for data in (i) a local storage of a given one of the nodes and (ii) the database, responsive to a request to update the data received by the given one of the nodes. The method also includes generating a modified request that includes details for the updated data. The method additionally includes calling an application programming interface to update a of respective local storages for the other nodes with the update responsive to the modified request, such that the update is synchronized across the at least one instance running on each node.”

The patent application was filed on 2016-10-20 (15/299185).

Performance of backup operations in order determined using service-metadata associated with backup requests
International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (11442816) developed by Muehge, Thorsten, Rueger, Erik, Mainz, Germany, Inal, Mehmet-Zafer, Bad Vilbel, Germany, Gulbadamov, Boris, Luebeck, Germany, and Krick, Frank, Ockenheim, Germany, for “performance of backup operations in an order determined using service-metadata associated with backup requests.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A computer-implemented method according to one embodiment includes receiving a plurality of backup requests at a data storage system having a data storage library. At least some of the backup requests have unique service-metadata associated therewith. Each backup request is placed in a backup queue, where an ordering of the backup requests within the backup queue is based at least in part on the service-metadata. Backup operations are performed on the data storage system in accordance with the ordering of the backup requests within the backup queue. A computer program product for determining resource allocation in a backup environment according to another embodiment includes a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith. The program instructions are readable and/or executable by a computer to cause the computer to perform the foregoing method.”

The patent application was filed on 2018-12-03 (16/208371).

Fee-based provisioning of supplemental drives in automated storage libraries
International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (11442653) developed by Jesionowski, Leonard G., Goodman, Brian G., Tucson, AZ, Peipelman, Jason L., Austin, TX, and Hill, Jr., Ronald F., Tucson, AZ, for a “fee-based provisioning of supplemental drives in automated data storage libraries.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A computer-implemented method, according to one embodiment, includes: receiving tracking information which corresponds to an amount that at least one supplemental data storage drive of an automated data storage library was used during a period of time. The automated data storage library in turn includes: one or more primary data storage drives, and one or more robotic accessors physically configured to access each of the one or more primary data storage drives and the at least one supplemental storage drive. Accordingly, the tracking information is used to calculate a usage fee which corresponds to the amount that the at least one supplemental data storage drive was used during the period of time. Furthermore, the usage fee is sent to a user associated with the automated data storage library.”

The patent application was filed on 2018-12-18 (16/224620).

Data compression utilizing low-ratio compression and delayed high-ratio compression
International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (11442627) developed by Kawase, Ryohta, Machida, Japan, Tosaka, Eiji, Kita-ku, Japan, Kawamura, Kousei, Koto-ku, Japan, Masuda, Koichi, Tokyo, Japan, and Mitsuma, Shinsuke, Machida, Japan, for a “data compression utilizing low-ratio compression and delayed high-ratio compression.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “An embodiment of the invention may include a method, computer program product and system for saving data received from a host computing device to a storage system. The storage system includes at least one processor and at least one storage. An embodiment may include storing the received data to the storage on a record basis. A record includes a record header including information indicative of an implemented compression method of the record. An embodiment may include monitoring a processing load of the at least one processor. In response to the processing load being less than a predetermined level, an embodiment may include further compressing the record utilizing a high-ratio compression method based on the record requiring further compression. An embodiment may include updating the record header information to reflect details of the utilized a high-ratio compression method. An embodiment may include storing the further compressed record to the storage.”

The patent application was filed on 2019-06-13 (16/439789).

Reducing incidents of data loss in RAID arrays having same RAID level
International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (11442826) developed by Gupta, Lokesh M., Borlick, Matthew G., Nielsen, Karl A., Hardy, Clint A., and Rinaldi, Brian A., Tucson, AZ, for “reducing incidents of data loss in RAID arrays having the same RAID level.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for reducing incidents of data loss in redundant arrays of independent disks (RAIDs) having the same RAID level is disclosed. In one embodiment, such a method identifies, in a data storage environment, a set of RAIDs having a common RAID level. The method also identifies, in the set of RAIDs, higher risk storage drives having a failure risk above a threshold and lower risk storage drives having a failure risk below the threshold. The method swaps, within the RAIDs, higher risk storage drives with lower risk storage drives to more evenly distribute higher risk storage drives across the RAIDs. A corresponding system and computer program product are also disclosed.”

The patent application was filed on 2019-06-15 (16/442501).

I/O performance in storage
International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (11442629) developed by Tripathi, Sanjay, Patel, Kushal S., Salvi, Rohan Mohan, and Patel, Sarvesh S., Pune, India, for an “I/O performance in a storage system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A computer-implemented method to reduce Input/Output (I/O) command latency. The method includes receiving, by a first storage pool, a plurality of I/O commands, wherein the first storage pool includes a first throttling limit, and the first throttling limit. The method further includes determining a first processing rate of the first storage pool is at the first throttling limit. The method also includes determining a second processing rate of a second storage pool is below a second throttling limit, wherein the second storage pool is communicatively coupled to the first storage pool. The method includes sending, by the first storage pool to the second storage pool, one or more of the plurality of I/O commands. The method further includes processing, by the second storage pool, the one or more I/O commands of the plurality of I/O commands. The method includes returning processed I/O commands to the host.”

The patent application was filed on 2020-07-15 (16/929227).