Entries |
Document | Title | Date |
20080201522 | BUFFER MANAGEMENT METHOD AND OPTICAL DISC DRIVE - A buffer management method is provided, particularly adaptable in an optical disc drive to access an optical disc. One or more data blocks are recorded to the optical disc in response to received write commands. Data blocks corresponding to the write commands are first buffered in a buffer of the optical disc drive. Thereafter, one or more write tasks may be organized based on the buffered write commands, each associated with a group of data blocks having consecutive destination addresses. A recording operation can be scheduled based on those write tasks, and the recording operation is performed to record the data blocks to the optical disc. | 08-21-2008 |
20080209122 | Method of automatically adjusting size of copy-on-write disk space of snapshot device - A method of automatically adjusting a size of a copy-on-write (COW) disk space of a snapshot device is provided. A first disk space of a snapshot device is initialized, and a COW operation is performed on a chunk of the first disk space. Next, it is determined whether a chunk sequence number of a write request is in the first disk space. Then, if the chuck sequence number of the write request is in the first disk space, the first disk space is maintained. Then, if the chuck sequence number of the write request is not in the first disk space, a second disk space is initialized, and the number of chunks of the second disk space is the same as the number of maximum successive chunks of the first disk space, and then, the COW operation is performed on the chunk of the second disk space. | 08-28-2008 |
20080235445 | IT Automation Appliance Imaging System and Method - A system, method, and computer program product for harvesting an image from a local disk of a managed endpoint to an image library is provided. In an embodiment of the method for harvesting an image, a managed endpoint is provided with a boot image that causes the endpoint to instantiate a RAM disk and execute the boot image from the RAM disk. The boot image is used to harvest an image by determining data on a local disk of the managed endpoint to be included in the image that are not already stored in the image library. In one embodiment, this is done by comparing hashes calculated on the data on the local disk to hashes of data in the image library. The data not already stored in the image library are then copied to the image library. | 09-25-2008 |
20080244172 | Method and apparatus for de-duplication after mirror operation - An amount of storage capacity used during mirroring operations is reduced by applying de-duplication operations to the mirror volumes. Data stored to a first volume is mirrored to a second volume. The second volume is a virtual volume having a plurality of logical addresses, such that segments of physical storage capacity are allocated for a specified logical address as needed when data is stored to the specified logical address. A de-duplication operation is carried out on the second volume following a split from the first volume. A particular segment of the second volume is identified as having data that is the same as another segment in the second volume or in the same consistency group. A link is created from the particular segment to the other segment and the particular segment is released from the second volume so that physical storage capacity required for the second volume is reduced. | 10-02-2008 |
20080263273 | Storage subsystem that connects fibre channel and supports online backup - A disk array connected to a storage area network via a fibre channel has one or more ports each controlled by a processor. Even the disk array with one port and one processor executes online processing and backup processing at the same time while considering an online processing load. A port controller not only accepts a request from a host computer but issues a request to other storage controllers to allow online processing and backup processing to be executed at the same time. In addition, the disk array, if provided with a plurality of ports, selects ports or schedules processing depending upon the load to prevent backup processing from affecting online processing performance. | 10-23-2008 |
20080270685 | INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS AND FIRMWARE UPDATING METHOD - According to one embodiment, an information processing apparatus, includes a controller configured to execute processing based on firmware stored in a nonvolatile memory, a storage device configured to store updating data to update the firmware and update application code, and a processor configured to execute processing to pose a state of no-fragmentation of the update application code and the updating data, processing to acquire address information showing storage places of the update application code and the updating data, processing to write updating information including address information of the update application code and the updating data, processing to load the update application code in the storage device in a memory on the basis of the updating information, and processing to update the firmware by using the updating data on the basis of the update application code loaded in the memory before booting an operating system having a multitasking function. | 10-30-2008 |
20080294842 | IMPLEMENTING FEEDBACK DIRECTED DEFERRAL OF NONESSENTIAL DASD OPERATIONS - A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided for implementing feedback directed deferral on nonessential direct access storage device (DASD) operations. A kernel DASD I/O manager maintains a queue depth count value for a DASD unit and maintains a busy flag that indicates when the queue depth count value is greater than a predefined threshold. The kernel DASD I/O manager defers optional operations responsive to the busy flag being set for the DASD unit. | 11-27-2008 |
20080313395 | APPARATUS AND METHOD TO MANAGE INFORMATION USING AN OPTICAL AND HOLOGRAPHIC DATA STORAGE MEDIUM - A hybrid optical and holographic data storage medium is disclosed. In addition, a method is disclosed to manage information using that optical and holographic data storage medium. The method reads information from the optical data storage layer before reading data from, or writing data to, the holographic data storage layer. | 12-18-2008 |
20080313396 | SYSTEM AND METHOD OF MONITORING DATA STORAGE ACTIVITY - Systems and methods of monitoring logical block address (LBA) activity are disclosed. In an embodiment, a pattern of a data storage device may be monitored. An LBA may be detected that is accessed based on the pattern. The LBA may be added to a list of LBAs stored in a memory. | 12-18-2008 |
20080320217 | Executing I/O Requests For A Disk Drive - Executing I/O requests for a disk drive including receiving, by a device driver from a volume manager, a plurality of I/O requests; retrieving, from non-volatile memory by the device driver, information describing access times for storage locations on the disk drive; and executing, by the device driver, the I/O requests in a sequence, including identifying, in dependence upon the information describing access times for storage locations on the disk drive, the sequence for executing the I/O requests. | 12-25-2008 |
20090006735 | Storage unit and disk control method - A storage unit is provided which is connected to a host computer through a network, having one or more disks in which read and write operations are performed during rotation and a control unit for controlling the rotation of the disks. In the storage unit, when receiving a message which is sent from the host computer and predicts that at least one of the disks will come in use, the control unit causes the at least one of the disks which will come in use, to rotate. | 01-01-2009 |
20090024791 | SOLID STATE DISK CONTROLLER AND DATA PROCESSING METHOD THEREOF - A solid state disk controller includes a volatile memory having a memory area storing sector bit map values, and a memory controller. In a read operation, the memory controller selectively reads at least one sector among a plurality of sectors forming a page of an external non-volatile memory based on the sector bit map values stored in the memory area, indicated by a pointer. | 01-22-2009 |
20090031079 | LOGGING LATENCY REDUCTION - A disk is divided into K angular regions. A log write request is replicated K times and K number of identical log writes are issued to the disk to be written to each of the angular regions of the log. Upon completion of the first write, the application requesting the log write is informed of its completion resulting in a reduction of rotational latency by a factor of K. | 01-29-2009 |
20090037654 | System, method, and computer program product for detecting access to a memory device - Discrete events that take place with respect to a hard disk drive or other I/O device or port are indicated to logic that implements Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) or similar technology. These events are communicated to SMART as event data. Examples of such discrete events include power on, power off, spindle start, and spindle stop, positioning of the actuator, and the time at which such events occur. SMART then compiles event data to create compiled activity data. Compiled activity data represents summary statistical information that is created by considering some or all of the event data. Examples of compiled activity data include the Time Powered On and Power Cycle Count. Collection logic then writes the compiled activity data to a memory medium. An analyst can then read data from log file(s). | 02-05-2009 |
20090043958 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CAPACITY ON DEMAND DYNAMIC CHUNK ALLOCATION - The system is composed of the storage apparatuses with dynamic chunk allocation capabilities, the centralized management computer. Some storage apparatuses have the extra HDDs or volumes for providing extra capacity (extra chunks), which are concealed by a secret key. The storage apparatus with the closed segment has the key management program and key management table. The centralized management computer has the storage on demand management program, the pending request table, the priority table and the master key table. The storage apparatus may connect to the other storage apparatuses for sharing the extra capacities in the closed segment. The storage apparatus issues the chunk addition request to the centralized management computer. The centralized management computer provides a key according to the priority table and the master key table. The centralized management computer may provide the key according to the chunk consumption rate reported by the storage apparatus and/or remaining capacity in the other storage apparatuses. | 02-12-2009 |
20090043959 | STORAGE SYSTEM - The temporary area capacity required to be secured with respect to the whole permanent area is calculated in accordance with the capacity and access frequency of a host computer data permanent area of a disk device contained in the storage system and a disk device of an external storage device that is managed by a storage virtualization function of this storage system. The nonvolatile memory of this capacity is defined as the temporary area and is used to temporarily store host computer data when a data I/O from the host computer is processed. In addition, the required capacity of the temporary area of the nonvolatile memory is re-calculated in accordance with an event such as a configuration change where the external storage system is increased or reduced or the nonvolatile memory is increased or reduced and, if necessary, control is exercised to increase or reduce the capacity of the temporary area of the nonvolatile memory. | 02-12-2009 |
20090043960 | Virtual library apparatus, virtual library system, and logical volume copying method - A virtual library apparatus emulates a library apparatus by storing a logical volume on a cache disk. The library apparatus has a first storage medium and a second storage medium. The virtual library apparatus includes a disk volume, a determining unit, a monitor, and a copying unit. The disk volume forms the cache disk. The determining unit determines the logical volume to be copied. The monitor monitors access load to the disk volume and selects the disk volume having the smallest access load on the basis of the monitoring result. The copying unit copies the determined logical volume from the first storage medium to the selected disk volume, and copies the copied logical volume from the disk volume to the second storage medium. | 02-12-2009 |
20090049235 | ENABLING PARALLEL ACCESS VOLUMES IN VIRTUAL MACHINE ENVIRONMENTS - Parallel, coordinated, and optimized access of real Base and Alias DASDs by one or more virtual machines, each utilizing one or more virtual Base and Alias DASDs. Each of a plurality of virtual machines defines a virtual Base DASD device and a modified operating system may coordinate the virtual machine activity on real Base and Alias devices to maximize overall system throughput. In more complex embodiments, one or more virtual machines define one or more virtual Bases and associated virtual Alias devices in which case wherein the embodiments described coordinate their activity on one or more real Base and Alias devices to maximize overall system throughput. | 02-19-2009 |
20090049236 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DATA PROTECTION MANAGEMENT FOR NETWORK STORAGE - A storage system is defined by multiple hard drives (HDDs) which are divided into several HDD Groups. Each HDD Group consists of one or several HDDs. A storage administrator can set security related attributes to each HDD Group. The storage system may have logical volumes mapped onto corresponding selected HDD Group. When the storage system assigns a logical volume to a host computer, the storage system receives security related requirements for the logical volume from the host computer. The storage system then compares the HDD Groups attributes and to the requirements and assigns an appropriate free space that meets requirements as a logical volume. | 02-19-2009 |
20090063764 | Designed roughness and surface treatments for capillary buffer of fluid dynamic bearings - A contoured region is disposed within a capillary buffer of a Fluid Dynamic Bearing. In one embodiment, the contoured region comprises at least one defined edge for arresting the displacement of a lubricant within the capillary buffer. | 03-05-2009 |
20090063765 | PARALLEL ACCESS VIRTUAL TAPE LIBRARY AND DRIVES - A system and method described herein allows a virtual tape library (VTL) to perform multiple simultaneous or parallel read/write or access sessions with disk drives or other storage media, particularly when subject to a sequential SCSI-compliant layer or traditional limitations of VTLs. In one embodiment, a virtualizing or transaction layer can establish multiple sessions with one or more clients to concurrently satisfy the read/write requests of those clients for physical storage resources. A table or other data structure tracks or maps the sessions associated with each client and the location of data on the physical storage devices. | 03-05-2009 |
20090083480 | Storage system - The present invention comprises a memory, a plurality of access portions for accessing the memory, a memory adapter for controlling access to the memory from the plurality of access portions, and a response-type path (R path) and a throughput-type path (T path) which communicatively connect the respective access portions, and the memory adapter. The amount of information capable of being transferred by the R path within the same period of time is smaller than that of the T path, but the length of time from the sending of information until the receipt of a response thereto is shorter for the R path than for the T path. The length of time from the sending of information until the receipt of a response thereto is longer for the T path than for the R path, but the amount of information capable of being transferred by the T path within the same period of time is greater than that of the R path. The memory adapter preferentially allows access to the memory via the R path than access to memory via the T path. | 03-26-2009 |
20090089497 | METHOD OF DETECTING PRE-OPERATING SYSTEM MALICIOUS SOFTWARE AND FIRMWARE USING CHIPSET GENERAL PURPOSE DIRECT MEMORY ACCESS HARDWARE CAPABILITIES - In some embodiments, a method of detecting pre-operating system malicious software and firmware using chipset general purpose direct memory access hardware capabilities is presented. In this regard, a security agent is introduced to access system memory used by instructions executing on a host processor or microcontroller, to copy contents from the system memory to an internal chipset memory, and to scan the internal memory with an embedded processor for a malicious software pattern. Other embodiments are also disclosed and claimed. | 04-02-2009 |
20090089498 | Transparently migrating ongoing I/O to virtualized storage - A method, medium and apparatus for transparently virtualizing storage in an operating computer system. The method includes a computer's recognizing a storage device connected to the computer through a physical connection, a storage virtualizing device's virtualizing the storage device, the computer's relating the storage device and the virtualized storage device and, finally, the computer's failing over to the virtualized storage device on the computer. While virtualizing, the storage virtualizing device, the physical connection and the first recognition maybe maintained through the step of virtualizing. While virtualizing, the method may recognize the storage device through a physical connection, virtualize the storage device and expose the virtualized storage device. In an further form of the method, from the time of recognition through the time of failing over, no I/O is interrupted by the method. | 04-02-2009 |
20090089499 | METHOD OF MANAGING STORAGE CAPACITY IN A STORAGE SYSTEM, A STORAGE DEVICE AND A COMPUTER SYSTEM - A capacity management method of managing a capacity of a storage unit of each storage in a computer system having a plurality of storage devices each having one or more storage units each providing one or more storage areas. The method includes the steps of: detecting a storage area relation between a first storage area and a second storage area; and calculating an estimated capacity necessary for the storage unit in accordance with a detection result. | 04-02-2009 |
20090094413 | Techniques for Dynamic Volume Allocation in a Storage System - A technique for operating a storage system includes determining utilization of multiple storage volumes over a time period. One or more application datasets are then reassigned to a different one of the multiple storage volumes based on the utilization of the multiple storage volumes over the time period and a requested performance level for an associated application. | 04-09-2009 |
20090094414 | Firmware Update for Storage Device - A storage device includes a firmware memory, a buffer memory, a processor and a memory update controller. When the storage device is under a normal mode, the memory update controller is in an idle state. The processor controls the storage device to fetch an update firmware and store the update firmware into the buffer memory. When the storage device is under a firmware update mode, the processor is in an idle state. The memory update controller fetches the update firmware from the buffer memory and stores the update firmware into the firmware memory without the processor executing an update routine code. | 04-09-2009 |
20090100221 | EMBEDDED VIRTUAL MEDIA - A method and an optical storage medium are provided for storing data to and accessing data from an embedded virtual medium within the optical storage medium. Information describing the embedded virtual medium may be stored on to the optical storage medium. Space for an embedded lead-in area of the embedded virtual medium, as well as user data for the embedded virtual medium, may be allocated within a data zone of the optical medium. A spare sector bitmap may be included in a lead-an area of the optical medium indicating spare sectors within the embedded virtual medium as being unavailable. A spare sector bitmap may be included within the embedded virtual medium indicating available spare sectors of the embedded virtual medium. Physical sector/logical block mapping of the optical storage medium may be modified for accessing data stored on the embedded virtual medium. | 04-16-2009 |
20090113123 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR USING REVERSED BACKUP OPERATION FOR MINIMIZING THE DISK SPINNING TIME AND THE NUMBER OF SPIN-UP OPERATIONS - A system and method for providing reversed backup operation for keeping local hard drives in a stand-by (non-spinning) mode thereby extending the life of local hard drives and reducing power consumption, heat and noise produced by the local drives. The present invention uses remote storage systems as primary storage systems when the network connectivity and its bandwidth are sufficient so that the local hard disk can stay in the stand-by mode. If the network connectivity is unavailable or insufficient to handle the data flow, the local hard disk is spun up and temporarily used as the primary storage for reads and writes. When necessary and possible, the data on both storage locations is synchronized. | 04-30-2009 |
20090113124 | VIRTUAL COMPUTER SYSTEM AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE SAME - In a virtual computer system controlling a disk volume and a virtual server which is connected to the disk volume, to which the area of the disk volume is allocated as a virtual disk and which executes a process using the allocated virtual disk, the virtual computer system erases information stored in the virtual disk allocated to the virtual server to be deleted correspondingly with the deletion of the virtual server. According to another embodiment of the present invention, an administrative server is provided to select a server system which is low in load from among plural server systems controlling virtual servers as a server system for erasing information stored in the virtual disk allocated to the virtual server to be deleted. | 04-30-2009 |
20090113125 | Electronic apparatus, disk switching method and computer program - There is provided an electronic apparatus including a plurality of hard disk drives having a standby state and an active state as power application state. The electronic apparatus includes a drive setting portion to set each of the plurality of hard disk drives to a cache hard disk drive or a storage hard disk drive so as to use one hard disk drive in the active state as a cache hard disk drive and use a remaining hard disk drive as a storage hard disk drive, and a power control portion to control application of power to each of the hard disk drives according to setting by the drive setting portion. | 04-30-2009 |
20090125675 | Storage apparatus and logical volume migration method - This storage apparatus includes a first logical volume migration unit for migrating the logical volume of a first storage area targeted for power source shutdown to a second storage area that is not targeted for power source shutdown based on an external command, and a second logical volume migration unit for migrating an expiration date-defined logical volume from the second storage area to a third storage area of a post-expiration migration destination when the expiration date of the expiration date-defined logical volume set with an expiration date for migrating the logical volume is reached. The first logical volume migration unit balances and migrates the expiration date-defined logical volume to the second storage area by referring to the expiration date of the expiration date-defined logical volume and taking into consideration the migration timing to the third storage area. | 05-14-2009 |
20090144494 | Storage-access apparatus for storing products and storage system thereof - A storage-access apparatus includes a first support device including a first base; at least one first storage-access device and at least one first storage device, disposed on the first base and arranged in a first circle; a second support device including a second base; at least one second storage-access device and at least one second storage device, disposed on the second base and arranged in a second circle; and a transporting device, wherein the first storage-access device, the first storage device, the second storage-access device and the second storage device each has plural compartments, the transporting device corresponds to the compartments, and the first storage-access device and the first storage device can rotate relative to the second storage-access device and the second storage device. Accordingly, the storage-access apparatus can be employed in depositing and picking up products independently. Also disclosed is a storage system including, among others, the storage-access apparatus. | 06-04-2009 |
20090144495 | USING EXTERNAL MEMORY DEVICES TO IMPROVE SYSTEM PERFORMANCE - The invention is directed towards a system and method that utilizes external memory devices to cache sectors from a rotating storage device (e.g., a hard drive) to improve system performance. When an external memory device (EMD) is plugged into the computing device or onto a network in which the computing device is connected, the system recognizes the EMD and populates the EMD with disk sectors. The system routes I/O read requests directed to the disk sector to the EMD cache instead of the actual disk sector. The use of EMDs increases performance and productivity on the computing device systems for a fraction of the cost of adding memory to the computing device. | 06-04-2009 |
20090150605 | APPARATUS, SYSTEM, AND METHOD FOR CONVERTING A STORAGE REQUEST INTO AN APPEND DATA STORAGE COMMAND - An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for converting a storage request to an append data storage command. A storage request receiver module receives a storage request from a requesting device. The storage request is to store a data segment onto a data storage device. The storage request includes source parameters for the data segment. The source parameters include a virtual address. A translation module translates the storage request to storage commands. At least one storage command includes an append data storage command that directs the data storage device to store data of the data segment and the one or more source parameters with the data, including a virtual address, at one or more append points. A mapping module maps source parameters of the data segment to locations where the data storage device appended the data packets of the data segment and source parameters. | 06-11-2009 |
20090150606 | INFORMATION PROCESSING SYSTEM HAVING VOLUME GUARD FUNCTION - In a system comprising a first storage system providing plural first logical volumes including real logical volume and a virtual logical volume with a host, a second storage system having a second logical volume, and a management computer, when the first storage system receives an access request to the virtual logical volume, it accesses a second logical volume associated with the virtual logical volume. In this system, when the management computer receives a request to guard one of the plural first logical volumes, it checks whether a target first logical volume of the request is a real logical volume or a virtual logical volume, in case of the virtual logical volume, generates and provides a possible at least one option to guard the virtual logical volume by considering a program for volume guard, which each of the first storage system and the second storage system has. | 06-11-2009 |
20090157955 | PREALLOCATED DISK QUEUING - A method, system and computer program product for managing preallocated disk space are presented. The method includes placing a plurality of requests for preallocated disk space on a disk space request queue, wherein each preallocated disk space is preallocated for a fixed amount of disk space and a fixed length of time, and wherein an application using an issued preallocated disk space for more than the fixed length of time results in the application being barred from further current use of the issued preallocated disk space. The requests are sorted in the disk space request queue according to a priority algorithm that establishes a priority level for each of the requests, and preallocated disk space is allocated to requesters according to the priority level established by the priority algorithm. | 06-18-2009 |
20090157956 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MANAGING DISK SPACE IN A THIN-PROVISIONED STORAGE SUBSYSTEM - A system and method for managing disk space in a thin-provisioned storage subsystem. If a number of free segments in a free segment pool at a storage subsystem is detected as below a desired minimum, one or more of the following is performed: selecting and adding logical devices (LDEVs) from an internal storage as free segments to the free segment pool, transitioning LDEVs to a virtual device (VDEV), and/or selecting and adding LDEVs from an external storage as free segments to the free segment pool. The transitioning includes identifying partially used or completely used LDEVs and transitioning these to the VDEV. Data migration may also occur by: selecting a source segment at a VDEV for migration, reading data from the source segment, writing the data to a target segment, the target segment being a free segment from the free segment pool, and assigning the target segment to the VDEV. | 06-18-2009 |
20090164715 | Protecting Against Stale Page Overlays - A method, data processing system and program product for protecting against stale page overlays which includes executing a process in memory of the data processing system. A storage controller pages data from the memory to a disk in pages when the memory is constrained by other processes being executed by the data processing system. Data is then paged from the disk into memory in a one or more paged-in pages. The paged-in page is updated with updated data by the process, and the version on the disk is marked as stale. The storage controller commands the disk to make the stale disk version of the updated paged-in page as write-only, thereby providing that the disk version may be overwritten with new data while providing that the disk version cannot be read. | 06-25-2009 |
20090164716 | Adaptation of Contentious Storage Virtualization Configurations - Systems and methods for managing storage virtualization in a storage infrastructure are provided. The method comprises examining storage virtualization configurations across a data storage infrastructure having one or more data storage resources, such that configuration data associated with the storage virtualization configurations applied to the one or more data storage resources is stored in a configuration repository; analyzing the configuration data to detect storage virtualization policy inconsistencies and redundancies across the data storage infrastructure; and reporting potential problems associated with applying the storage virtualization configurations to said one or more data storage resources, in response to detecting the virtualization policy inconsistencies. | 06-25-2009 |
20090164717 | Automated Correction of Contentious Storage Virtualization Configurations - Systems and methods for managing storage virtualization in a storage infrastructure are provided. The method comprises examining storage virtualization configurations across a data storage infrastructure having one or more data storage resources, such that configuration data associated with the storage virtualization configurations applied to the one or more data storage resources is stored in a configuration repository; analyzing the configuration data to detect storage virtualization policy inconsistencies across the data storage infrastructure; reporting potential problems associated with applying the storage virtualization configurations to said one or more data storage resources; and automatically implementing recommendations for corrective action to improve storage virtualization, in response to detecting the virtualization policy inconsistencies. | 06-25-2009 |
20090164718 | DISK ARRAY DEVICE CONTROL METHOD - A method for controlling a disk array device connected to an management server for managing the disk array device, the disk array device having priority information indicating priority of transmission on the basis of type of log data, the method includes: storing log data of the disk array device, transmitting to the management server a request for checking information of amount of log data receivable by the management server, receiving from the management server information of amount of log data receivable by the management server, selecting data from the log data on the basis of the information of the of amount of log data receivable by the management server and the priority information, and transmitting the selected data to the management server. | 06-25-2009 |
20090164719 | Storage performance improvement using data replication on a disk - In some embodiments, disk accesses made during normal operation of a disk drive are monitored. One or more data blocks on the disk drive are identified as candidates for replication on the disk drive in response to the monitoring. Each of the identified data blocks are replicated in at least one other place on the disk drive. Other embodiments are described and claimed. | 06-25-2009 |
20090172272 | Method and a computer for storage area management - A method for storage management is provided which displays the materials on which it is determined which of the thin provisioning volume or the logical unit (LU) is to be used for storage promotion. The method is executed in a computer system having one or more host computers, one or more storage subsystems, and a management computer. The storage subsystem includes a physical disk and a disk controller. The disk controller provides the host computer with the thin provisioning volume. The management computer obtains the allocated capacity from the disk controller and the host-recognized capacity from the host computer. By subtracting the obtained allocated capacity from the host-recognized capacity, the management computer calculates an improved capacity. By dividing the calculated improved capacity by the obtained host-recognized capacity, the management computer calculates an improvement ratio and displays the calculated improvement ratio. | 07-02-2009 |
20090177837 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR MANAGING HDD'S SPIN-DOWN AND SPIN-UP IN TIERED STORAGE SYSTEMS - A storage system is configured as tiered storage (composed of top tier storage apparatuses and second tier storage apparatus at least). The top tire storage apparatus gathers the volume-to-volume map information and power boundary information from second tier storage apparatuses, which are connected to the top tier storage apparatus. The top tier storage apparatus manages the second tier storage system by appropriate method directed by the second tier storage apparatus. In another method for managing HDDs' spin-down and spin-up, “spin-down/up” status are kept in the top tier storage apparatus and the second tier storage apparatus. The top tier storage apparatus forwards the “spin-down/up” request to the second tier storage apparatus when the top tier storage apparatus receives a “spin-down/up” request. The second tier storage apparatus checks if all volumes in a parity group have “spin-down” status. In the case of all volumes in a parity group have “spin-down” status, HDD in the parity group are spin-downed. | 07-09-2009 |
20090187705 | FAIR AND DYNAMIC DISK INPUT/OUTPUT BANDWIDTH DISTRIBUTION - Embodiments that facilitate the fair and dynamic distribution of disk input/output (IO) bandwidth are disclosed. In accordance with one embodiment, the method includes organizing one or more disk IO time intervals into one or more queues. The method further includes allocating a disk IO time interval to each queue. The allocation of a disk IO time interval to each queue is accomplished by equally distributing a disk IO cycle based on the number of queues. The one or more disk IO requests are then processed during the corresponding disk IO time interval. | 07-23-2009 |
20090187706 | INPUT/OUTPUT CONTROL UNIT, DISK ARRAY APPARATUS, INPUT/OUTPUT CONTROL METHOD, AND PROGRAM - An input/output controller, including: a first/a second input/output units that sends and receives data to and from a first and a second external apparatus, a third input/output unit operating in one of a plurality of working modes including a first/a second working mode for sending and receiving data to and from the first/the second external apparatus, an abnormal state detecting unit which detects that the first input/output unit or the second input/output unit is in an abnormal state and a working mode setting unit which makes the third input/output unit operate in the first/the second working mode when it is detected that the first/the second input/output unit is in an abnormal state. | 07-23-2009 |
20090193188 | Optimizing Execution Of I/O Requests For A Disk Drive In A Computing System - Methods, apparatus, and products are disclosed for optimizing execution of Input/Output (‘I/O’) requests for a disk drive in a computing system that include: receiving I/O requests specifying disk blocks of the disk drive for access, each disk block specified by a disk drive head, a cylinder, and a sector of the disk drive; determining I/O sub-requests from the I/O requests, each I/O sub-request specifying a set of adjacent disk blocks along the same cylinder; determining execution sequences for performing the I/O sub-requests; calculating, for each execution sequence, a total estimated execution time for performing the I/O sub-requests according to that execution sequence; selecting one of the execution sequences for performing the I/O sub-requests in dependence upon the total estimated execution times for the execution sequences; and instructing a disk drive controller to perform the I/O requests by performing the I/O sub-requests according to the selected execution sequence. | 07-30-2009 |
20090198883 | DATA COPY MANAGEMENT FOR FASTER READS - Multiple copy sets of data are maintained on one or more storage devices. Each copy set includes at least some of the same data units as other sets. Different sets optionally have data units stored in different orders on the storage device(s). A particular one of the sets of data is selected as the set to be accessed in response to detecting a particular scenario. | 08-06-2009 |
20090198884 | REDUCED HARD-DRIVE-CAPACITY DETECTION DEVICE - The present disclosure relates to a device for detecting accessible capacity in an external hard drive. The disclosed device may detect reduced accessible capacity in an external hard drive due to an modification or deletion of either the Host-Protected Area or the Device Configuration Overlay table. | 08-06-2009 |
20090204756 | METHOD FOR PROTECTING EXPOSED DATA DURING READ/MODIFY/WRITE OPERATIONS ON A SATA DISK DRIVE - A method and system for saving and retrieving data includes saving data in data storage fields of a data storage device in a computer. A back-up data storage field is selected in the data storage device. A data changing operation including new data is initiated on specified data saved in a current data storage field. A copy of all the data stored in boundary data storage fields is copied and stored in the back-up data storage field before changing the current data to provide data retrieval if the data is unrecoverable in the current data storage field, when a loss of power to the data storage device occurs. | 08-13-2009 |
20090210617 | MULTI-LEVEL VOLUME TABLE OF CONTENTS - Methods, data structures and systems provide organize a table of contents for a volume (VTOC) stored in a storage system. The volume is divided into a plurality of ranges of tracks, including a first track range. For each track range, an associated sub-VTOC is created containing information about the contents of the track range. A master VTOC is also created containing a plurality of pointers, each pointer pointing to one of the plurality of sub-VTOCs. A first data set stored on one or more tracks within the first track range is updated and the sub-VTOC associated with the first track range is locked, whereby access to other sub-VTOCs is unaffected. The sub-VTOC associated with the first track range may then be accessed, updated and unlocked. Thus, updating data sets stored within different track ranges on the volume may proceed at the same time. | 08-20-2009 |
20090216942 | EFFICIENT MEMORY MANAGEMENT FOR HARD DISK DRIVE (HDD) READ CHANNEL - Efficient memory management for hard disk drive (HDD) read channel. The memory management presented herein can be broadly applied to any interface in which data is provided from a first location to a second location. A number of buffer units are employed, arranged into a number of slices, in which data is selectively written so that the information can be provided to the memory management architecture at a first rate, stored in the memory management architecture, and then output from the memory management architecture at a second rate. This ensures appropriate interfacing of information while also performing appropriate rate adjustment. The data is partitioned into a number of portions, and each portion also includes multiple subsets. On a subset basis, information of a first portion is provided to a first slice's buffer units, and information of a second portion is provided to a second slice's buffer units. | 08-27-2009 |
20090216943 | Data storage device and data management method in data storage device - Embodiments of the present invention improve efficiency in saving log data in a hard disk drive (HDD) equipped with a magnetic disk and a flash memory,. In an aspect of one embodiment of the present invention, a HDD creates a segment table to associate an address of user data in a flash memory with an LBA in a magnetic disk. The HDD updates the segment table in a DRAM and saves it to the flash memory at a specific timing. The HDD creates journals indicating the update of the segment table and saves it to the flash memory. The latest segment table can be restored using the segment table and the journals in the flash memory. | 08-27-2009 |
20090222621 | MANAGING THE ALLOCATION OF TASK CONTROL BLOCKS - Systems and methods for allocating task control blocks in an information storage and retrieval system are disclosed. Task control blocks for new writes and reads are allocated by the cache code after a determination of the number of task control blocks already allocated for other tasks. | 09-03-2009 |
20090240878 | DISK APPARATUS AND ADVANCE DATA READING METHOD - Upon receipt of a read command or a write command from an external device, a disk apparatus stores an obtained address as a primary address and a secondary address in an address storing unit, increments a counter value of the secondary address, and selects the secondary address of which the counter value indicates the largest number. Upon receipt of the read command for the primary address, the disk apparatus reads data specified by the primary address from a disk and stores it in a buffer memory in advance. Upon receipt of the read command, the disk apparatus sends the data from the buffer to the external device. | 09-24-2009 |
20090248975 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MANAGING STALLED STORAGE DEVICES - Embodiments relate to systems and methods for managing stalled storage devices of a storage system. In one embodiment, a method for managing access to storage devices includes determining that a first storage device, which stores a first resource, is stalled and transitioning the first storage device to a stalled state. The method also includes receiving an access request for at least a portion of the first resource while the first storage device is in the stalled state and attempting to provide access to a representation of the portion of the first resource from at least a second storage device that is not in a stalled state. In another embodiment, a method of managing access requests by a thread for a resource stored on a storage device includes initializing a thread access level for an access request by a thread for the resource. The method also includes determining whether the storage device, which has a device access level, is accessible based at least in part on the thread access level and the device access level and selecting a thread operation based at least in part on the determination of whether the storage device is accessible. The thread operation may be selected from attempting the thread access request if the device is accessible and determining whether to restart the thread access request if the device is not accessible. | 10-01-2009 |
20090254701 | Storage system and access count equalization method therefor - [Object ] This invention aims to optimize an entire storage system by equalizing the access counts in appropriate units. | 10-08-2009 |
20090254702 | RECORDING MEDIUM STORING DATA ALLOCATION CONTROL PROGRAM, DATA ALLOCATION CONTROL DEVICE, DATA ALLOCATION CONTROL METHOD, AND MULTI-NODE STORAGE-SYSTEM - A data allocation control program manages data allocation when data is distributively stored in a plurality of disk nodes that are shifted to a power saving mode unless access is performed for a certain time. The program produces a plurality of allocation pattern candidates each indicating the disk nodes in which the respective data are to be stored. The program calculates a no-access period expectation that represents an expected value of occurrence of a no-access period during which access is not performed to some of the disk nodes. The program selects as an allocation pattern for data reallocation, one of the plurality of produced allocation pattern candidates with the largest calculated no-access period expectation. The program instructs the disk nodes to reallocate the respective data in accordance with the selected allocation pattern. | 10-08-2009 |
20090276565 | STORAGE CONTROL APPARATUS, DATA MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND DATA MANAGEMENT METHOD - A storage control apparatus according to the present invention includes a plurality of connecting units connected to one or more host computers and one or more hard disk drives as storage media for storing data, one or more non-volatile storage media which are of a different type from the hard disk drives and which store data WRITE requested from the host computer, a plurality of processing units for processing WRITE and READ requests from the host computer by using the hard disk drives or the non-volatile storage media and, a plurality of memory units for storing control information to be by the processing units. | 11-05-2009 |
20090282190 | DATA STRUCTURE FOR CONTROL INFORMATION ON REWRITEABLE DATA STORAGE MEDIA - A data storage medium includes a data structure, called a disk control block, used for administration and control information for the data storage medium. One medium may contain multiple different disk control blocks, each addressing a different function. Each disk control block includes a control block identifier that specifies the function of the disk control block. Each control block also includes a set of standard access control parameters. If a drive encounters an unrecognized disk control block, the drive can still decode the standard control parameters, so that the drive behavior is not inconsistent with the requirements of the unrecognized disk control block. | 11-12-2009 |
20090292866 | DISK APPARATUS AND COMMAND PROCESSING METHOD - A control unit in a disk apparatus stores a command in a queue. When the execution of the command stored in the queue is not completed within a predetermined time, the control unit stores an LBA corresponding to a command which is executed within the predetermined time and during execution of which the disk retry is generated more than a predetermined number of times, as a monitoring object LBA in a monitoring object LBA management table. Further, when an LBA corresponding to an execution object command corresponds to the monitoring object LBA stored in the monitoring object LBA management table, the control unit rearranges the command in the position at the end of the queue. | 11-26-2009 |
20090292867 | Storage-apparatus, disk controller, and command issue control method - The storage apparatus of the present invention includes a disk controller (CM) that issues a command to a disk via a fabric device. The CM controls the number of commands to be issued to the disk based on the structure of the storage apparatus and the operation state of the storage apparatus. | 11-26-2009 |
20090292868 | DISK CONTROL UNIT AND STORAGE SYSTEM - Provided is a disk controller comprising a front end FC I/F to a host, a back end FC I/F to a magnetic disk, a processor, and a main memory section. The front end I/F and the back end I/F are provided for performing information exchange with a network (connected) device that is connected to a network and manages storage. The main memory section stores registered information expressing an attribution of the network (connected) device, access information including security and performance of each network (connected) device through the network, and ranking information assigning a rank to each network (connected) device based on the registered information and the access information. An appropriate network (connected) device is selected from various types of information including the ranking information. | 11-26-2009 |
20090313426 | Buffer Management for Increased Write Speed in Large Sector Data Storage Device - An intelligent write command routine improves the operational efficiency of a data storage device (DSD) by avoiding media access of the disk when a logical block address (LBA) and the physical sector are unaligned, thus reducing write time. When a write command is received by the DSD from the host, the intelligent write command routine maintains the read data of the read buffer, instead of clearing the read buffer and performing a read of the target sector on the disk per standard protocol. The intelligent write command copies the necessary adjacent sector data from the read buffer as a data patch to the write buffer to splice around the write data received with the write command. Following each write command, the data written to the disk in the write buffer is copied to the read buffer. The read buffer is maintained with the most current data on the disk and does not need to be flushed unless the LBA of the write command is beyond the data ranges stored in the read buffer. | 12-17-2009 |
20090327598 | DISK STORAGE APPARATUS AND PROGRAM - Disclosed is a disk storage apparatus to control writing to a storage medium having a storage area to which a first address space is allocated and whose transfer rate spatially changes, including a command reception section and control section. The command reception section receives a write command from a host apparatus and containing an address of the first address space. The control section performs control to divide the storage area into zones, pre-define a second address space where blocks are successively allocated to the zones from a beginning address of the first address space, replace, for each of the write commands received by the command reception, an address of the first address space contained therein with an address of the second address space, select one of the zones as a write target zone by cyclical changing, and perform a writing process to the storage medium for each selected zone. | 12-31-2009 |
20090327599 | VIRTUAL TAPE DEVICE, DATA BACKUP METHOD, AND RECORDING MEDIUM - To provide a virtual tape device to reduce power consumption by utilizing a disk array device conforming to MAID. Two or more disk devices are divided into an information managing disk group whose power is kept on at all times and to two or more recording disk groups whose power is turned on/off as necessary when managing data. The virtual tape device includes: a volume information managing part which manages positions of virtual tapes allotted to storage areas of the recording disk groups; and a data managing part which rearranges, in the recording disk group whose power is on, the virtual tape for storing the data to the recording disk group whose power is off based on writing/reading information stored in the information managing disk group and positional information of the virtual tapes, and executes a control to write backup data to the recording disk group whose power is on. | 12-31-2009 |
20100005239 | Methods and apparatus for copying data - In one embodiment, the method includes modifying data being copied such that portions of the data that include defects are replaced with dummy data. For example, a defective portion of the data is detected during a copy operation, and the data being copied is modified such that detected defective portions of the data are replaced with the dummy data. | 01-07-2010 |
20100017564 | CONTROLLER, DATA STORAGE DEVICE, AND DATA COMMUNICATION SYSTEM HAVING VARIABLE COMMUNICATION SPEED - A main controller for use within a data storage device including a first data storage device and a second data storage device is disclosed. The controller includes a memory configured to store a plurality of protocol program data, and a processor configured to receive a host control signal from a host defining a primary operation, and to execute protocol program data selected from the plurality of protocol program data to define a first data communication protocol in accordance with the received host control signal. The processor is further configured to electrically store data in the first data storage device or magnetically store the data in the second data storage device during a secondary operation associated with the first operation, wherein the data is communicated from the processor to the first data storage device or the second data storage device during the secondary operation using a second. | 01-21-2010 |
20100017565 | DATA STORAGE DEVICE AND SYSTEM HAVING IMPROVED WRITE SPEED - A data storage device is provided, including a first data storage device electrically storing write data, a second data storage device magnetically storing write data, and a controller partitioning write data into first and second write data portions. The first write data portion is programmed to the first data storage device and the second write data portion if magnetically written to the second data storage device at the same time. | 01-21-2010 |
20100030958 | Random Number Generation For a Host System Using a Hard Disk Drive - A hard disk drive is provided for enhancing random number generation. In particular embodiments, the hard disk drive includes a storage subsystem and a controller. The controller generates a random number based on information associated with the storage subsystem. The controller transmits the random number to a host system. | 02-04-2010 |
20100030959 | SNAPSHOT SYSTEM - A storage system including: a disk device including an original volume and a plurality of snapshot generations; and a storage control unit which includes a processor unit. The processor unit receives write data to a storage area of the original volume, and determines whether data stored in the storage area of the original volume is already copied to the snapshot volume or not; if the data stored in the storage area of original volume is not already copied to snapshot volume, the processor unit copies the data from original volume to the snapshot volume, when a use capacity of the snapshot volume is larger than threshold amount by the copy, the processor unit indicates a specified snapshot generation, the processor unit migrates data of the specified snapshot generation from the snapshot volume to tape device; the processor unit deletes information of the specified snapshot generation in the snapshot volume. | 02-04-2010 |
20100037017 | HYBRID STORAGE APPARATUS AND LOGICAL BLOCK ADDRESS ASSIGNING METHOD - Hybrid storage apparatus and logical block address assigning methods for the hybrid storage apparatus are provided. A hybrid storage apparatus includes a plurality of storage apparatuses having different writing methods, and a controller to combine the storage apparatuses as a single storage apparatus, to assign one or more logic block addresses to the single storage apparatus, and to access the storage apparatuses using the logic block addresses. The address assigning method of a hybrid storage apparatus includes searching and detecting one or more storage apparatuses included in a hybrid storage apparatus when an initially set condition is generated, combining the storage apparatuses as a single storage apparatus, assigning one or more logic block addresses to the single storage apparatus, and accessing the storage apparatuses using the logic block addresses. | 02-11-2010 |
20100070699 | HYBRID HARD DISK DRIVE CAPABLE OF STORING FILE HAVING SPECIFIED CONDITION, A METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE SAME, AND RECORDING MEDIUM ADAPTED FOR EXECUTING THE METHOD - A method of controlling a hybrid hard disk drive includes receiving a write command from a host; extracting metadata of a file to be written, determining whether the metadata satisfies a predetermined set condition, and storing the file to be written in a first storage device when the metadata satisfies the set condition. | 03-18-2010 |
20100082897 | Load sharing method and system for computer system - The invention is directed to a load sharing method in a computer system including a first storage subsystem, a host computer, and a management computer. In the computer system, the first storage subsystem creates a plurality of first logical units from a storage area of a disk drive group, and the host computer creates a logical storage area configured by a plurality of virtual logical units respectively corresponding to the first logical units. A communications path is set between the host computer and each of the first logical units configuring the logical storage area. The load sharing method includes the steps of: monitoring, by the first storage subsystem, a load of its own; and changing, by the first storage subsystem, the communications paths between the host computer and the first logical units based on the monitoring result of the load. With such a configuration, provided is a computer system high in extensibility not deteriorating the performance at the limit of the system after load sharing among the storage subsystems. | 04-01-2010 |
20100088468 | METHOD FOR OPTIMIZING CLEANING OF MAPS IN FLASHCOPY CASCADES CONTAINING INCREMENTAL MAPS - A method implemented in a computer infrastructure having computer executable code having programming instructions tangibly embodied on a computer readable storage medium. The programming instructions are operable to determine whether a target disk of a map contains data unavailable to a downstream disk from an upstream disk in a FlashCopy cascade and detect whether the downstream disk has a copy of the data. Additionally, the programming instructions are operable to copy the data from the target disk to the downstream disk, if the target disk of the map contains data unavailable to the downstream disk from the upstream disk and the downstream disk does not have the copy of the data. Furthermore, the programming instructions are operable to refrain from copying the data from the target disk to the downstream disk, if the target disk of the map does not contain data unavailable to the downstream disk from the upstream disk or the downstream disk does have the copy of the data. Moreover, the programming instructions are operable to remove the map from the FlashCopy cascade. | 04-08-2010 |
20100106902 | Electronic Data Reproduction - A computer implemented method and system is provided for reproducing electronic data from a source storage device to a target storage device. The source storage device is connected to the target storage device via a disk interface. The electronic data on the target storage device is configured in a read write mode for electronic data transmission. The amount of electronic data to be reproduced is determined and sequentially read. The read electronic data is transmitted to the target storage device by performing a sequential write operation. The user can examine the transmitted electronic data during the transmission. If an interruption occurs, the electronic data is analyzed and the user selectively resumes the transmission. In the absence of the source storage device, the target storage device is configured in a read only mode for providing read only access to the electronic data present on the target storage device. | 04-29-2010 |
20100106903 | STORAGE APPARATUS AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF - This storage apparatus that provides to a host computer a logical device for storing data sent from the host computer includes a nonvolatile memory for storing the data, a disk-shaped memory device for storing the data, and a controller for controlling the nonvolatile memory and the disk-shaped memory device. The controller redundantly configures the logical device with the nonvolatile memory and the disk-shaped memory device. | 04-29-2010 |
20100125703 | MAGNETIC DISK DEVICE AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF - According to one embodiment, a magnetic disk device is configured to access a disk by a head according to a command from a computer. The magnetic disk device includes a communication module, an information generator, and a controller. The communication module receives a command from the computer. The information generator generates first information indicating the access situation of the disk based on the command received by the communication module. The controller controls the driving speed of at least one of the head and the disk based on the first information generated by the information generator. | 05-20-2010 |
20100131704 | Storage control apparatus - In a storage control apparatus provided therein with a battery-backed-up memory device being a combination of a cache memory of a storage device and a system memory on the side of a CPU, an ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) having a virtual window function is provided to a system, and I/O from a front end and/or a back end is performed via a virtual window, thereby making an addition of data integrity code, and performing automatic dual write of data. With such a storage control apparatus provided therein with a battery-backed-up memory being a combination of a CS/DS (Code Storage/Data Storage) and a cache, implemented are protection of block data, and dual write into a Cache (user data, control data) so that the reliability can be kept at the time of data input/output control. | 05-27-2010 |
20100138601 | VIRTUAL VOLUME CONTROL METHOD INVOLVING DEVICE STOP - Provided is a storage system capable of starting/stopping a disk drive. At the time of allocating a logical device, it is judged, based on attributes including a purpose of the logical device, whether or not control can be performed in terms of start/stop of an allocation target disk drive to determine an allocation destination disk drive. Further, in the case where access to a specific logical device is stopped due to release of a path definition or other such cause, it is judged whether or not a disk drive corresponding to the logical device can be stopped. When it is judged that the disk drive can be stopped, the disk drive is stopped. When it is judged that the disk drive cannot be stopped, the logical device is migrated to another disk drive that can be stopped, a migration destination disk drive is stopped. | 06-03-2010 |
20100138602 | DISK SYSTEM ADAPTED TO BE DIRECTLY ATTACHED TO NETWORK - A network-attached disk (NAD) system is disclosed that includes an NAD device for receiving a disk access command from a host through a network, and a device driver at the host for controlling the NAD device through the network, where the device driver creates a virtual host bus adapter so that the host recognizes the NAD device as if it is a local device to the host. The host may run the UNIX or Windows family of operating systems. The NAD device includes a disk for storing data, a disk controller for controlling the disk, and a network adapter for receiving a disk access command from the host through a network port. | 06-03-2010 |
20100146203 | USING NATIVE COMMAND QUEUING TAGS TO IMPLEMENT PROTECTION INFORMATION FOR DISK DRIVES - A disk drive is disclosed comprising a disk and a head actuated over the disk. The disk drive further comprises control circuitry operable to receive a Native Command Queuing (NCQ) access command from a host, wherein the NCQ access command comprises at least one logical block address (LBA), and a tag field for identifying the access command. The tag field is evaluated to determine a size of the logical block in order to transfer the logical block between the disk drive and the host. In one embodiment, the tag field comprises a tag number selected from a range of numbers, including a first range of numbers identifying a first logical block size, and a second range of numbers identifying a second logical block size. | 06-10-2010 |
20100146204 | Stored Data Protection and Recovery - A mechanism is provided in a computing system for controlling virtualized storage operable to communicate with a host and with mapped and unmapped storage resource pools. A selection component selects a target for a destructive data storage operation from the mapped storage resource pool. Responsive to the selection of the target, a virtual targeting component creates a virtual target from the unmapped storage resource pool to represent the target. Responsive to the selection of the target, a storage move component moves the target to a protected storage resource pool. Responsive to the creation of the virtual target from the unmapped storage resource pool, storage move component, moves the virtual target to the used storage resource pool. The computing system then performs the destructive data storage operation on the virtual target. | 06-10-2010 |
20100161896 | Direct Memory Access Transfer Efficiency - A mechanism is provided for improving the efficiency of multiple smaller direct memory access transfers. The mechanism uses one input buffer and a small result buffer, or some temporary variables, to temporarily store computation results. The mechanism performs a computation on a segment of data in the input buffer and stores the result in the temporary result buffer. The mechanism then copies the result back into the input buffer. As such, the mechanism uses the input buffer as both an input buffer and a results buffer. The mechanism then performs a direct memory access transfer on the segment of the input buffer that contains the computation result and then performs a computation on the next segment of the input buffer. The mechanism then repeats this process until the entire input buffer has been processed. | 06-24-2010 |
20100161897 | METADATA SERVER AND DISK VOLUME SELECTING METHOD THEREOF - A metadata server in an asymmetric cluster file system detects the used capacity and the free capacity of a disk volume in a data server to allocate chucks. The method for selecting a disk volume includes receiving status information from a data server periodically and adjusting the standby command number of a disk volume in the disk server on the basis of the status information, and selecting a disk volume for chunk allocation on the basis of the standby command number in response to a chunk allocation request from a client. | 06-24-2010 |
20100169565 | STORAGE DEVICE, ACCESS CONTROL DEVICE AND ELECTRONIC APPARATUS - A storage device includes: an access section accessing data in a storage area; a command receiving section receiving a command designating an access-point and data access thereto within the storage area; a command distinguishing section distinguishing whether the command is a within-protection command designating an access-point within a protected area or an off-protection command designating an access-point outside the protected area; an off-protection-command control section causing the access section to access data at the access-point designated by the off-protection command; a within-protection-writing control section causing, when the within-protection command designates data-writing, the access section to write data at an alternative-point in an invisible-area, and records a correspondence between the access-point and the alternative-point; and a within-protection-reading control section finding, when the within-protection command designates data-reading, the alternative-point corresponding to the access-point based on the recorded correspondence, and causing the access section to read data from the found alternative-point. | 07-01-2010 |
20100169566 | Dynamically switching command types to a mass storage drive - A method, device, and system are disclosed. In one embodiment method begins by receiving a first new mass storage disk access request. The method then determines the total number of access requests to the mass storage disk received in a window of time. If the total number of requests received over the period of time is greater than or equal to a request threshold number then a request frequency counter is decremented. Otherwise, the counter is incremented. The method continues by generating a legacy advanced technology attachment (ATA)-type command for the first new access request when the counter is greater than or equal to a counter threshold number. Otherwise, the method generates a native command queue (NCQ)-type command for the first new access request. | 07-01-2010 |
20100169567 | DYNAMIC DISK THROTTLING IN A WIDE AREA NETWORK OPTIMIZATION DEVICE - A network device may operate to increase application performance over a wide area network. In one particular implementation, the network device may monitor accesses to a disk drive from entities and determine whether an entity is accessing the disk drive in a manner that causes a disproportionate amount of performance degradation. If so, the network device may throttle access to the disk drive for the entity. | 07-01-2010 |
20100169568 | COMPUTER SYSTEM, STORAGE SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SAVING STORAGE AREA BY INTEGRATING SAME DATA - Provided is a storage system capable of saving actually used physical storage areas and of achieving a high speed in write processing. There is disclosed a computer system including a server and a storage system, in which physical storage areas of a disk drive are managed for each one or more physical blocks of predetermined sizes, and allocation of one or more physical blocks to a plurality of logical blocks of predetermined sizes is managed, and the storage system stores data written in a first logical block in a first physical block allocated to the first logical block and allocates the first physical block to a second logical block where the same data as the data stored in the first physical block is to be written. | 07-01-2010 |
20100174860 | NON-VOLATILE MEMORY, PAGE DYNAMIC ALLOCATION APPARATUS AND PAGE MAPPING APPARATUS THEREFOR, AND PAGE DYNAMIC ALLOCATION METHOD AND PAGE MAPPING METHOD THEREFOR - Disclosed are a non-volatile memory and page dynamic allocation and mapping technology thereof. According to the page dynamic allocation and mapping technology, by variable memory allocation, fragmentation may be prevented and page faults may be minimized in response to pages being loaded through page mapping of the non-volatile memory. | 07-08-2010 |
20100180075 | ASSISTED MAINFRAME DATA DE-DUPLICATION - Data de-duplication (“de-dupe”) offers IT organizations the opportunity to replace aging tape systems with disk-based backup solutions and minimize the storage allocated to backup and data protection. The effectiveness of de-dupe technology is extremely dependent on the data being protected. Data streams with little data repetitiveness will provide disappointing results when processed through a block-level de-dupe engine. To avoid this problem, Assisted Mainframe De-Dupe (AMDD) technology can be used to insure that filesystem block-level de-dupe products efficiently and effectively de-dupe tape backup streams received from IBM and or compatible mainframes. By pre-processing backup tape volumes before sending the data to storage, AMDD will insure that large amounts of unchanged data will line up on de-dupe block boundaries each time the data is sent to the de-dupe process engine. By providing “well-behaved” data to the de-dupe process, AMDD can significantly improve the effectiveness of de-dupe processing and substantially reduce the storage is used to backup critical mainframe DASD resources. | 07-15-2010 |
20100185814 | DATA COPYING METHOD AND APPARATUS IN A THIN PROVISIONED SYSTEM - Data migration includes copying between normal volumes and thin provisioned volumes. Data in a normal volume can be copied to a thin provisioned volume. Alternatively, data structures can be provided to facilitate converting a normal volume into a thin provisioned volume without actual copying of data. Copying from a thin provisioned volume to a normal volume is also disclosed. | 07-22-2010 |
20100191905 | STORAGE DEVICE, CONTROL METHOD AND CONTROLLER - A storage device comprises a recording/reproducing module which positions a head at an arbitrary position of a storage medium to record or reproduce data and a nonvolatile memory in which a parameter storage area is defined. An adjustment module adjusts various types of parameters necessary for controlling a positioning control module and the recording/reproducing module. A parameter save processing module saves adjusted parameters obtained by the adjustment module in the nonvolatile memory during adjustment, while leaving the minimum number of the adjusted parameters necessary to access a system area of the storage medium at the end of the parameter adjustment, and saves the remaining adjusted parameters in the system area of the storage medium to form a free area in the parameter storage area of the nonvolatile memory. The free area processing module uses the free area of the nonvolatile memory as a storage area for firmware, a log or the like other than the parameters. | 07-29-2010 |
20100191906 | STORAGE CAPACITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN DYNAMIC AREA PROVISIONING STORAGE - Provided is a capacity monitoring method used for a computer system including one or more application computers, one or more storage systems, and a management computer. The storage system includes a physical disk and a disk controller. In the capacity monitoring method, a storage area of the physical disk belongs to a storage pool, the storage system provides a volume, and the management computer monitors a used capacity of the storage pool, judges whether or not a storage capacity required for operating the application computer for a predetermined time period is present in the storage pool based upon an increasing speed of the used capacity of the storage pool to be monitored, and executes a predetermined process operation when the storage capacity required for operating the application computer for the predetermined time period is not present in the storage pool. Accordingly, the storage pool is properly operated and managed. | 07-29-2010 |
20100199036 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR BLOCK-LEVEL MANAGEMENT OF TIERED STORAGE - Acceleration of I/O access to data stored on large storage systems is achieved through multiple tiers of data storage. An array of first storage devices with relatively slow data access rates, such as hard disk drives, is provided along with a smaller number of second storage devices having relatively fast data access rates, such as solid state disks. Data is moved from the first storage devices to the second storage devices to improve data access time based on applications accessing the data and data access patterns. | 08-05-2010 |
20100217929 | Using External Memory Devices to Improve System Performance - The invention is directed towards a system and method that utilizes external memory devices to cache sectors from a rotating storage device (e.g., a hard drive) to improve system performance. When an external memory device (EMD) is plugged into the computing device or onto a network in which the computing device is connected, the system recognizes the EMD and populates the EMD with disk sectors. The system routes I/O read requests directed to the disk sector to the EMD cache instead of the actual disk sector. The use of EMDs increases performance and productivity on the computing device systems for a fraction of the cost of adding memory to the computing device. | 08-26-2010 |
20100228913 | METHOD FOR TRACKING CHANGES IN VIRTUAL DISKS - Systems and methods for tracking changes and performing backups to a storage device are provided. For virtual disks of a virtual machine, changes are tracked from outside the virtual machine in the kernel of a virtualization layer. The changes can be tracked in a lightweight fashion with a bitmap, with a finer granularity stored and tracked at intermittent intervals in persistent storage. Multiple backup applications can be allowed to accurately and efficiently backup a storage device. Each backup application can determine which block of the storage device has been updated since the last backup of a respective application. This change log is efficiently stored as a counter value for each block, where the counter is incremented when a backup is performed. The change log can be maintained with little impact on I/O by using a coarse bitmap to update the finer grained change log. | 09-09-2010 |
20100235571 | STORAGE APPARATUS, RELAY DEVICE, AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING COMMAND ISSUE - A storage apparatus includes a disk controller that issues commands to disks connected in loops, and a relay device that relays the commands issued from the disk controller to the disks. The relay device includes a supervisory control unit that monitors the number of commands to be issued to each of the loops including the disks and controls the number of commands to be issued by the disk controller on the basis of the monitored results. | 09-16-2010 |
20100241801 | METHOD FOR BACKING UP DATA OF A SERVER MACHINE - A method for backing up data of a server machine is provided. The server machine owns an operating system in which a kernel layer and an application layer are defined. When the application layer requests a backup agent at the kernel layer to back up data in the server machine to another server machine, the backup agent first requests the kernel layer to duplicate the data and put the data to a buffer at the kernel layer, and thereafter the backup agent requests the kernel layer to directly read the data from the buffer and transmit the data to the another server machine without being required to send the data back to the application layer. | 09-23-2010 |
20100262770 | Method for Enhancing Information Security in a Computer System - A method for enhancing information security in a computer system includes receiving a service serial number, encoding the service serial number according to an encoding rule, to generate a first hard-disk code, storing the first hard-disk code into a hard disk of the computer system to make the hard disk to be accessed by only the computer system. | 10-14-2010 |
20100268874 | METHOD OF CONFIGURING NON-VOLATILE MEMORY FOR A HYBRID DISK DRIVE - A system, method and machine-readable medium are provided to configure a non-volatile memory (NVM) including a plurality of NVM modules, in a system having a hard disk drive (HDD) and an operating system (O/S). In response to a user selection of a hybrid drive mode for the NVM, the plurality of NVM modules are ranked according to speed performance. Boot portions of the O/S are copied to a highly ranked NVM module, or a plurality of highly ranked NVM modules, and the HDD and the highly ranked NVM modules are assigned as a logical hybrid drive of the computer system. Ranking each of the plurality of NVM modules can include carrying out a speed performance test. This approach can provide hybrid disk performance using conventional hardware, or enhance performance of an existing hybrid drive, while taking into account relative performance of available NVM modules. | 10-21-2010 |
20100281210 | RESTORING SPANNED VOLUMES OF DATA - According to one embodiment, a backup is searched for data to be restored from a volume. The backup comprises multiple disks. The volume is stored in one or more spans on the disks. The spans containing the data to be restored from the volume are identified as desired spans, and a current disk is searched for the desired spans. A first subset of data is read from the desired spans on the current disk. A second subset of data is recorded on an unread list. The second subset of data comprises the data to be restored from the desired spans that are not on the current disk. The remaining data is read from the remaining disks according to the unread list. | 11-04-2010 |
20100293329 | MULTI-STREAM RESTORE SYSTEM AND METHOD - A computer system and process restores files on multiple disk drives from a plurality of backup files on a plurality of media types and at a plurality of locations. The system receives at a processor a restore command, and partitions the restore command into two or more sub-jobs. The system determines a location for each of the plurality of media types, and matches each sub-job with a different media type at a different location. The system then restores the files from each different media type at a different location to the multiple disk drives in parallel. | 11-18-2010 |
20100299478 | APPLICATION AND SYSTEM SETTINGS CONFIGURATION FILTERING DURING PHYSICAL TO VIRTUAL HARD DISK CONVERSION - During conversion and transfer of data from a physical machine to a virtual hard disk, a transmuter generates a catalog of contents of the physical machine. Catalog entries are compared to a set of alterations templates which alter matching data. The altered data is then stored in the virtual hard disk. Alterations templates may include filters that exclude unwanted or duplicated catalog entries, mapping filters that transfer source catalog entries to target locations on the virtual hard disk, and add-on filters that add additional data or location references to catalog entries. The disclosed process allows modifications to be made in a systematic way during data transfer. | 11-25-2010 |
20100312959 | SPATIAL LOCALITY OF FILE SYSTEM BLOCK ALLOCATIONS FOR RELATED ITEMS - Example apparatus, methods, and computers facilitate improving spatial locality of file system block allocations for related items. One example method includes accessing a block allocation request that is configured to control a computer to allocate a block of storage available on a storage device and, upon determining that the block allocation request includes a session key that identifies a session associated with a block reservation pool, controlling the computer to allocate a block of storage from the block reservation pool to satisfy the block allocation request rather than allocating a block of storage from generally available blocks of storage. The block reservation pool includes blocks of storage on the storage device that satisfy a spatial locality relationship determined by a pre-read technique associated with the storage device. | 12-09-2010 |
20100325355 | STORAGE CONTROL SYSTEM AND METHOD - A disk array system including a plurality of disk drives, including: a plurality of first-type disk drives being used to form a first-type logical unit having a plurality of a first-type of chunks; a plurality of second-type disk drives being used to form a second-type logical unit having a plurality of a second-type of chunks; and a storage controller, if the storage controller copies data stored in a source chunk to a destination chunk, selecting the destination chunk from the first-type of chunks or the second-type of chunks. | 12-23-2010 |
20100332744 | DATA RECOVERY AND OVERWRITE INDEPENDENT OF OPERATING SYSTEM - Methods and systems to access data in a computer system independent of an operating environment of the computer system, including to recover data to a remote system, to overwrite data, and to copy data to a hidden partition. A management system may directly access a storage device of the computer system and communicate with the remote system over a data channel that is secure from an operating environment of the computer system. The management system may access the storage device on a block basis, using a device driver associated with a storage device controller, and may include a virtualization engine to access the storage device. The remote system may include logic to request meta-data, to identify disk blocks corresponding to files of interest from the meta-data, and to construct the files of interest from the disk blocks. | 12-30-2010 |
20100332745 | AUTOMATED ON-LINE CAPACITY EXPANSION METHOD FOR STORAGE DEVICE - A volume provider unit in a computer system that detects a logical block address of a read or write I/O accessing a logical volume of a storage device from a host. According to the logical block address fetched, a storage domain of the logical volume is dynamically expanded. Moreover, the storage domain of the logical volume is reduced or expanded according to an instruction of logical volume capacity reduction or expansion from a host commander part to a volume server. | 12-30-2010 |
20110022793 | Systems And Methods For Accessing Hard Disk Drives - The present disclosure generally pertains to systems and methods for accessing hard disk drives. In one exemplary embodiment, a computer system comprises a hard disk drive (HDD), an operating system, and a translation element. The operating system is configured to transmit an HDD access command, which has a sector count indicating a first number of hard drive sectors to be accessed in response to the HDD access command. The translation element is configured to receive the HDD access command and to translate the HDD access command into a translated access command having a new sector count indicating a second number of hard drive sectors to be accessed in response to the translated access command. The second number is different than the first number, and the translation element is configured to transmit the translated access command to the hard disk drive. | 01-27-2011 |
20110029727 | Disk Controller Configured to Perform Out of Order Execution of Write Operations - A controller for a disk drive includes first memory storing first write operations and second write operations received in a first order. A processor arranges the first write operations and the second write operations in a second order based on respective track sectors associated with the first and the second write operations. The second order is different than the first order. A memory controller transfers write operation data corresponding to the first write operations and the second write operations to a disk formatter in the second order in response to a single command from the processor. | 02-03-2011 |
20110035546 | MANAGEMENT DEVICE AND MANAGEMENT METHOD - Timing at which a rotation of a physical disk can stop is taken to more appropriately stop the rotation of the physical disk. A management device for managing a storage device and a server includes a first recording part in which an identification number of a logic volume and a rotational state of the physical disk are recorded, a second recording part in which an operating state of the server and an identification number of the logic volume to be accessed by the server are recorded, an updating part for changing the operating state of the server recorded in the second recording part when the operating state of the server is changed, an extracting part for extracting an operating state of another server to access another logic volume of the physical disk having the logic volume to be accessed by the server set from the second recording part based on the identification number of the logic volume to be accessed by the server recorded on the first recording part, and an instructing part for giving an instruction to the storage device for changing the rotation state of the physical disk depending on the operating state after the server is changed and the operating state of the other server. | 02-10-2011 |
20110047328 | SIZE PLANNING METHOD FOR STORAGE DEVICE, AND READ AND ACCESS CORRECTING METHODS THEREOF - A size planning method for a storage device, and read and access correcting methods thereof are described. When a computer device is booted, a size of a physical storage device is managed. The management method includes the following steps. A physical storage device connected to a computer device is searched. When a size of the physical storage device is larger than a maximum disk size, a current disk having a specified size is partitioned from the physical storage device. Various parameters of a logical fixed disk parameter table (FDPT) extension table of the current disk are set. A residual size of the physical storage device is partitioned into several disks having the specified size, and the corresponding logical FDPT extension tables are set until the residual size is smaller than the maximum disk size. | 02-24-2011 |
20110060877 | EXTERNAL STORAGE DEVICE, CONTROL METHOD FOR COMPUTER SYSTEM, CONTROL METHOD FOR EXTERNAL STORAGE DEVICE, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT - When a hard disk drive | 03-10-2011 |
20110066800 | DATA STORAGE SYSTEM INCLUDING RESPECTIVE BUFFERS FOR NON-VOLATILE MEMORY AND DISC RECORDING MEDIUM, AND DATA ACCESS METHOD THEREOF - A data storage system includes a non-volatile memory, a disc recording medium, a non-volatile memory buffer, operatively disposed between a host interface and the non-volatile memory, which stores a portion of data stored in the non-volatile memory, and a disc buffer, operatively disposed between the host interface and the disc recording medium, which stores a portion of data stored in the disc recording medium. The data storage system may be configured to receive an access address from a host operatively connected to the host interface, and sequentially determine whether the access address exists in one of the non-volatile memory buffer, the non-volatile memory, the disc buffer, and the disc recording medium, in that order. | 03-17-2011 |
20110072207 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR LOGGING OPTIMIZATION USING NON-VOLATILE MEMORY - A logging optimization technology using a non-volatile memory is provided. A log record has a first link connected based on a page unit and a second link connected based on a transaction unit. The log record is stored in a non-volatile memory buffer. The log record stored in the non-volatile memory buffer is deleted or moved to a disk, if necessary. | 03-24-2011 |
20110082973 | SIMULTANEOUSLY SUPPORTING DIFFERENT BLOCK SIZES ON A SINGLE HARD DRIVE - A method and system where a hardware platform such as a disk drive is formatted to the largest block length it is desired to read from or write to. Using commands, data can be accessed from the drive in any block length that is equal to or less than the formatted block length. | 04-07-2011 |
20110082974 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR WRITING DATA AND A TIME VALUE TO AN ADDRESSABLE UNIT OF A REMOVABLE STORAGE MEDIUM - A system (and associated method) comprises a storage drive and a central processing unit (“CPU”). The storage drive is adapted to accommodate a removable storage medium. The CPU is configured to cause the CPU to write data and a time value to each of a plurality of addressable units of the storage medium in which data is written. The time value is indicative of the time at which each addressable unit was written with data. | 04-07-2011 |
20110099329 | ANALYSIS AND TIMELINE VISUALIZATION OF STORAGE CHANNELS - The visualization of a storage access on a timeline that represents various disk access events, such as a storage read event, or a storage write event. The storage access timeline may be formulated using event data gathered regarding storage access events, such as storage read requests, or storage write requests. The timeline may be displayed in conjunction with non-storage events, such as thread events, process events, processor events, or such, in order to give a visual indication of what is causing the storage access events. There may even be a control for displaying an identification of the file being accessed for one or more of the storage access events. With a better understanding of correlation between storage access events and application operation, optimization of the application itself may be achieved to more efficiently interface with the storage medium. | 04-28-2011 |
20110107025 | SYNCHRONIZING SNAPSHOT VOLUMES ACROSS HOSTS - Prior to overwriting a block of data in a first volume of data on a primary host, the block of data is written to a first snapshot of the first volume. Subsequently, the first snapshot can be synchronized with a snapshot of a second volume of data on a secondary host, where the second volume is a replica of the first volume. To synchronize the snapshots, only a portion of the first snapshot (e.g., the block of data that was written to the first snapshot) is sent to the secondary host. | 05-05-2011 |
20110119441 | SELECTIVE DEVICE ACCESS CONTROL - Various method, system, and computer program product embodiments for selective device access control in a data storage system are provided. In one such embodiment, a plurality of access groups associated with logical devices used to access the data storage system is initialized. Each of the plurality of access groups corresponds to a range of the logical devices. An access group name of one of the access groups is bound to a logical volume of the data storage system at a volume creation. The logical volume, once bound to the access group name, is granted access by those of the logical devices in a range of the logical devices corresponding to the one of the access groups. | 05-19-2011 |
20110138118 | MEMORY DISC COMPOSITION METHOD AND APPARATUS USING MAIN MEMORY - Provided is a memory disc composition method and apparatus using a main memory. The memory disc composition method configures a disc using the main memory in an x86 based Linux operating system (OS) by excluding an area to be used by the OS from the main memory and fixing a remaining memory for the disc. The main memory, such as an RAM, has a volatile data storage area and thus, the memory composition apparatus backs up data in real-time without decreasing a speed of a read operation and a write operation of a disc memory and restores data in the same area when an error occurs, to overcome a volatile attribute. | 06-09-2011 |
20110138119 | STORAGE CONTROL SYSTEM INCLUDING VIRTUALIZATION AND CONTROL METHOD FOR SAME - The storage system includes a plurality of storage devices and a controller that manages a virtual volume including a plurality of virtual storage areas, and manages a storage pool including a plurality of storage areas prepared on the storage devices in order to allocate a storage area in the storage pool to the virtual volume in response to receiving a write command to the virtual volume for writing data corresponding to the write command. In response to receiving a specific write command to write a specific data to a first virtual storage area to which a first storage area is allocated, the controller releases the first storage area from the first virtual storage area. | 06-09-2011 |
20110145495 | VIRTUAL VOLUME CONTROL METHOD INVOLVING DEVICE STOP - Provided is a storage system capable of starting/stopping a disk drive. At the time of allocating a logical device, it is judged, based on attributes including a purpose of the logical device, whether or not control can be performed in terms of start/stop of an allocation target disk drive to determine an allocation destination disk drive. Further, in the case where access to a specific logical device is stopped due to release of a path definition or other such cause, it is judged whether or not a disk drive corresponding to the logical device can be stopped. When it is judged that the disk drive can be stopped, the disk drive is stopped. When it is judged that the disk drive cannot be stopped, the logical device is migrated to another disk drive that can be stopped, a migration destination disk drive is stopped. | 06-16-2011 |
20110145496 | TRACE-ASSISTED STARTUP OPTIMIZATION FROM A VIRTUAL DISK - The disclosed embodiments provide a system that manages the use of a virtual disk. During operation, the system obtains trace data associated with a startup process that reads blocks from the virtual disk. Next, the system physically rearranges the blocks based on the trace data to increase the speed of the startup process. During execution of the startup process, the system also determines a progress of the startup process and uses the progress and the trace data to prefetch blocks from the virtual disk for use by the startup process. | 06-16-2011 |
20110153929 | DISK MEMORY UTILIZATION MANAGEMENT USING AVAILABLE SLOT CLUSTERS - Efficient reclamation of available memory slots in a computer memory storage unit is achieved by identifying clusters of available memory spaces resulting from the deletion of a record from the storage unit. A cluster may include one or more contiguous available memory slots. An active cluster is elected by selecting the larger of two clusters, the first being the largest cluster resulting solely from processing of the current record delete request and the second being an active cluster identified in a prior record delete operation. Other clusters are defined as passive clusters. When a record is to be written into the disk memory, available memory slots in the active cluster are first used, following by unused memory slots and then by available memory slots in passive clusters. | 06-23-2011 |
20110161582 | Advanced Disk Drive Power Management Based on Maximum System Throughput - The disclosed technology identifies bottlenecks in a hierarchical storage subsystem and, based upon the rate at which data may be transmitted through a particular bottleneck, determines the smallest number of disk drives required to match that transmission rate. If the required number of disks is less than the total number of disks, only a subset of the total number are maintained in an active state with the remainder places in either a “standby” or “off” mode. In this manner, overall system power consumption is reduced. In one embodiment, the disclosed techniques are implemented by active disk management at high level of storage infrastructure. | 06-30-2011 |
20110167212 | FILE SYSTEM FOR A CAPTURE SYSTEM - A file system can be provided in a capture system to efficiently read and write captured objects. In one embodiment, such a file system includes a plurality of queues to queue captured objects to be written to a disk, each queue being associated with one of a plurality of object types, and each queue containing captured objects of the type associated with each queue. A scheduler can be provided to select one of the plurality of queues, and a block manager to select a partition of a disk, the partition being associated with the object type of the captured objects in the selected queue. A disk controller configured to write contiguous blocks of data from the selected queue to the selected partition is connected to the block manager to enable writing to a disk. | 07-07-2011 |
20110167213 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ASSIGNING OR CREATING A RESOURCE - Provided are a method, system, and program for creating at least one volume in a disk storage system. A request is received to create at least one volume on the disk storage system indicating a volume size and number of volumes to create. Selection is made of a storage pool object representing one of a plurality of storage pools having available storage space to create the requested number of volumes. retrieving a storage configuration service of the disk storage system using an association of a disk storage system object representing the disk storage system and the selected storage pool object. The disk storage system object representing the disk storage system is associated with the retrieved storage configuration service. A volume size of the volume to create is set to a calculated size. The storage pool is set as the selected storage pool object. A method is invoked through the retrieved storage configuration service for each volume in the requested number of volumes to create. | 07-07-2011 |
20110179223 | Tape image on non-tape storage device - A method and system for facilitating the performance of data backups facilitates the storage of information being backed up on a non-tape storage device in a format that facilitates the subsequent transfer of the information to a tape storage device without substantial further processing by a computer. | 07-21-2011 |
20110191533 | DIGITAL FORENSIC ACQUISITION KIT AND METHODS OF USE THEREOF - Disclosed are compositions, methods, and kits, for issuing and conducting automated imaging and preservation for obtaining digital forensic data from active (i.e., powered-on) and non-active (i.e., powered-off) computer systems. In certain embodiments, the invention further encompasses providing a customer base a preliminary report of data. In other embodiments, the invention encompasses the option to receive a virtual machine file set of the acquired information for additional viewing and examination by the customer. The invention further encompasses methods and systems for implementing the embodiments of the invention. The invention also encompasses methods, apparatuses, and systems for secure forensic investigation of a target machine. | 08-04-2011 |
20110197022 | Virtual Disk Manipulation Operations - Described is a technology by which a virtual hard disk is able to continue servicing virtual disk I/O (reads and writes) while a meta-operation (e.g., copying, moving, deleting, merging, compressing, defragmenting, cryptographic signing, lifting, dropping, converting, or compacting virtual disk data) is performed on the virtual disk. The servicing of virtual disk I/Os may be coordinated with meta-operation performance, such as by throttling and/or prioritizing the virtual disk I/Os. Also described is performing a meta-operation by manipulating one or more de-duplication data structures. | 08-11-2011 |
20110202714 | TECHNIQUES FOR DYNAMIC DISK PERSONALIZATION - Techniques for dynamic disk personalization are provided. A virtual image that is used to create an instance of a virtual machine (VM) is altered so that disk access operations are intercepted within the VM and redirected to a service that is external to the VM. The external service manages a personalized storage for a principal, the personalized storage used to personalize the virtual image without altering the virtual image. | 08-18-2011 |
20110202715 | MANAGEMENT-PARTITIONABLE STORAGE SYSTEM, USE METHOD AND MANAGEMENT METHOD THEREOF, AND CONTROLLER THEREOF - A management partitionable storage system, a use method for the management partitionable storage system, a management method and a controller thereof are provided. Herein, whether the management-partitionable storage system is connected into a host is determined. The management-partitionable storage system includes a simulated compact disc (CD) partition and a data storage partition. When the management-partitionable storage system is coupled to the host, the simulated compact disc partition is mounted on a mount point of the host. A command is received from the mount point, wherein the command includes an identification code corresponding to the data storage partition. The command is executed to the data storage partition according to the identification code. | 08-18-2011 |
20110208908 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR HIGH AVAILABILITY (HA) PROTECTION OF A RUNNING VIRTUAL MACHINE (VM) - High availability (HA) protection is provided for an executing virtual machine. A standby server provides a disk buffer that stores disk writes associated with a virtual machine executing on an active server. At a checkpoint in the HA process, the active server suspends the virtual machine; the standby server creates a checkpoint barrier at the last disk write received in the disk buffer; and the active server copies dirty memory pages to a buffer. After the completion of these steps, the active server resumes execution of the virtual machine; the buffered dirty memory pages are sent to and stored by the standby server. Then, the standby server flushes the disk writes up to the checkpoint barrier into disk storage and writes newly received disk writes into the disk buffer after the checkpoint barrier. | 08-25-2011 |
20110231602 | NON-DISRUPTIVE DISK OWNERSHIP CHANGE IN DISTRIBUTED STORAGE SYSTEMS - Non-disruptive disk ownership change in a distributed storage system is disclosed. The distributed storage system may having a first storage controller for managing a first storage pool, and a second storage controller. An exemplary method may include entering a preparation phase to transfer control of the first storage pool from the first storage controller to the second storage controller. The method may also include suspending writing normal I/O to the first storage pool and holding at the first storage controller any new I/O for the first storage pool. The method may also include rejecting the I/O requests held by the first storage controller after the second storage controller assumes ownership of the first storage pool. | 09-22-2011 |
20110231603 | COMPUTER SYSTEM, STORAGE SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SAVING STORAGE AREA BY INTEGRATING SAME DATA - Provided is a storage system capable of saving actually used physical storage areas and of achieving a high speed in write processing. There is disclosed a computer system including a server and a storage system, in which physical storage areas of a disk drive are managed for each one or more physical blocks of predetermined sizes, and allocation of one or more physical blocks to a plurality of logical blocks of predetermined sizes is managed, and the storage system stores data written in a first logical block in a first physical block allocated to the first logical block and allocates the first physical block to a second logical block where the same data as the data stored in the first physical block is to be written. | 09-22-2011 |
20110238907 | WAKE-AHEAD BASED ON PATTERNS - A method may include detecting an event, determining whether the event correlates to a hard disk access, requesting a wake-ahead of a hard disk drive if it is determined that the event correlates to a hard disk access, weighing a performance improvement of the hard disk drive if the wake ahead request is granted against a life of the hard disk drive if the wake ahead request is not granted, and waking ahead the hard disk drive if the performance improvement outweighs the life of the hard disk drive. | 09-29-2011 |
20110246714 | MIGRATING CLIENT OPERATING SYSTEMS TO REMOTE STORAGE - Embodiments generally provide a utility for migrating an existing user operating system to a remote storage device. A utility for migrating user operating systems according to embodiments automatically detects and fixes inconsistent partition interdependencies resulting from the migration process. | 10-06-2011 |
20110246715 | METHOD TO QUALIFY ACCESS TO A BLOCK STORAGE DEVICE VIA AUGMENTATION OF THE DEVICE'S CONTROLLER AND FIRMWARE FLOW - A method to qualify access to a block storage device via augmentation of the device's controller and firmware flow. The method employs one or more block exclusion vectors (BEVs) that include attributes specifying allowed access operations for corresponding block address ranges. Logic in accordance with the BEVs is programmed into the controller for the block storage device, such as a disk drive controller for a disk drive. In response to an access request, a block address range corresponding to the storage block(s) requested to be accessed is determined. Based on the BEV entries, a determination is made to whether the determined logical block address range is covered by a corresponding BEV entry. If so, the attributes of the BEV are used to determine whether the access operation is allowed. The method may be used to secure access to firmware stored on a disk drive, thus enabling a system configuration that does not require a conventional firmware storage device. | 10-06-2011 |
20110271047 | STORAGE DEVICE IN COMPUTER SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING THE SAME - A storage device of a computer system including a first storage portion having a first capacity and a second storage portion having a second capacity is disclosed. A virtual storage unit is installed in an operating system of the computer system, and the operating system directly accesses data in the first capacity of the storage device. The operating system accesses the data in the second capacity via the virtual storage unit mapped to the second capacity of the storage device. The invention may be adapted to the storage device which uses a MBR partition table scheme and has a capacity larger than 2.2 TB which is the maximum supportive capacity of the MBR partition table scheme. | 11-03-2011 |
20110276756 | MAPPING LOCATIONS OF LOGICAL VOLUME RECORDS ON A PHYSICAL STACKED VOLUME - In one embodiment, a method for accessing host data records stored in a VTS system includes receiving a mount request to access at least one host data record, determining a SLBID corresponding to the requested host data records, determining a PBID that corresponds to the SLBID, accessing a physical block on a sequential access storage medium corresponding to the PBID, and outputting at least the physical block corresponding to the PBID without outputting an entire logical volume that the physical block is stored to. According to another embodiment, a VTS system includes random access storage, sequential access storage, support for at least one virtual volume, a storage manager having logic for determining a PBID that corresponds to a SLBID, and logic for copying a portion of a logical volume from the sequential access storage to the random access storage without copying the entire logical volume. Other embodiments are disclosed also. | 11-10-2011 |
20110289270 | SYSTEM, METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR DATA TRANSFER MANAGEMENT - According to one aspect of the present disclosure a method and technique for managing data transfer is disclosed. The method includes comparing, by a processor unit of a data processing system, data to be written to a memory subsystem to a stored data pattern and, responsive to determining that the data matches the stored data pattern, replacing the matching data with a pattern tag corresponding to the matching data pattern. The method also includes transmitting the pattern tag to the memory subsystem. | 11-24-2011 |
20110296099 | Access device and method for accelerating data storage and retrieval into and from storage device - The present invention is to provide an access device connected to a computer, a hard disk drive and a memory disk respectively, wherein the hard disk drive has a normal region divided into a plurality of regular sections, the memory disk is divided into a plurality of mirroring sections, and the access device stores an index table comprising a plurality of fields each having a flag. The access device can execute the steps of receiving a read instruction from the computer; reading sequentially the fields corresponding to the read instruction; reading data stored in a mirroring section corresponding to a field thus read and sending the data to the computer when the flag in the field is a first value; and reading data stored in a regular section corresponding to the field and sending the data to the computer when the flag in the field is a second value. | 12-01-2011 |
20110307657 | Selective Processing of File System Objects for Image Level Backups - Systems, methods, and computer program products are provided for reducing the size of image level backups. An example method receives backup parameters identifying a physical or Virtual Machine (VM) to backup and at least one file system object to include in the backup. The method connects to production storage corresponding to the selected physical or virtual machine and obtains access to data stored in disk corresponding to the selected file system object(s). The method fetches file allocation table (FAT) blocks from the disk and parses contents of the FAT blocks to determine if the disk blocks correspond to the selected file system object(s). The method creates a backup disk image FAT comprising blocks corresponding to the selected file system object(s). The method creates a reconstructed disk image FAT blocks corresponding to the backup FAT and disk image data blocks belonging to the selected file system object(s) and all other disk image data blocks are saved as zero blocks. A reconstructed disc image is compressed and stored in a backup file on backup storage, or replicated (copied) to another storage intact. | 12-15-2011 |
20110314216 | Method and Device for Reducing the Remanence of Data Stored on a Recording Medium - In a method of reducing the remanence of data stored in the memory space of a recording medium, in which at least a portion of the data stored in the memory space is moved in blocks according to a cycle repeated over time, the cycle includes choosing a number N of data blocks to be moved, and, as long as the number D of blocks moved during the cycle is less than N: a data block B | 12-22-2011 |
20120005422 | Non-Volatile Memory Cache Performance Improvement - In order to provide a more efficient persistent storage device, one or more long-term storage media are included along with a non-volatile memory. In one embodiment, one portion of the non-volatile memory is used as a write buffer and a read cache for writes and reads to the long-term storage media. Interfaces are provided for controlling the use of the non-volatile memory as a write buffer and a read cache. Additionally, a portion of the non-volatile memory is used to provide a direct mapping for specified sectors of the long-term storage media. Descriptive data regarding the persistent storage device is stored in another portion of the non-volatile memory. | 01-05-2012 |
20120023289 | HARD DISK DRIVES HAVING DIFFERENT ROTATIONAL SPEEDS - A system includes a number of hard disk drives and a controller. Each hard disk drive is selected from a number of different hard disk drive types. Each hard disk drive type has a different speed at which the hard disk drives of the hard disk drive type rotate to read and write data. At least one of the hard disk drives is of a different hard disk drive type than at least one other of the hard disk drives. The controller, responsive to a request to write particular data to the hard disk drives, is to select a given hard disk drive of the hard disk drives based on a type of the particular data, and is to write the particular data to the given hard disk drive. | 01-26-2012 |
20120042122 | STORAGE CAPACITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN DYNAMIC AREA PROVISIONING STORAGE - Provided is a capacity monitoring method for use with a computer system including one or more application computers, one or more storage systems, and a management computer. The storage system includes a physical disk and a disk controller. In the capacity monitoring method, a storage area of the physical disk belongs to a storage pool, the storage system provides a volume, and the management computer monitors a used capacity of the storage pool, judges whether or not a storage capacity required for operating the application computer for a predetermined time period is present in the storage pool based upon an increasing speed of the used capacity of the storage pool to be monitored, and executes a predetermined process operation when the storage capacity required for operating the application computer for the predetermined time period is not present in the storage pool. Accordingly, the storage pool is properly operated and managed. | 02-16-2012 |
20120059986 | DISK APPARATUS, DATA REPLICATING METHOD ONTO DISK APPARATUS AND PROGRAM RECORDING MEDIUM - A disk apparatus includes a second volume to which data of a first volume is copied, a third volume which stores a snapshot of the first volume, and an I/O processing unit which reads out data from the third volume when data of an area in which difference data exists in the third volume is read out, when data of an address in which the difference data does not exist in the third volume is read out, reads out data from the first volume if data copying from the first volume to the second volume has not been completed, and reads out data from the second volume if the data copying has been completed. | 03-08-2012 |
20120059987 | STORAGE SYSTEM, COPY METHOD, AND PRIMARY STORAGE APPARATUS - A storage system having a primary storage apparatus for storing data from a host computer in a primary logical volume, and a secondary storage apparatus connected to the primary storage apparatus, for providing a secondary logical volume for storing a copy of the data, the storage system comprising: a search unit for checking whether or not data exists in each primary slot area formed by partitioning a storage area in the primary logical volume into predetermined storage areas; a transmission unit for sending, if no data is held in the primary slot area, a notice indicating no data stored to the secondary storage apparatus; and a data write unit for writing, when the notice is received from the primary storage apparatus, zero data in the secondary slot area. | 03-08-2012 |
20120066446 | PHYSICAL TO VIRTUAL DISKS CREATION (P2V) METHOD, BY HARVESTING DATA FROM CRITICAL SECTORS - A virtual disk can be created by using data from critical sectors of a primary physical disk. The creation of a virtual disk involves receiving sector numbers and corresponding data for critical sectors of a primary physical disk on a primary computing system, creating a virtual disk that comprises sectors, and writing data from the critical sectors of the primary physical disk into respective sectors of the virtual disk. | 03-15-2012 |
20120072659 | DATA REPLICA CONTROL - A replica control system includes software to control replication in virtual environments. The replica control system identifies a plurality of data blocks within an underlying storage volume in response to a request to update a replica of a target storage volume, identifies changed data blocks of the plurality of data blocks within the underlying storage volume, and identifies a subset of the changed data blocks with which to update the replica of the target storage volume based on a characteristic of the changed data blocks. | 03-22-2012 |
20120084501 | Information processing apparatus, tape device, and computer-readable medium storing program - An acquisition unit of an information processing apparatus acquires access information indicating the state of access to a volume of a disk device at least for data read. A determination unit detects a volume in which a sequential read was performed, on the basis of the acquired access information, and determines the volume as a backup source for a backup. | 04-05-2012 |
20120084502 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR RESPONDING TO FILE SYSTEM REQUESTS - A system for responding to file system requests having file IDs comprising V, a volume identifier specifying the file system being accessed, and R, an integer, specifying the file within the file system being accessed includes D disk elements in which files are stored, where D is greater than or equal to 2 and is an integer. The system includes a switching fabric having a first switching element and a second switching element, each of which are connected to each of the D disk elements. The system includes N network elements, each of which is connected to each of the switching elements of the switching fabric, where N is greater than or equal to 2 and is an integer and N+D is greater than or equal to 4. | 04-05-2012 |
20120084503 | DISK CONTROL APPARATUS, DISK CONTROL METHOD, AND STORAGE MEDIUM STORING DISK CONTROL PROGRAM - A disk control apparatus that is capable of performing a reliable mirroring control for both of an SSD and an HDD. The disk control apparatus that performs a mirroring control to the SSD and the HDD. An acquisition unit acquires the data rewriting number in the SSD. A derivation unit derives a data retention period of the SSD from the data rewriting number acquired. A comparison unit compares a predetermined threshold value with an increment between the data rewriting number acquired at a predetermined timing and the data rewriting number acquired after a retention period, which is derived from the data rewriting number at the predetermined timing, elapses. A setting unit sets so as to read data from the SSD by default and to read data from the HDD when the comparison unit determines that the increment is less than the threshold value. | 04-05-2012 |
20120117320 | LATENCY REDUCTION ASSOCIATED WITH A RESPONSE TO A REQUEST IN A STORAGE SYSTEM - A method includes segmenting a virtual volume into an active area configured to map to a first type of storage and a non-active area configured to map to a second type of storage through a storage virtualization engine. The second type of storage includes data associated with a host device and the first type of storage includes point-in-time images corresponding to the data associated with the host device. The first type of storage offers a higher performance than that of the second type of storage. The method also includes allocating a portion of space in the first type of storage to serve as a cache memory during a write operation and/or a read operation, and reducing a latency associated with the response to a write request and/or a read request through performing the corresponding write operation and/or the read operation through the first type of storage. | 05-10-2012 |
20120131271 | STORAGE DEVICE AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING STORAGE SYSTEM - With respect to a storage system in which quick formatting and sequential formatting can be run concurrently, the time it takes to process an access request from a host is prevented from becoming prolonged even when a normal sequential formatting process is executed with respect to a storage volume which frequently incurs I/O penalties. The storage device measures the load from the host per configurational unit (storage medium) of LUs, and divides the LUs into a group of LUs whose load per storage medium is low, and a group of LUs whose load per storage medium is high. Further, the density per unit of LU capacity of I/O penalties incurred in a storage volume for which quick formatting is being executed is calculated. Sequential formatting is then executed, with priority, with respect to the LUs belonging to the group with low loads and in order of descending density of incurred I/O penalties. | 05-24-2012 |
20120131272 | Data Processing System and Storage Subsystem Provided in Data Processing System - A first storage subsystem includes a first storage device and a second storage device(s). A second storage subsystem includes a third storage device and a fourth storage device. A third storage subsystem comprises a fifth storage device and a sixth storage device. The first storage subsystem generates a dataset comprising an update number expressing the update order of the first storage device and write data stored in the first storage device, stores the generated dataset in the one or more second storage devices, and transmits the data set to the second and third storage subsystems. Each of the second and third storage subsystems stores the received dataset in the third storage device or fifth storage device, reads a dataset from the third or fifth storage device according to the update number, and stores the write data within the dataset in the fourth storage device or sixth storage device. | 05-24-2012 |
20120131273 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR STORING MEMORY COMPRESSED DATA ONTO MEMORY COMPRESSED DISKS - In a computer system supporting memory compression, wherein memory compressed data is managed in units of memory sectors of size S, wherein data is stored on disk in a different compressed format, and wherein data on said disk is managed in units of disk sectors of size D, a method for storing memory compressed data on a compressed disk includes combining at least one of compressed memory directory information, a system header, compressed data controls, and pads into a data structure having a same size S as a memory sector, grouping the data structure and the data contained in the desired memory sectors into groups of D/S items, and storing each of the groups in a separate disk sector. | 05-24-2012 |
20120144108 | DATA PROTECTION SYSTEMS WITH MULTIPLE SITE REPLICATION - Systems and methods for replicating data from a first site to a second site remote from said first site are described. An embodiment includes storing compressed data on a hard disk appliance, reading said data without decompressing said data, sending said data over a wide-area-network (WAN) in a compressed state, and storing said data on a second hard disk appliance remote from said first hard disk appliance in its compressed state without performing an additional compression operation. | 06-07-2012 |
20120151132 | TECHNIQUES FOR DYNAMIC DISK PERSONALIZATION - Techniques for dynamic disk personalization are provided. A virtual image that is used to create an instance of a virtual machine (VM) is altered so that disk access operations are intercepted within the VM and redirected to a service that is external to the VM. The external service manages a personalized storage for a principal, the personalized storage used to personalize the virtual image without altering the virtual image. | 06-14-2012 |
20120159064 | HARD DISK DRIVE - A hard disk drive includes an interface, a data process system, a memory unit, a microprocessor, and an indicator module. The interface is connected to a computer for data transmission. The data process system is connected between the interface and the memory unit for reading data to or writing data from the memory unit. The microprocessor is connected with the interface for determining the status of the hard disk drive and controls the operation modes of the indicator module for illustrating whether the hard disk drive is exchanging data with the computer or whether the hard disk drive is in a fault condition. | 06-21-2012 |
20120159065 | WRITE-ONCE INFORMATION RECORDING MEDIUM, INFORMATION RECORDING METHOD, INFORMATION RECORDING DEVICE, INFORMATION REPRODUCTION METHOD, INFORMATION REPRODUCTION DEVICE AND METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING INFORMATION RECORDING MEDIUM - In an information recording medium in which storage capacity per recording layer has increased so much that the size of an SBM varies with those of spare areas, there is mutual dependence between a DDS and an SBM and it is difficult to retrieve disc management information as intended. In an information recording medium according to the present invention, if the largest space is allocated to an user data area, the number of blocks to store a space bitmap is N | 06-21-2012 |
20120185642 | ASSIGNING A DATA ITEM TO A STORAGE LOCATION IN A COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT - A computer implemented method, system, and/or computer program product assigns a data item to a storage location in a computing environment. A request to store a data item is detected. A determination is made as to whether a volatile memory in the second computer comports with an isolation rule for the data item. In response to determining that the volatile memory in the second computer comports with the isolation rule for the data item, access time for data in the volatile memory in the second computer is compared with access time for data in a local hard drive in a first computer. The data item is then selectively stored in either the volatile memory in the second computer or the local hard drive in the first computer as determined by their relative access times. | 07-19-2012 |
20120191908 | STORAGE WRITES IN A MIRRORED VIRTUAL MACHINE SYSTEM - Performing storage writes in a mirrored virtual machine system by receiving a state of a primary virtual machine during execution of an application, wherein the primary virtual machine runs on a first physical machine and a secondary virtual machine runs on a second physical machine, wherein the state is captured by checkpointing, and the primary virtual machine is configured to write data to a first block and concurrently write the data to a write buffer on the secondary virtual machine. The method also includes storing a copy of data within a second block to a rollback buffer for the secondary virtual machine, in response to identifying a checkpoint in the application, merging the rollback buffer with the write buffer, in response to detecting a failover, writing a copy of the rollback buffer to the disk storage, and continuing execution on the secondary virtual machine from the last checkpoint. | 07-26-2012 |
20120191909 | DYNAMIC DISK THROTTLING IN A WIDE AREA NETWORK OPTIMIZATION DEVICE - A network device may operate to increase application performance over a wide area network. In one particular implementation, the network device may monitor accesses to a disk drive from entities and determine whether an entity is accessing the disk drive in a manner that causes a disproportionate amount of performance degradation. If so, the network device may throttle access to the disk drive for the entity. | 07-26-2012 |
20120198147 | COMPUTER SYSTEM, STORAGE SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SAVING STORAGE AREA BY INTEGRATING SAME DATA - Provided is a storage system capable of saving actually used physical storage areas and of achieving a high speed in write processing. There is disclosed a computer system including a server and a storage system, in which physical storage areas of a disk drive are managed for each one or more physical blocks of predetermined sizes, and allocation of one or more physical blocks to a plurality of logical blocks of predetermined sizes is managed, and the storage system stores data written in a first logical block in a first physical block allocated to the first logical block and allocates the first physical block to a second logical block where the same data as the data stored in the first physical block is to be written. | 08-02-2012 |
20120215977 | Method and System for Managing Read/Write Operations on an Electronic Device that Includes a Plurality of Hard Disks, and an Electronic Device Incorporating the Same - A method for managing read/write (R/W) operations on an electronic device with hard disks, includes: upon receipt of R/W operation information related to an intended R/W operation, configuring a processor to decide which of the hard disks will be read/written with reference to the R/W operation information and sets of pre-established performance information. The sets respectively correspond to R/W operation settings. Each set includes multiple pieces of information each containing a performance indication related to a corresponding one of candidate combinations of the hard disks under the corresponding R/W operation setting. The decision is made with reference to the set, the R/W operation setting corresponding to which matches the R/W operation information. | 08-23-2012 |
20120215978 | Storage System With Improved Multiple Copy Targeting - A storage control apparatus in cooperation with a plurality of controlled storage apparatus arranged in a cascade of point-in-time copy relationship. The apparatus includes: a rate control component operable to set a desired rate for cleaning a first target one of the plurality of controlled storage apparatus; a comparator component in communication with the rate control component to identify discrepant bits associated with first and second targets; and a copy initiator, responsive to the comparator component to initiate a copy operation responsive to the identified discrepant bits. | 08-23-2012 |
20120221787 | DATA STORAGE - A data storage system comprises a controller, a first lower performance storage medium and a second higher performance storage medium. The controller is connected to the storage mediums and is arranged to control Input/Output (IO) access to the storage mediums. In operation, the controller is arranged to store an image on the first storage medium, initiate a copy function from the first storage medium to the second storage medium, direct all IO access for the image to the second storage medium, and periodically age data from the second storage medium to the first storage medium. | 08-30-2012 |
20120233397 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR STORAGE UNIT BUILDING WHILE CATERING TO I/O OPERATIONS - Provided is a method for copying data as stored in at least one source storage entity, including copying data from a source storage entity into a destination storage entity and catering to at least one I/O operation directed toward the source storage entity during copying, the copying including reading at least one chunk of data in a predetermined order; and reading, responsive to a request, at least one relevant chunk containing data related to at least one I/O operation out of the predetermined order. | 09-13-2012 |
20120260033 | COMPUTING DEVICE, STORAGE MEDIUM AND METHOD FOR PROCESS A TEST RESULT REPORT USING THE COMPUTING DEVICE - In a method for processing test result reports using a computing device, the test result report is read from an original storage section of a database of the computing device. The method generates a classified report by classifying the test result report into a classification storage section of the database according to the file name of the test result report. The method further generates a filtrated reports by filtrating specific fields in the classified report according to predetermined important fields, and stores the filtrated report into a filtration storage section of the database. The method generates a desired result report by adding a parameter field into the filtrated report to store test parameters of the test result report, and stores the desired result report in a result storage section of the database. | 10-11-2012 |
20120271994 | METHOD AND DATA STORAGE SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING MULTIPLE PARTITION SUPPORT - An apparatus of the present invention includes partition selection circuitry configured to selectably provide individual access to multiple ones of a plurality of partitions of a data storage component by a host device without multiple partition support. The apparatus can also include the data storage component and/or the host device. The partition selection circuitry uses a logical block addressing (LBA) address generated by the host device, and an operating mode indicator indicative of a particular partition, to allow the partitions of the data storage component to be accessed by the host device without multiple partition support. Methods implemented by the apparatus are also disclosed. | 10-25-2012 |
20120271995 | INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS, DRIVE CONTROL PROGRAM, AND DRIVE CONTROL METHOD - In an information processing apparatus which associates logical drives with physical drives and performs processing using the physical drives, a control unit assigns logical drive identification information identifying a logical drive corresponding to a target drive to a physical drive (target drive) that needs to be used in the processing. Then, the control unit performs the processing using the target drive based on the logical drive identification information. | 10-25-2012 |
20120278549 | ADAPTIVE POWER CONSERVATION IN STORAGE CLUSTERS - Each node and volume in a storage cluster makes a decision whether to reduce power consumption based on lack of requests from client applications and nodes over a time period. Node configuration parameters determine how long to wait until idling a node or volume, and how long to wait while idle before performing integrity checks. A bid value is calculated by each node and reflects how much it will cost for that node to write a file, read a file, or keep a copy. A node with the lowest bid wins, and nodes that are idle have a premium added to each bid to ensure that idle nodes are kept idle. In an archive mode, writes bids are reversed, nodes with less capacity submit lower bids, fuller nodes fill up faster and are then idled, while empty or near empty nodes may remain idle before winning a write bid. | 11-01-2012 |
20120284457 | SELECTING AN AUXILIARY STORAGE MEDIUM FOR WRITING DATA OF REAL STORAGE PAGES - An auxiliary storage medium is selected for writing data of a set of one or more pages being paged-out from real memory. The auxiliary storage medium is selected from among a plurality of auxiliary storage media, including differing types of storage media, based on characteristics of the plurality of storage media and/or the attributes of the data being written to the auxiliary storage media. | 11-08-2012 |
20120284458 | SELECTING AN AUXILIARY STORAGE MEDIUM FOR WRITING DATA OF REAL STORAGE PAGES - An auxiliary storage medium is selected for writing data of a set of one or more pages being paged-out from real memory. The auxiliary storage medium is selected from among a plurality of auxiliary storage media, including differing types of storage media, based on characteristics of the plurality of storage media and/or the attributes of the data being written to the auxiliary storage media. | 11-08-2012 |
20120290785 | Non-Volatile Memory Cache Performance Improvement - In order to provide a more efficient persistent storage device, one or more long-term storage media are included along with a non-volatile memory. In one embodiment, one portion of the non-volatile memory is used as a write buffer and a read cache for writes and reads to the long-term storage media. Interfaces are provided for controlling the use of the non-volatile memory as a write buffer and a read cache. Additionally, a portion of the non-volatile memory is used to provide a direct mapping for specified sectors of the long-term storage media. Descriptive data regarding the persistent storage device is stored in another portion of the non-volatile memory. | 11-15-2012 |
20120324159 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR IMPLEMENTING HIGH-PERFORMANCE, SCALEABLE DATA PROCESSING AND STORAGE SYSTEMS - A data system architecture is described that allows multiple processing and storage resources to be connected to multiple clients so as 1) to distribute the clients' workload efficiently across the available resources; and 2) to enable scaleable expansion, both in terms of the number of clients and in the number of resources. The major features of the architecture are separate, modular, client and resource elements that can be added independently, a high-performance cross-bar data switch interconnecting these various elements, separate serial communication paths for controlling the cross-bar switch settings, separate communication paths for passing control information among the various elements and a resource utilization methodology that enables clients to distribute processing or storage tasks across all available resources, thereby eliminating “hot spots” resulting from uneven utilization of those resources. | 12-20-2012 |
20120324160 | METHOD FOR DATA ACCESS, MESSAGE RECEIVING PARSER AND SYSTEM - The present invention discloses a method for access data, a message receiving parser and system, which belong to the field of network technology. The method comprises: receiving a data access request; determining a hard disk to be accessed by the data access request according to the data access request; sending the data access request to a message queue associated with the hard disk such that the hard disk may complete data access according to the data access request. The message receiving parser comprises: a receiving module, a determining module and a sending module. The system comprises: a message receiving parser, at least one hard disk and message queues associated with each hard disk. | 12-20-2012 |
20130007360 | STORAGE SYSTEM AND STORAGE CONTROL METHOD THAT COMPRESS AND STORE DATA ELEMENTS - A pool is formed based on a plurality of storage devices. This pool is constituted by a plurality of real pages. Real pages of different lengths are included in this plurality of real pages. Among a plurality of virtual pages which make up a virtual volume, a controller compresses a write data element for a write destination virtual page, selects a real page of a real page length based on the data length of a data unit including the compressed write data element, and allocates the selected real page to the write destination virtual page. | 01-03-2013 |
20130019059 | HARD DISK DRIVE ADAPTERAANM HU; WEN-SENAACI Shenzhen CityAACO CNAAGP HU; WEN-SEN Shenzhen City CNAANM HE; WEI-MINAACI Shenzhen CityAACO CNAAGP HE; WEI-MIN Shenzhen City CN - A hard disk drive (HDD) adapter includes a first connector, a second connector, and a signal reproduction circuit. The first connector is electrically connected to a motherboard of a computer server. The second connector is electrically connected to a number of hard disk drive (HDD) drives. The signal reproduction circuit is electrically connected to the first connector and the second connector, and reproduces a signal from the motherboard into a number of signals provided to the HDD drives. | 01-17-2013 |
20130046930 | OPTIMIZING LOCATIONS OF DATA ACCESSED BY CLIENT APPLICATIONS INTERACTING WITH A STORAGE SYSTEM - A method for optimizing locations of physical data accessed by one or more client applications interacting with a storage system, with the storage system comprising at least two redundancy groups having physical memory spaces and data bands. Each of the data bands corresponds to physical data stored on several of the physical memory spaces. A virtualized logical address space includes client data addresses utilizable by the one or more client applications. A storage controller is configured to map the client data addresses onto the data bands, such that a mapping is obtained, wherein the one or more client applications can access physical data corresponding to the data bands. | 02-21-2013 |
20130073804 | PREVENTING READ WHILE WRITING OCCURRENCES - Example apparatus and methods concern controlling a computer to prevent read while writing occurrences in direct output. One example method includes identifying a non-conformance between a block of data intended to be output using direct output and a desired direct output block. Conventionally, the non-conformance would cause the computer to perform a read operation to provide additional data suitable for conforming the block of data to the desired direct output block. Once the method has identified the non-conformance, the method may prevent the computer from performing the read operation. The method may also control the computer to perform an additional output operation to make the block of data appear to conform to the desired direct output block. The additional output operation will be performed without performing a read operation. In one embodiment, the method is performed in the kernel of an operating system running on the computer. | 03-21-2013 |
20130073805 | COMPUTER SYSTEM AND METHOD OF MANAGING STATUS THEREOF - There is disclosed a data storage system used in a computer environment where there are plural host computers and plural storage array controllers. When a remote copy is made while assuring the order of writing across plural storage array controllers, one of the host computers gains copy information about all the storage array controllers associated with the remote copy as a representative. The representative one of the storage array controllers collects and stores copy statuses which are individually managed by the storage array controllers for which a remote copy is made. The host computer gains the copy statuses from the representative controller using an instruction to gain the copy statuses. | 03-21-2013 |
20130080695 | RESTORE IN CASCADED COPY ENVIRONMENT - In one aspect of the present description, handling multiple backup processes comprises detecting that a defined storage volume is present in a first cascade of storage volumes; detecting that the defined storage volume is present in a second cascade of storage volumes; receiving a data write for a last storage volume in the first cascade of storage volumes; and performing a cleaning data write on the defined storage volume in the second cascade of storage volumes, wherein the cleaning data write corresponds to the received data write. Other aspects may be utilized, depending upon the particular application. | 03-28-2013 |
20130097373 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS OF MANAGING HARD DISK DEVICES - Systems and methods of managing hard disk devices are provided to wirelessly receive instructions from a user to enable safety features with respect to various conditions encountered by the hard disk devices. These conditions include changes in location, orientation, and the light intensity. Such changes initiate functions which serve to backup and protect the data stored on the hard drive. | 04-18-2013 |
20130097374 | EFFICIENT VOLUME MANAGER HOT SWAPPING - A method of updating an extent map is described. The method includes providing in a memory an instance of a first version of the extent map, wherein the instance is referenced by an application. The extent map include entries. The method further includes storing, at each extent map entry, an offset from the beginning of a physical drive which is identified within said each extent map entry, providing a second version of the extent map, comparing the first version of the extent map with the second version of the extent map, in response to the comparing, determining that is at least on segment in the second version of the extent map that is different from a corresponding at least one segment in the first version of the extent map. | 04-18-2013 |
20130103900 | ELECTRONIC SYSTEM AND METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SAVING DATA THEREOF - An electronic system, and a method and an apparatus for saving data of the electronic system are provided. The electrical system includes a central processing unit (CPU), a temperature sensor, a first controller, a second controller, a first storage device and a second storage device. When the CPU enters a suspend mode and the first controller detects a temperature of the electronic system to be lower than a threshold value through the temperature sensor, the second controller notify the application program to trigger the CPU to enter a hibernation mode, and operation data is moved from the first storage device to the second storage device. | 04-25-2013 |
20130103901 | DYNAMICALLY SWITCHING COMMAND TYPES TO A MASS STORAGE DRIVE - A method, device, and system are disclosed. In one embodiment method begins by receiving a first new mass storage disk access request. The method then determines the total number of access requests to the mass storage disk received in a window of time. If the total number of requests received over the period of time is greater than or equal to a request threshold number then a request frequency counter is decremented. Otherwise, the counter is incremented. The method continues by generating a legacy advanced technology attachment (ATA)-type command for the first new access request when the counter is greater than or equal to a counter threshold number. Otherwise, the method generates a native command queue (NCQ)-type command for the first new access request. | 04-25-2013 |
20130132664 | PERIODIC DESTAGES FROM INSIDE AND OUTSIDE DIAMETERS OF DISKS TO IMPROVE READ RESPONSE TIMES - A storage controller that includes a cache, receives a command from a host, wherein a set of criteria corresponding to read response times for executing the command have to be satisfied. A destage application that destages tracks based at least on recency of usage and spatial location of the tracks is executed, wherein a spatial ordering of the tracks is maintained in a data structure, and the destage application traverses the spatial ordering of the tracks. Tracks are destaged from at least inside or outside diameters of disks at periodic intervals, while traversing the spatial ordering of the tracks, wherein the set of criteria corresponding to the read response times for executing the command are satisfied. | 05-23-2013 |
20130132665 | HARDDISK DRIVE CONNECTOR HAVING INDICATION DEVICE FOR INDICATING DATA TRANSFER RATE AND COMPUTING DEVICE HAVING THE SAME - A hard disk drive (HDD) connector includes a plurality of HDD interfaces being connected to a plurality of HDDs, and a data transfer rate (DTR) indication device for indicating a DTR of each of the HDDs connected to the HDD interfaces. The DTR indication device includes an indication unit, a setting unit, and a control unit. The indication unit defines a plurality of indication states, each of which indicates a type of DTR of the HDDs. The setting unit sets a control command that represents the DTR of the HDD connected to each of the HDD interfaces. The control unit receives the control command from the setting unit, and controls the indication unit to work at a corresponding indication state according to the control command, to indicate the DTR of each of the HDDs connected to the HDD interfaces. | 05-23-2013 |
20130132666 | DISK ARRAY SYSTEM AND HARD DISK DRIVE EXPANSION METHOD THEREOF - Even if an arbitrary hard disk drive is added, the hard disk drive is operated in a specific operation mode suited for that hard disk drive. | 05-23-2013 |
20130173859 | Logically Partitioning Remote Virtual Library Extensions for Use in Disaster Recovery of Production Data - Systems and methods that make use of logical partitions of a second tier of disk storage at a disaster recovery (DR) site remote from a production site as part of a DR setup to advantageously reduce disruption to production site data production operations during DR procedures while providing for the substantially immediate recall or retrieval of data previously migrated to the remote second tier of disk storage. | 07-04-2013 |
20130191588 | SYSTEMS FOR AND METHODS OF IMPROVING THE EFFICIENCY OF AUTOMATED DATA STORAGE LIBRARIES - Described are systems for and methods of improving the efficiency of an automated data storage library. | 07-25-2013 |
20130219116 | DATA MIGRATION FOR COMPOSITE NON-VOLATILE STORAGE DEVICE - In one embodiment, a method for managing a composite storage device made up of fast non-volatile storage, such as a solid state device, and slower non-volatile storage, such as a traditional magnetic hard drive, can include maintaining a first data structure, which stores instances of recent access to each unit in a set of units in the fast non-volatile storage device, such as the SSD device and also maintaining a second data structure that indicates whether or not units in the slower storage device, such as the HDD, have been accessed at least a predetermined number of times. In one embodiment, the second data structure can be a probabilistic hash table, which has a low required memory overhead but is not guaranteed to always provide a correct answer with respect to whether a unit or block in the slower storage device has been referenced recently. | 08-22-2013 |
20130219117 | DATA MIGRATION FOR COMPOSITE NON-VOLATILE STORAGE DEVICE - Approaches to managing a composite, non-volatile data storage device are described. In one embodiment, a method for managing a composite storage device made up of fast non-volatile storage, such as a solid state device, and slower non-volatile storage, such as a traditional magnetic hard drive, can include maintaining a first data structure, which stores instances of recent access to each unit in a set of units in the fast non-volatile storage device, such as the SSD device and also maintaining a second data structure that indicates whether or not units in the slower storage device, such as the HDD, have been accessed at least a predetermined number of times. In one embodiment, the second data structure can be a queue of Bloom filters. | 08-22-2013 |
20130219118 | RESTORE IN CASCADED COPY ENVIRONMENT - In one aspect of the present description, handling multiple backup processes comprises detecting that a defined storage volume is present in a first cascade of storage volumes; detecting that the defined storage volume is present in a second cascade of storage volumes; receiving a data write for a last storage volume in the first cascade of storage volumes; and performing a cleaning data write on the defined storage volume in the second cascade of storage volumes, wherein the cleaning data write corresponds to the received data write. Other aspects may be utilized, depending upon the particular application. | 08-22-2013 |
20130238850 | System and Method for Storing Data and Accessing Stored Data - In one example of a method to access data, selected data stored in a virtual tape library (“VTL”) maintained in a selected format in a first non-tape storage medium is examined. One or more first directories and one more first files are identified within the selected data. One or more second directories, and one or more second files, comprising information identifying at least one of the one or more first files, are generated and are stored in a second non-tape storage medium. A request specifying at least one of the one or more second files is received from a device, and information identifying at least one of the one or more first files is retrieved from the specified second file. The at least one first file is accessed based at least in part on the information, and data from the at least one first file is provided to the device. Systems are also disclosed. Methods and systems to enable users without system administrator rights to access and store data in a backup storage system are also disclosed. | 09-12-2013 |
20130246702 | STORAGE CONTROL DEVICE, STORAGE CONTROL METHOD, AND RECORDING MEDIUM - A storage control device includes a memory configured to store a program; and a processor configured to execute a process based on the program. The process includes: writing additional data into an area reserved for allocation in a disk, detecting a volume of the data and the additional data written into the disk as a used amount of the disk, calculating an amount of increase or decrease in a current used amount of the disk with respect to the used amount of the disk previously detected, calculating a changed volume on the basis of a ratio between the amount of increase or decrease in the used amount of the disk and a volume of the area reserved for allocation, and allocating the area reserved for allocation to the disk so that the area reserved for allocation corresponding to the calculated changed volume is continued in the disk. | 09-19-2013 |
20130254477 | METHOD FOR REDUCING LATENCY OF ACCESSING DATA STORED IN A FILE SYSTEM ON A COMPUTER STORAGE DEVICE BY CACHING FILE SYSTEM PERMISSION INFORMATION IN THE COMPUTER STORAGE DEVICE - Systems and methods of storage device access are provided, where the operating system copies permission and mapping information to the storage array and/or to the application program's memory. The application program can then access the storage device without the operating system's intervention and the storage device will check whether the application has permission to access the data. As a result, in most cases, neither the operating system nor the file system needs to be invoked, and since both of them increase the amount of time required to access the data in the file system, considerable performance improvements are possible. | 09-26-2013 |
20130254478 | CHANNEL SUBSYSTEM SERVER TIME PROTOCOL COMMANDS - A protocol for communicating with the timing facility used in a data processing network to provide synchronization is provided via the execution of a machine instruction that accepts a plurality of commands. The interaction is provided through the use of message request blocks and their associated message response blocks. In this way timing parameters may be determined, modified and communicated. This makes it much easier for multiple servers or nodes in a data processing network to exist as a coordinated timing network and to thus more cooperatively operate on the larger yet identical data files. | 09-26-2013 |
20130254479 | METHOD FOR TRACKING CHANGES IN VIRTUAL DISKS - Systems and methods for tracking changes and performing backups to a storage device are provided. For virtual disks of a virtual machine, changes are tracked from outside the virtual machine in the kernel of a virtualization layer. The changes can be tracked in a lightweight fashion with a bitmap, with a finer granularity stored and tracked at intermittent intervals in persistent storage. Multiple backup applications can be allowed to accurately and efficiently backup a storage device. Each backup application can determine which block of the storage device has been updated since the last backup of a respective application. This change log is efficiently stored as a counter value for each block, where the counter is incremented when a backup is performed. The change log can be maintained with little impact on I/O by using a coarse bitmap to update the finer grained change log. | 09-26-2013 |
20130262758 | Systems and Methods for Tracking Block Ownership - Systems and methods for, among other things, providing a storage system which allows for efficient tracking of in-use storage disk blocks using “sharing nodes”. Disk blocks are a result of low-level formatting, which breaks up the total storage capacity into a set number of blocks. High-level formatting of the disk creates the file system, and part of the file system may create metadata known as inodes, and associate an inode with each file, such that an inode tracks the disk blocks in use by that file, pointing from the file to a set of blocks. An S-node generator creates another type of metadata, complementary to an inode, known as an S-node data structure, such that an S-node data structure is associated with a block, and tracks the set of inodes using the block, pointing from the disk blocks to inodes. | 10-03-2013 |
20130275668 | DATA PROCESSING METHOD AND DEVICE - A data processing method, which includes: writing, by an application module, data to be written in a data buffer, and sending a write request command and an address of the data buffer to a Virtual Host Bus Adapter (VHBA); sending, by the VHBA, the write request command and the address of the data buffer to a storage array module; and acquiring, by the storage array module, the data to be written from the data buffer, and then writing, into the storage medium, the data to be written according to the address of the data to be written into the storage medium. In the embodiments, it is only required to transfer the address of the data buffer and the data to be written when writing the data, so memory copy is reduced and system performance is improved. | 10-17-2013 |
20130282976 | SELF-PROTECTING MASS STORAGE SYSTEMS AND METHODS - Method and systems directed to implementing a primary storage scheme and a secondary storage scheme on a common storage system are disclosed. One such system includes at least one storage device, a primary data storage module and a secondary data storage module. Each of the storage devices includes a plurality of storage mediums. Further, the primary data storage module is configured to store primary data in the storage device(s) in accordance with a primary storage method employing a first resiliency scheme. In addition, the secondary storage module is configured to store secondary data based on the primary data in the storage device(s) in accordance with a secondary storage method employing a second resiliency scheme such that a resiliency of recovering information composed by the primary data is at least cumulative of a resiliency of the first resiliency scheme and a resiliency of the second resiliency scheme. | 10-24-2013 |
20130290623 | COMPUTER AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING COMPUTER - Recently, along with the increase in the importance of data protection, there are increasing demands for constructing a computer system capable of protecting data even when widespread disaster occurs. In order to reduce the risk of data loss even when widespread disaster occurs, the present invention computes the risk of data loss for each replication relationship of data (combination of storage subsystems storing the same data), and allocates data so that the risks of losing data of all replication relationships are optimized. | 10-31-2013 |
20130290624 | TRANSFERRING LEARNING METADATA BETWEEN STORAGE SERVERS HAVING CLUSTERS VIA COPY SERVICES OPERATIONS ON A SHARED VIRTUAL LOGICAL UNIT THAT STORES THE LEARNING METADATA - A virtual logical unit that stores learning metadata is allocated in a first storage server having a first plurality of clusters, wherein the learning metadata indicates a type of storage device in which selected data of the first plurality of clusters of the first storage server are stored. A copy services command is received to copy the selected data from the first storage server to a second storage server having a second plurality of clusters. The virtual logical unit that stores the learning metadata is copied, from the first storage server to the second storage server, via the copy services command. Selected logical units corresponding to the selected data are copied from the first storage server to the second storage server, and the learning metadata is used to place the selected data in the type of storage device indicated by the learning metadata. | 10-31-2013 |
20130290625 | MAPPING LOCATIONS OF LOGICAL VOLUME RECORDS ON A PHYSICAL STACKED VOLUME - A system, method and computer program product for accessing host data records stored in a virtual tape storage (VTS) system. The computer program product includes a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith. The computer readable program code includes computer readable program code configured to receive a mount request to access at least one host data record in a VTS system; computer readable program code configured to determine a starting logical block ID (SLBID) corresponding to the at least one requested host data record; computer readable program code configured to determine a physical block ID (PBID) that corresponds to the SLBID; computer readable program code configured to access a physical block on a magnetic tape medium corresponding to the PBID; and computer readable program code configured to output at least the physical block without outputting an entire logical volume that the physical block is stored to. | 10-31-2013 |
20130297867 | ITERATIVE DISK UPLOAD BASED ON DIFFERENCING DISK FORMAT - Updating a remote storage data set. A method includes, from a local service providing a hint of a remote storage data set that may exist at a remote service. An indication is received from the remote service that the remote storage data set exists at the remote service. The method includes requesting that the remote storage data set be copied at the remote service to a copy of the remote storage data set. A change to be applied to the copy of the remote storage data set is sent to the remote service. | 11-07-2013 |
20130297868 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MANAGING POWER GRID DATA - A system and method of managing time-series data for smart grids is disclosed. Data is collected from a plurality of sensors. An index is modified for a newly created block. A one disk operation per read or write is performed. The one disk operation per read includes accessing and looking up the index to locate the data without movement of an arm of the disk, and obtaining the data. The one disk operation per write includes searching the disk for free space, calculating an offset, modifying the index, and writing the data contiguously into a block of the disk the index points to. | 11-07-2013 |
20130297869 | STORAGE SYSTEM WITH LOAD BALANCING MECHANISM AND METHOD OF OPERATION THEREOF - A method of operation of a storage system includes: establishing a first virtual disk volume including allocating a first portion and a first low performance storage capacity; generating a usage statistics for the first virtual disk volume; and calculating a first trend line for adjusting the first portion and the first low performance storage capacity based on the usage statistics. | 11-07-2013 |
20130304985 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS OF MEDIA MANAGEMENT, SUCH AS MANAGEMENT OF MEDIA TO AND FROM A MEDIA STORAGE LIBRARY, INCLUDING REMOVABLE MEDIA - A system and method for determining media to be exported out of a media library is described. In some examples, the system determines a media component to be exported, determines the media component is in the media library for a specific process, and exports the media component after the process is completed. | 11-14-2013 |
20130311718 | SYSTEM AND METHOD OF MAKING GOLDEN MASTER - A system and method of making golden master is disclosed. A user image is burned to a hard disk drive. The user image includes a first user partition and a second user partition. A first user partition record pointing to the first user partition and a second user partition record pointing to the second user partition are stored in the disk partition table (DPT) of the hard disk drive. A DPT clearing module removes the first and second user partition records from the DPT. A diagnostic partition is established between the starting sector address and the ending sector address of the first user partition in the hard disk drive. A diagnostic partition record pointing to the diagnostic partition is written into the DPT. A partition record resuming module adds back the first user partition record into the DPT. | 11-21-2013 |
20130318295 | DISK STORAGE APPARATUS AND WRITE METHOD - According to one embodiment, a disk storage apparatus includes a write controller and a refresh controller. The write controller is configured to perform shingled write, writing data on a disk, using, as write units, data areas including groups of tracks. The refresh controller is configured to count the number of times the shingled write has been performed in a data area adjacent to the inner or outer circumference of a data area, in accordance with a weighting value set on the basis of a shingled write direction, and to instructs that a refresh process be performed, when the number of times counted exceeds a threshold value. | 11-28-2013 |
20130318296 | STORAGE SYSTEM AND DATA TRANSFER METHOD OF STORAGE SYSTEM - One embodiment provides a storage system and a data transfer method of a storage system, and particularly a storage system and a data transfer method of a storage system that can achieve higher data I/O performance even when hardware resources are limited. | 11-28-2013 |
20130346687 | MODULE SELF-DISCOVERY IN A STORAGE LIBRARY - Embodiments include systems and methods for detecting logical presence and location of modules, detecting physical presence and location of modules, and mapping the logical and physical locations together for use by the storage library. For example, when an expansion module is installed, it is connected to a network and it reports its logical presence and logical network location to a base controller in the base module. A robotic mechanism is used to trigger one or more presence sensors to detect physical presence and location of the installed expansion module. The base controller or another component generates and stores a mapping between the logical location and the physical location. The storage library can use the mapping to translate between logical and physical functionality. | 12-26-2013 |
20140013046 | MAINTAINING SNAPSHOT AND ACTIVE FILE SYSTEM METADATA IN AN ON-DISK STRUCTURE OF A FLE SYSTEM - An on-disk structure of a file system has the capability to maintain snapshot and file system metadata on a storage system. The on-disk structure arranges file system data sequentially on disk within regions, wherein each region comprises a predetermined amount of disk space represented by blocks. The snapshot and file system metadata is maintained within level 1 (L1) indirect blocks of the on-disk structure. Each L1 indirect block describes (i.e., represents) a corresponding region of the on-disk structure of the file system; in the case of an active region, e.g., an L1 indirect block represents an active file data portion of a large file. The L1 indirect block that references an active region also performs file block number-to-disk block number mapping for the region. | 01-09-2014 |
20140019680 | DATA STORAGE SYSTEM, METHOD OF WRITING TO STORAGE IN THE DATA STORAGE SYSTEM, HARD DISK AND METHOD OF FORMING THE HARD DISK - In various embodiments, a data storage system may be provided. The data storage system may include a storage. The storage may include a first portion and a second portion. The data storage system may further include a determination circuit configured to determine whether to write data to the first portion or to the second portion. The data storage system may also include a control circuit configured to control writing the data to the first portion in a log structured manner. | 01-16-2014 |
20140032833 | Dynamic Disk Space Management In A File System - Dynamic disk space management in a file system, including: assigning, by a disk utilization manager upon creation of each file in the file system, a unique identifier to the file; tracking, by the disk utilization manager for each file in the file system, file characteristics in dependence upon the unique identifier of the file; prioritizing, by the disk utilization manager in dependence upon the tracked file characteristics and a predefined set of prioritization criteria, files in the file system; tracking, by the disk utilization manager, utilization of disk drive space; and, upon utilization of disk drive space exceeding a predetermined maximum threshold, reducing, by the disk utilization manager in dependence upon the priorities of files, disk drive space utilization to no greater than a predetermined capacity. | 01-30-2014 |
20140052908 | METHODS AND STRUCTURE FOR NORMALIZING STORAGE PERFORMANCE ACROSS A PLURALITY OF LOGICAL VOLUMES - Methods and structure are disclosed for normalizing storage performance across a plurality of logical volumes. One embodiment is a storage controller. The storage controller is adapted to couple with a plurality of host systems and a storage device. The storage controller is adapted to receive one or more requests to create logical volumes for the plurality of hose systems, and adapted to identify a plurality of performance zones for storage areas of the storage device. The performance zones exhibit different performance criteria for one or more of: reading data from the storage device and writing data to the storage device. The storage controller is further adapted to allocate storage from each of the plurality of performance zones for each of the plurality of logical volumes such that the performance criteria for accessing the storage device is distributed substantially uniformly across the plurality of logical volumes. | 02-20-2014 |
20140052909 | CONTROL SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR STORAGE CONFIGURATION - A control system for storage configuration of a first computer includes a switch apparatus and a storage module. The switch apparatus determines whether a second computer or a hard disk drive (HDD) is connected to a first interface of the switch apparatus. The second computer accesses the storage module of the first computer in response to the storage module being idle. The HDD is added to the storage of the first computer to expand the storage space of the first computer in response to the HDD being connected to the first interface. | 02-20-2014 |
20140059290 | DISTRIBUTED CONTENT STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL - Distributed content storage and retrieval is disclosed. A set of features associated with a content object is determined. A storage location is selected to perform an operation with respect to the content object, from a plurality of storage locations comprising a distributed content storage system, based at least in part on probability data indicating a degree to which the selected storage location is associated statistically with a feature comprising the set of features determined to be associated with the content object. | 02-27-2014 |
20140082275 | SERVER, HOST AND METHOD FOR READING BASE IMAGE THROUGH STORAGE AREA NETWORK - A server, a host and a method for reading the base image through a storage area network (SAN) are provided. A setting host builds a parent virtual hard disk (VHD) in a storage server through an SAN. The parent VHD is used as a base image to build a difference VHD in a local disk by the service host. After a virtual machine (VM) operated on the service host mounts the difference VHD and when the VM executes a target program, the service host reads original data in the parent VHD through the SAN and accesses difference data generated by the target program in the difference VHD in the local disk. The server, the host and the method can configure base image and difference VHD on different devices, and can achieve the effect of increasing access performance and number of supported VMs of the storage server. | 03-20-2014 |
20140089579 | INFORMATION PROCESSING SYSTEM, RECORDING MEDIUM, AND INFORMATION PROCESSING METHOD - An information processing system that sets, coupling information defining a logically coupling corresponding to a first disk, to an uncoupled state indicating that a first logical machine associated with the first disk and the first disk are not coupled, in response to a request to stop the first logical machine, and releases a coupling between the first logical machine and the first disk based on the uncoupled state set in the coupling information. | 03-27-2014 |
20140108721 | DATA STORAGE DEVICE AND OPERATING METHOD THEREOF - A data storage device include a storage memory, an information memory suitable for storing disk information and/or file information transmitted from a host device, and a controller suitable for processing a request on the data memory, which is received from the host device, based on the disk information and/or the file information stored in the information memory. | 04-17-2014 |
20140115250 | PARALLEL ACCESS VIRTUAL TAPE LIBRARY AND DRIVES - A system and method described herein allows a virtual tape library (VTL) to perform multiple simultaneous or parallel read/write or access sessions with disk drives or other storage media, particularly when subject to a sequential SCSI-compliant layer or traditional limitations of VTLs. In one embodiment, a virtualizing or transaction layer can establish multiple sessions with one or more clients to concurrently satisfy the read/write requests of those clients for physical storage resources. A table or other data structure tracks or maps the sessions associated with each client and the location of data on the physical storage devices. | 04-24-2014 |
20140122792 | STORAGE SYSTEM AND ACCESS ARBITRATION METHOD - According to the prior art, when requesters having different I/O access processing abilities compete when accessing a target, latency is extended via accesses from a requester having a lower I/O access performance, according to which the number of I/Os issued per unit time (data processing quantity) cannot be increased, and the processing performance of the system cannot be improved. According to the present invention, when requesters compete in accessing a target, the request having a lower requester performance (having a longer processing time per single I/O) is processed (started) in a prioritized manner. Thereby, the number of I/O processes per unit time can be increased, and the processing performance of the whole storage system can be improved. | 05-01-2014 |
20140122793 | MAGNETIC DISK DEVICE AND DATA WRITING METHOD - A magnetic disk device has a magnetic head, a magnetic disk that includes a plurality of data regions and a plurality of media cache regions associated with the data regions, and a controller configured to control the magnetic head to write data received from an external device in the media cache regions and then write back the data written in the media cache regions to the data regions associated with the media cache regions. | 05-01-2014 |
20140122794 | CONTROL CIRCUIT FOR HARD DISKS - A control circuit is connected between a motherboard and a number of hard disks for controlling power and data transmission of the number of hard disks. Each hard disk corresponds to one power control unit and one data control unit. The power control unit controls power transmission to the corresponding hard disk. The data control unit controls data transmission of the corresponding hard disk. When one hard disk is selected as an operation object to enter a disable state, the data control unit cuts off data transmission of the selected hard disk before the power control unit cuts off power transmission of the operation object. When the hard disk is selected as an operation object to enter an enable state, the power control unit resets the power transmission to the operation object before the data control unit resets data transmission of the operation object. | 05-01-2014 |
20140149658 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MULTIPATH INPUT/OUTPUT CONFIGURATION - In accordance with these and other embodiments of the present disclosure, a method may include retrieving recommended settings for input/output communications for one or more operating systems executing on one or more modular information handling systems disposed in a chassis configured to receive a plurality of modular information handling systems and a plurality of modular information handling resources including one or more storage controllers and a plurality of disk drives. The method may also include enumerating one or more logical units, each logical unit comprising one or more of plurality of disk drives and associated with the one or more storage controllers. The method may further include based on the recommended settings and enumeration of the one or more logical units, generating preferred input/output paths between the one or more modular information handling systems and the one or more logical units. | 05-29-2014 |
20140149659 | IDENTIFYING REDUNDANT DATA FOR DISK IMAGE STREAMING - Redundant data in a streaming disk image is identified using commands to indicate unused disk blocks, such as TRIM/UNMAP commands. A TRIM/UNMAP layer is added between an operating system and a disk driver to support the use of TRIM/UNMAP commands. Using the TRIM/UNMAP layer, blocks of a streamed disk image that are unallocated by the operating system are identified. The identified unallocated blocks are streamed to a server for analysis and storage. | 05-29-2014 |
20140149660 | IDENTIFYING REDUNDANT DATA FOR DISK IMAGE STREAMING - Redundant data in a streaming disk image is identified using commands to indicate unused disk blocks, such as TRIM/UNMAP commands. A TRIM/UNMAP layer is added between an operating system and a disk driver to support the use of TRIM/UNMAP commands. Using the TRIM/UNMAP layer, blocks of a streamed disk image that are unallocated by the operating system are identified. The identified unallocated blocks are streamed to a server for analysis and storage. | 05-29-2014 |
20140149661 | INFORMATION CARRIER COMPRISING ACCESS INFORMATION - An apparatus for reading out information from an information carrier includes a reading unit for reading out user information and access information from the information carrier. The user information are stored in a first region of the information carrier and the access information are stored in a second region of the information carrier. The apparatus further includes an access controller for providing access to the user information in dependence on the access information. The access information are stored in a first portion of the second region, and the dummy information are stored in a second portion of the second region according to a similar format as used for storing the access information. | 05-29-2014 |
20140181397 | SYNCHRONOUS MANAGEMENT OF DISK FLUSH REQUESTS - In a process for migrating a virtual machine's storage from a source disk to a destination disk, a virtual machine monitor (VMM) records a source-generation count representing contents on the source disk, a writes-mirrored value representing a number of writes replicated from the source disk to the destination disk at a time contents of the disks were equal, a flush-request value representing the source-generation count at a time a flush is requested by a guest operating system of the virtual machine, and a writes-flushed value representing the writes-mirrored value at a time of a last flush of the destination disk. Upon identification of a steady state, the VMM sets the writes-mirrored value to the recorded source-generation count. The VMM determines if a request to flush the source disk has been issued by the guest, sets the flush-request value to the source-generation count at a time of the flush request, and flushes the destination disk upon determining that the flush-request value is greater than the writes-flushed value and the flush-request value is less than or equal to the writes-mirrored value. | 06-26-2014 |
20140189233 | METHOD FOR OPTIMIZING CLEANING OF MAPS IN FLASHCOPY CASCADES CONTAINING INCREMENTAL MAPS - A method for optimizing cleaning of maps in storage cascades includes determining whether a target disk of a map contains data unavailable to a downstream disk from an upstream disk in a cascade and detect whether the downstream disk has a copy of the data. Additionally, the method includes copying the data from the target disk to the downstream disk, if the target disk of the map contains data unavailable to the downstream disk from the upstream disk and the downstream disk does not have the copy of the data. Furthermore, the method includes copying the data from the target disk to the downstream disk, if the target disk of the map does not contain data unavailable to the downstream disk from the upstream disk or the downstream disk does have the copy of the data. Moreover, the method includes removing the map from the cascade. | 07-03-2014 |
20140195731 | PHYSICAL LINK MANAGEMENT - Disclosed is a storage system that includes a physical disk and a storage controller. The storage controller is configured to use a first physical link and a second physical link of a serial attached SCSI (SAS) wide port to communicate with the physical disk. Based on a dynamic system property, the storage controller is re-configured to use at least a third physical link of the SAS wide port to communicate with physical disk. Examples of the dynamic system property include load on the SAS wide port, a failure condition, or premium feature enablement. | 07-10-2014 |
20140201437 | Modifying Logical Addressing at a Requestor Level - Method and apparatus for managing data in a memory. In accordance with some embodiments, a control circuit monitors access operations upon a set of data blocks in a memory of a data storage device. The data blocks have a first logical address by which the data blocks are identified by a requestor coupled to the data storage device. When the monitored access operations indicate a potential data degradation condition may arise with the data blocks, the requestor assigns a different, second logical address to the data block. | 07-17-2014 |
20140237178 | STORAGE RESOURCE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS - A technique to adjust storage resource acknowledgments and a method thereof is Provided. In one aspect, a request for an operation associated with data is received, and it is determined whether the operation has attained a particular state. In a further aspect, the particular state is adjustable. In another example, the operation has reached the particular state, completion of the operation is acknowledged. | 08-21-2014 |
20140244926 | Dedicated Memory Structure for Sector Spreading Interleaving - The present disclosure is directed to a method for managing a memory. The method includes the step of receiving data, the data including a plurality of sectors. The method also includes the step of dividing each sector of the plurality of sectors into a plurality of data units. A further step of the method involves interleaving the plurality of data units to yield a plurality of interleaved data units. The method also includes the step of writing the plurality of interleaved data units to a disk. An additional step of the method is to de-spread the plurality of interleaved data units to yield at least one sector of the plurality of sectors. | 08-28-2014 |
20140250267 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING DYNAMIC HYBRID STORAGE - The present invention relates to dynamic hybrid storage. In particular, the present invention relates to utilization of a plurality of storage devices, recording media, or memories available to selectively store data, wherein the storage of the data is load balanced on the plurality of storage devices, recording media, or memories depending upon the nature of the data to be stored, the frequency of use of the data, and/or the type of data. | 09-04-2014 |
20140281212 | ON-DISK OPERATIONS ON FRAGMENTS TO SUPPORT HUGE DATA SIZES - Data records of a data set can be stored in a plurality of main part fragments retained in on-disk storage. A size of the data set can be compared to an available size of main system memory. All of the plurality of main part fragments can be fully loaded into the main system memory when the available size of the main system memory is larger than the size of the data set. Alternatively, one or more of the of main part fragments can be paged into the main system memory on demand in response to a data access request when the available size of the main system memory is smaller than the size of the data set and the data access request can be satisfied by providing access to a subset of the main part fragments, or access can be provided directly to the on-disk main part fragments when the data access request involves random access for projection in the data set and the available size of the main system memory is smaller than the size of the data set. | 09-18-2014 |
20140281213 | APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR PROLONGING SERVICE LIFE OF SOLID-STATE MEMORY DEVICE IN A DIGITAL VIDEO RECORDER - A method for prolonging the service life of a solid state drive. The method includes providing for use with a digital video recorder, a solid state drive (SSD) for time-shifted viewing of media content, changing the SSD from a first state to a second state based on a functional command from the user, and repeating changes between the first state and the second state, an accumulation of which over time results in a prolonged service life. A device designed to prolong the service life of a solid state drive is also provided. | 09-18-2014 |
20140281214 | TOTAL QUOTAS FOR DATA STORAGE SYSTEM - Quotas are tracked for user usage of hard disk drive space and offline backup storage space. The quota is enforced against the total space utilized by a user, not just high tier hard drive space usage. When data is migrated from hard disk drive space to backup storage space, data metadata is updated to reflect data kept offline for the user. As such, when users request to store new data, the data usage of hard disk space and backup storage space is determined from the metadata that reflects both data types, and the total storage spaced for the user is used to grant or reject the user's request to store more data in the system. | 09-18-2014 |
20140281215 | STORAGE METHOD AND STORAGE APPARATUS - The storage method according to the present invention includes: partitioning raw data into several data blocks; calculating, according to a preset mapping algorithm, three consecutive virtual storage partitions to which a first data block is mapped, where a virtual storage partition is a partition obtained by dividing a virtual storage area, each of the virtual storage partitions is mapped to one physical disk, physical disks have consecutive sequence numbers, and sequence numbers of three physical disks that are mapped to the three consecutive virtual storage partitions are in an arithmetic sequence with a non-zero common difference; and storing, according to the calculated three consecutive virtual storage partitions and the three physical disks that are mapped to the three consecutive virtual storage partitions, the first data block and a first copy and a second copy of the first data block in the three physical disks in sequence. | 09-18-2014 |
20140325140 | AUTOMATIC CREATION, DEPLOYMENT, AND UPGRADE OF DISK IMAGES - A computer installs an operating system. The computer receives, in a logical partition (LPAR) via a management network, a deploy program configured to download a disk image from an image repository and to write the disk image to a first direct access storage device (DASD) of the LPAR. The disk image includes an operating system, applications, and management components including an upgrade program. The computer receives, in the LPAR via a data network, the disk image, and writes, to the first DASD of the LPAR, the disk image. The computer boots the LPAR into the operating system of the disk image written to the first DASD, and determines whether the installed operating system is a deployment or an upgrade. | 10-30-2014 |
20140325141 | TRIM SUPPORT FOR A SOLID-STATE DRIVE IN A VIRTUALIZED ENVIRONMENT - A computer system that employs a solid-state memory device as a physical storage resource includes a hypervisor that is capable of supporting TRIM commands issued by virtual machines running in the computer system. When a virtual machine issues a TRIM command to its corresponding virtual storage device to invalidate data stored therein, the TRIM command is received at an interface layer in the hypervisor that translates the TRIM command to a SCSI command known as UMMAP. A SCSI virtualization layer converts the UNMAP command to a file system command to delete portions of the virtual storage device that is maintained as a file in the hypervisor's file system. Upon receiving the delete commands, the hypervisor's file system driver generates a TRIM command to invalidate the data stored in the solid-state memory device at locations corresponding to the portions of the file that are to be deleted. | 10-30-2014 |
20140359210 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING ACCESS TO A DISK APPARATUS IN AN INFORMATION PROCESSING SYSTEM - An information processing apparatus including plural operation processing apparatuses and plural disk apparatuses, which are connected to each other via a switch. A management apparatus provides, in response to a loan request from a terminal, a first operation resource and a first storage resource of a first processing apparatus in which a first operation processing apparatus and a first disk apparatus are connected with each other through the switch, to the terminal through a network. The management apparatus releases the connection between the first operation processing apparatus and the first disk apparatus through the switch in response to a return request from the terminal and provides the first storage resource and a second operation resource of a second processing apparatus in which a second operation processing apparatus and the first disk apparatus are connected with each other through the switch, to the terminal through the network. | 12-04-2014 |
20140365724 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONVERTING DISK PARTITION FORMAT - An electronic device includes a hard disk drive for data storage. One or more programs are executed to cause the electronic device to perform a disk partition format conversion procedure. The procedure includes reading a first disk partition table (DPT) from the HDD of a first disk partition format, converting the first DPT into a second DPT in compliance with a second disk partition format, converting the HDD of the first disk partition format into the second disk partition format, and writing the second DPT to the HDD of the second disk partition format. | 12-11-2014 |
20150058552 | LOG DATA STORE THAT STORES DATA ACROSS A PLURALITY OF STORAGE DEVICES USING NON-DISJOINT LAYERS - Storing data records within a log data store is provided. The log data store that stores data records within a plurality of successive non-disjoint layers inserted across a plurality of different types of data storage devices associated with a data processing system is generated. A first non-disjoint layer of the plurality of successive non-disjoint layers is inserted within a main memory device. A set of intermediate non-disjoint layers of the plurality of successive non-disjoint layers is inserted within a set of storage-class memory devices. A last non-disjoint layer of the plurality of successive non-disjoint layers is inserted within a hard disk drive. A size of each successive non-disjoint layer in the plurality of successive non-disjoint layers is increased exponentially. The data records are organized into the plurality of successive non-disjoint layers of the log data store inserted across the plurality of different types of data storage devices. | 02-26-2015 |
20150067250 | MULTI-CORE HARDWARE SEMAPHORE - A microprocessor includes a plurality of processing cores, a resource shared by the plurality of processing cores, and a hardware semaphore readable and writeable by each of the plurality of processing cores within a non-architectural address space. Each of the plurality of processing cores is configured to write to the hardware semaphore to request ownership of the shared resource and to read from the hardware semaphore to determine whether or not the ownership was obtained. Each of the plurality of processing cores is configured to write to the hardware semaphore to relinquish ownership of the shared resource. | 03-05-2015 |
20150074347 | SECURE SPIN TORQUE TRANSFER MAGNETIC RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY (STTMRAM) - A magnetic memory device includes a main memory made of magnetic memory, the main memory and further includes a parameter area used to store parameters used to authenticate data. Further, the magnetic memory device has parameter memory that maintains a protected zone used to store protected zone parameters, and an authentication zone used to store authentication parameters, the protection zone parameters and the authentication parameters being associated with the data that requires authentication. Upon modification of any of the parameters stored in the parameter memory by a user, a corresponding location of the parameter area of the main memory is also modified. | 03-12-2015 |
20150134899 | REACTIONARY BACKUP SCHEDULING AROUND MEANTIME BETWEEN FAILURES OF DATA ORIGINATION - A processor-implemented method for providing a reactionary backup scheduling of a hard disk drive is provided. The method may include monitoring a disk usage of the hard disk drive and comparing the disk usage to an MTBF of the hard disk drive. The method may also include monitoring usage of at least one file of a plurality of files stored on the hard disk drive. The method may further include initiating the reactionary backup scheduling based on the comparing of the disk usage to the MTBF and the monitoring of the usage of the at least one file in the plurality of files. | 05-14-2015 |
20150317092 | DISK ARRAY SYSTEM AND CABLE INFORMATION SETTING METHOD - There is provided a disk array system including an EXP (Expander) for connecting a plurality of memory devices in a daisy chain fashion, through a plurality of cables in which CC (electrical signal cable) and AOC (optical signal cable) are mixed. The EXP accesses a cable built-in MEM, determines whether the cable is CC or AOC from the acquired CABLE information, sets the appropriate protocol and parameters based on a determination result, identifies the EXP requiring a frame-to-frame connection based on an SAS address, and acquires the CABLE information only for the cable to be connected to the EXP to make an appropriate setting. | 11-05-2015 |
20150324130 | SENSITIVE DATA FILE ATTRIBUTE - Data on a storage device may be marked as sensitive data and this marked sensitive automatically destroyed (e.g., scrubbed) upon erasure. For example, when sensitive data is erased, new data may be immediately written over the erased sensitive data. To destroy the erased data, random characters and/or a fixed sequence of characters may be written over the erased data. The storage device, the operating system, and/or other software may share tasks related to tracking and scrubbing sensitive data. Scrubbing may include writing a fixed sequence, such as zeroes, or writing random characters of data. | 11-12-2015 |
20150324146 | FILE QUARANTINE AND METHOD AND APPARATUS - The present disclosure provides a file quarantine method, apparatus, and system. The method includes: receiving by an input/output (I/O) object manager, a change operation request from a first process for a volume device in a file system; and if it is determined that the first process is a process inside a sandbox, redirecting the change operation request to a virtual volume device corresponding to the volume device which is pointed to by the change operation request, and sending the redirected change operation request to the I/O object manager. The foregoing solution may implement file quarantine at a volume device level. | 11-12-2015 |
20150355860 | EXTENT-LEVEL RESERVE AND RELEASE FOR A DIRECT ACCESS STORAGE DEVICE (DASD) VOLUMES - In one embodiment, a computer program product for managing a reserve command includes a computer readable storage medium having program code embodied therewith, the program code readable and/or executable by a processor to receive, by the processor, a request to access a data set on one or more volumes of at least one direct access storage device (DASD), the request including a reserve command, and each of the one or more volumes including a consecutive set of one or more tracks of the at least one DASD, and reserve one or more extents of the at least one DASD while reserving less than a volume of the at least one DASD and not allowing any other entity than an entity which requested the reserve to access the one or more extents of the at least one DASD that have been reserved. | 12-10-2015 |
20150356018 | INFORMATION PROCESSING DEVICE AND METHOD FOR MANAGING FILE - A media drive is loaded with a ROM medium on which a plurality of files constituting an application are recorded. A readout block reads out data from the media drive. A memory temporarily stores the read-out data. A providing block provides the data stored in the memory to game software. A recording processing block records the data stored in the memory in an auxiliary storage device. | 12-10-2015 |
20150363109 | CONTROLLER INTERFACE FOR OPERATION OF MULTIPLE STORAGE DRIVES - A mass data storage system includes a number of communicatively coupled storage drives powered by one or more power supplies. Shared control electronics selectively connect power and a data signal to a select storage drive via instructions within a control signal received by the common controller. Instructions for selectively powering and connecting the data signal are transmitted over a first signal path to a first controller of the shared electronics. Responsive to successful execution of the instructions, a drive access command is sent over a second different signal path to a second controller of the shared electronics. | 12-17-2015 |
20150370503 | EFFECTIVELY LIMITLESS APPARENT FREE SPACE ON STORAGE DEVICE - A primary physical storage device has effectively limitless apparent free space. Responsive to receiving a request to dynamically allocate an amount of desired free space on the primary device to store new data on the primary device, and responsive to determining that an amount of actual free space on the primary device is insufficient to permit such allocation, existing data stored on the primary device is moved to a secondary storage device. The first existing data appears to still be stored on the primary device. Responsive to receiving a request to retrieve existing data from the primary device, and to determining that the existing data has been moved to the secondary device, the existing data is moved back to the primary device. The existing data was originally stored on the primary device, and is currently stored on the primary device or has been moved to the secondary device. | 12-24-2015 |
20160004442 | MANAGING A STORAGE SYSTEM - A method, system, and computer program product for managing a storage facility is disclosed. The methodology detects a potential file overlay when performing a file transfer. When a file is common to multiple systems and resides on a shared system storage volume, potential file corruption due to a data transfer request is detected and then able to be prevented. Hardware identifiers such as Universal Unique Identifiers (UUIDs) are used in managing a write of a file to shared system storage. By comparing multiple hardware identifiers, a determination is made as to whether to process the write of the file. If the hardware identifiers mismatch, the write is processed. If the hardware identifiers match, a potential file overlay is detected. Because of the potential file overlay, the write is stopped or a failure notification is returned. | 01-07-2016 |
20160004455 | METHOD OF CONTROLLING SPLITTING OF DATA, AND SYSTEM - A method includes: obtaining access states of a plurality of data when accessing to a first target data of the plurality of data is executed, respective data of the plurality of data being split into a certain data and other data, the certain data being stored in a first storage apparatus and the other data being stored in a second storage apparatus; calculating a splitting ratio for the first target data based on the access states and an available capacity of the first storage apparatus; splitting the first target data into a first piece of data and a second piece of data in accordance with the calculated splitting ratio; storing the first piece of data in the first storage apparatus; and storing the second piece of data in the second storage apparatus. | 01-07-2016 |
20160026395 | MEASURING PERFORMANCE OF DATA STORAGE SYSTEMS - A combination of a host system and data storage system that enables accurate performance testing of the storage subsystem is disclosed. In one embodiment, a driver of a host system receives a command message from a host system application. The command message enables the driver to generate and communicate one or more storage access commands to the data storage system. The driver then receives one or more execution results from the data storage system and determines and communicates the total execution time of the one or more storage access commands to the host system application. When the host system application determines performance of the data storage system the undesirable impact of the communication overhead between the host system application and the driver is minimized. Accordingly, accurate performance measurements of data storage systems are obtained. | 01-28-2016 |
20160048327 | DATA DISTRIBUTION AMONG MULTIPLE MANAGED MEMORIES - A system and method are disclosed for managing memory interleaving patterns in a system with multiple memory devices. The system includes a processor configured to access multiple memory devices. The method includes receiving a first plurality of data blocks, and then storing the first plurality of data blocks using an interleaving pattern in which successive blocks of the first plurality of data blocks are stored in each of the memory devices. The method also includes receiving a second plurality of data blocks, and then storing successive blocks of the second plurality of data blocks in a first memory device of the multiple memory devices. | 02-18-2016 |
20160117113 | UNIQUELY NAMING STORAGE DEVICES IN A GLOBAL STORAGE ENVIRONMENT - The present invention uniquely names storage devices in a global storage environment with hierarchical storage domains. In particular, according to one or more embodiments of the present invention a storage device (e.g., a disk) is connected at a particular location within the global storage environment. That particular location is associated with a path of each of one or more hierarchical storage domains in which the storage device is located. Accordingly, a name is assigned to the storage device that is the path of the hierarchical storage domains in which the storage device is located. | 04-28-2016 |
20160117115 | DISK PARTITION STITCHING AND REBALANCING USING A PARTITION TABLE - Embodiments are directed to dynamically changing partitions size for a partition in a storage device and to transferring storage space between partitions in a storage device. A computer system identifies portions of free space on a storage device, where the storage device has at least one partition whose offset and length are stored in a partition table. The computer system determines where the identified free space is located relative to other storage locations on the storage device. The computer system further determines that the partition is to be dynamically resized to a new size which is specified by one or more offset and length values, and based on where the identified free space is located, dynamically transforms the partition into a logical partition, and resizes the logical partition, the logical partition's offset and length values being updated in the partition table to include the new specified offset and length values. | 04-28-2016 |
20160124678 | METHOD OF MOVING FILES IN HIERARCHICAL STORAGE SYSTEM - A method for moving files in a hierarchical storage system having a primary storage and a secondary storage including a sequential storage device from the primary storage to the secondary storage includes obtaining a predetermined file size to be written to the secondary storage, extracting, from a plurality of files in the primary storage, a file not stored in the secondary storage and having the oldest last access time, estimating a file size of the file having the oldest last access time on the secondary storage if the file having the oldest last access time is written to the secondary storage, and selecting the file having the oldest last access time as a file to be moved to the secondary storage as long as the estimated file size does not exceed the predetermined file size to be written to the secondary storage. | 05-05-2016 |
20160124681 | TRACKING HOT AREAS OF DISK DRIVE - Methods, apparatuses, systems, and devices are described for determining use of areas of a disk drive. In one method, a score of an area node of the disk drive may be increased each time the area node is accessed during a time interval of a series of time intervals. When each time interval elapses, each existing score of the area nodes (e.g., scores of area nodes that have non-zero scores) may be decreased. Further, after being decreased, each existing score may be saved. In such a manner, a time series analysis of data accesses may be implemented. The increases in score may account for the number of accesses during a given interval, and the decreases in score may account for time passage (e.g., time-weighting the scores). Thus, more frequent accesses and more recent accesses result in higher accumulated scores for the corresponding area nodes. | 05-05-2016 |
20160139824 | TECHNIQUE FOR PROVIDING INFORMATION ON TIME TO READ A FILE - An information providing system and method, including a computer, for providing time taken to read a file, which includes an acquisition unit. The acquisition unit obtains information on a recording position of a file when the file is recorded in a storage device. A recording unit writes information on the obtained recording position to an index referred to access the file. A calculation unit calculates time taken to read the file using the information on the recording position written to the index in response to a request to obtain the time taken to read the file, and providing the calculated time to a requester that requests the time. | 05-19-2016 |
20160147462 | VARIED PRIORITIZATION OF HARD DRIVE STORAGE REGIONS - To provide enhanced operation of data storage devices and systems, various systems, apparatuses, methods, and software are provided herein. In a first example, a data storage device is provided. The data storage device includes storage media that stores data, and a storage control system configured to identify a region of the storage media as a hot region which is given priority for read operations occurring in the data storage device. The storage control system configured to monitor for a storage event associated with the hot region, and responsive to an occurrence of at least the storage event, the storage control system configured to select another region of the storage media as the hot region. | 05-26-2016 |
20160188249 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ERASING A STORAGE MEDIUM - A method and system for erasing data stored in a storage medium of a computer system is disclosed. According to one embodiment, a booting parameter of an operating system of the computer system is changed to a data erasure program. After the computer system is rebooted, the data erasure program is launched, and a disk drive of the computer system is erased by overwriting with a pattern of data. The data erasure program runs in a native mode of the operating system prior to executing a file system check routine of the operating system. | 06-30-2016 |
20160196072 | RANDOM READ PERFORMANCE OF OPTICAL MEDIA LIBRARY | 07-07-2016 |
20160196084 | HARD DISK DEVICE WITH REDUCED POWER CONSUMPTION AND POWER CONSUMPTION REDUCING METHOD THEREOF | 07-07-2016 |
20160253116 | SMR Auto-Tiering | 09-01-2016 |
20170235514 | CONTROLLING FILE PLACEMENT ON A DISK DRIVE TO IMPROVE FILE ACCESS | 08-17-2017 |
20170235521 | DISK STORAGE APPARATUS AND ACCESS CONTROLLING METHOD | 08-17-2017 |
20180024755 | SIMULATOR FOR ENTERPRISE-SCALE SIMULATIONS ON HYBRID MAIN MEMORY SYSTEMS | 01-25-2018 |
20220137822 | ACCESSING ADDITIONAL STORAGE SPACE IN A STORAGE SYSTEM - Accessing additional storage space of a storage system includes reading a physical data fragment that is an incremental subset of a physical storage unit of the storage system, accessing metadata corresponding to logical blocks stored on the physical data fragment to determine a sidebar storage portion of the physical data fragment that is unused by the logical blocks, and accessing data of the sidebar storage portion. Accessing data of the sidebar storage portion may include providing data from the sidebar storage portion to a calling process. Accessing data of the sidebar storage portion may include modifying a portion of data from the physical data fragment and writing the physical data fragment back to the physical storage device. The physical data fragment may be locked prior to reading the physical data fragment and the physical data fragment may be unlocked after writing the physical data fragment. | 05-05-2022 |