NetApp Assigned Seven Patents

Integrated storage virtualization and switch system
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,549,253) developed by four co-inventors for an “integrated storage virtualization and switch system.”

The co-inventors are Vijayan Rajan, Mountain View, CA, Brian Pawlowski, Palo Alto, CA, Jeffrey S. Kimmel, Chapel Hill, NC, and Gary Ross, Pleasanton, CA.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A system integrates an intelligent storage switch with a flexible virtualization system to enable the intelligent storage switch to provide efficient service of file and block protocol data access requests for information stored on the system. A storage OS executing on a storage system coupled to the switch implements the virtualization system to provide a unified view of storage to clients by logically organizing the information as named files, directories and LUNs. The virtualization system may be embodied as a file system having a write allocator configured to provide a flexible block numbering policy to the storage switch that addresses volume management capabilities, such as storage virtualization.”

The patent application was filed on April 30, 2010 (12/771,572).

Assimilation of foreign LUNS into network storage system
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,555,022) developed by John K. Edwards, Sunnyvale, CA, and Steven R. Kleiman, Los Altos, CA, for an “assimilation of foreign LUNS into a network storage system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A storage system provides highly flexible data layouts that can be tailored to various different applications and use cases. The system defines several types of data containers, including ‘regions’, ‘logical extents’ and ‘slabs’. Each region includes one or more logical extents. Allocated to each logical extent is at least part of one or more slabs allocated to the region that includes the extent. Each slab is a set of blocks of storage from one or more physical storage devices. The slabs can be defined from a heterogeneous pool of physical storage. The system also maintains multiple “volumes” above the region layer. Each volume includes one or more logical extents from one or more regions. A foreign LUN can be assimilated into the system by defining slabs as separate portions of the foreign LUN. Layouts of the extents within the regions are not visible to any of the volumes.”

The patent application was filed on Jan. 6, 2010 (12/683,390).

Nearstore compression of data in storage system
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,554,745) developed by Dnyaneshwar Pawar, Bangalore, India, Subramaniam V. Periyagaram, San Jose, CA, and Sandeep Yadav, Santa Clara, CA, for a “nearstore compression of data in a storage system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A storage server is configured to receive a request to store a data block from a client. The request to store the data block is serviced by the storage server by compressing the data block into a compression group, which includes a number of compressed data blocks. The storage server stores the compression group in a non-volatile memory and flushes the compression group from the non-volatile memory to a physical storage device in response to reaching a consistency point. By compressing data to be stored in system memory of a storage server, the amount of data that can be processed during a given time period by a storage system is increased. Furthermore, an increase in performance can be achieved at a lower cost, since the cost of additional physical system memory modules can be avoided.”

The patent application was filed on June 25, 2009 (12/492,069).

Data recovery for failed memory device of memory device array
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,560,879) developed by Atul Goel, Sunnyvale, CA, for a “data recovery for failed memory device of memory device array .”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Some aspects of the disclosure relate to a data storage system that includes multiple memory device storage devices. If a memory device of a memory device array fails within a first data storage device, some portions of the lost or corrupted data from the failed memory device are recovered by reading them from a second data storage device. Other portions of the lost or corrupted data from the failed memory device are recovered from parity information in the first data storage device. ”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”

The patent application was filed on April 22, 2009 (12/428,061).

CAS system
NetApp Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,560,503) developed by Charles McManis, Sunnyvale, CA, for “a content addressable storage system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A content addressable storage system (CASS) comprises a storage system coupled to one or more content addressable storage array elements (CASAEs). The storage system is coupled to storage resources of a local storage array configured to store a high level meta-directory that describes data containers, e.g., directories, files and logical units (LUNs), served by the CASS. In addition, each CASAE is coupled to storage resources of a remote storage array configured to store user data (data blocks) of the data containers served by the CASS. The CASAE is configured to perform a content addressable storage computation on each data block written to its storage resources in order to prevent storage of two or more blocks with the same data. Notably, the CASAE interacts with its associated remote storage array to form a CASAE ‘storage brick’.”

The patent application was filed on Jan. 26, 2006 (11/339,888).

Optimizing multi-pathing support in distributed storage system environment
NetApp, Inc. Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,566,845) developed by Vijayan Rajan, Sunnyvale, CA, for “a system and method for optimizing multi-pathing support in a distributed storage system environment.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A Multi-Pathing Optimization Module (MPOM) interfaces with a client to route a data access request along a most optimal path to a storage system serving data container stored on a striped volume set (SVS). The MPOM constructs and references a Location Data Structure (LDS) containing striping rules associated with the SVS, a list of network elements (N-blades) operatively connected to the client, and a list of disk elements (D-blades) sharing a node of the storage system with the listed N-blades. The MPOM executes a Client_Locate( ) function on a per data access request basis to identify the D-blade serving the volume which will receive the request. When possible, the MPOM routes the data access request directly to the N-blade sharing a node with the identified D-blade, thereby using the most optimal path from the client to the SVS.”

The patent application was filed on May 14, 2007 (11/748,344).

Extent-based storage architecture
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,539,008) developed by seven co-inventors for “an extent-based storage architecture.”

The co-inventors are Rickard E. Faith, Hillsborough, NC, Subramaniam Periyagaram, San Jose, CA, Sandeep Yadav, Santa Clara, CA, Ashish Prakash, Morrisville, NC, Blake Lewis, Los Altos Hills, CA, Jeff Kimmel, Chapel Hill, NC, and Steve Daniel, Durham, NC.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “An extent-based storage architecture is implemented by a storage server receiving a read request for an extent from a client, wherein the extent includes a group of contiguous blocks and the read request includes a file block number. The storage server retrieves an extent identifier from a first sorted data structure, wherein the storage server uses the received file block number to traverse the first sorted data structure to the extent identifier. The storage server retrieves a reference to the extent from a second sorted data structure, wherein the storage server uses the retrieved extent identifier to traverse the second sorted data structure to the reference, and wherein the second sorted data structure is global across a plurality of volumes. The storage server retrieves the extent from a storage device using the reference and returns the extent to the client.”

The patent application was filed on April 29, 2011 (13/098,310).