NetApp Assigned Ten Patents

Selective deduplication
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,753,938) developed by Mallaiah, Damarugendra, and Basak, Jayanta, Bangalore, India, for a “selective deduplication.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Methods and apparatuses for performing selective deduplication in a storage system are introduced herein. Techniques are provided for determining deduplication priorities of data objects based upon projected likelihoods that deduplication of such data objects will provide a storage space benefit. Inline deduplication and/or post processing deduplication is selectively provided on an individual data object basis based upon deduplication priorities assigned to respective data objects.“

The patent application was filed on May 23, 2016 (15/162,496).

Cache management in storage systems
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,753,853) developed by Banerjee, Arindam, Superior, CO, and Humlicek, Donald R., Wichita, KS, for a “methods and systems for cache management in storage systems.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Methods and systems for managing caching mechanisms in storage systems are provided where a global cache management function manages multiple independent cache pools and a global cache pool. As an example, the method includes: splitting a cache storage into a plurality of independently operating cache pools, each cache pool comprising storage space for storing a plurality of cache blocks for storing data related to an input/output, (I/O) request and metadata associated with each cache pool, receiving the I/O request for writing a data, operating a hash function on the I/O request to assign the I/O request to one of the plurality of cache pools, and writing the data of the I/O request to one or more of the cache blocks associated with the assigned cache pool. In an aspect, this allows efficient I/O processing across multiple processors simultaneously.“

The patent application was filed on October 9, 2014 (14/510,785).

Data management agent for selective storage re-caching
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,747,179) developed by Maheshwari, Nilesh, Potakamuri, Sreenivasa, and Tiffany, Lucky, Sunnyvale, CA, for a “methods and systems for cache management in storage systems.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A data management agent for selective storage re-caching is described. A data management agent with an inter-agent communication link and protocol updates a volume on a primary storage area network connected to the data management agent. The primary storage area network mirrors the update to the volume over a first connection to a corresponding volume on a recovery storage area network. The data management agent further transmits a notification of the update to the volume over a second connection to a recovery data management agent connected to the recovery storage area network. Upon receiving the notification, the recovery data management agent scans only the corresponding volume and selectively refreshes its cached information for the corresponding volume.“

The patent application was filed on October 29, 2015 (14/927,395).

Configuration inconsistency identification between storage virtual machines
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,747,178) developed by Sridhara, Harsha, Bangalore, India, for a “configuration inconsistency identification between storage virtual machines.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for identifying configuration inconsistencies between storage virtual machines across storage clusters. For example, a first storage cluster and a second storage cluster may be configured according to a disaster recovery relationship where user data and configuration data of the first storage cluster are replicated to the second storage cluster so that the second storage cluster can takeover for the first storage cluster in the event a disaster occurs at the first storage cluster. Because replication of configuration data, (e.g., a name and size of a volume, a backup policy, etc.) may fail for various reasons, configuration of the first storage cluster is compared to configuration of the second storage cluster to identify a configuration difference, (e.g., a new size of the volume at the first storage cluster may have failed to be replicated to a replicated volume at the second storage cluster).“

The patent application was filed on August 26, 2015 (14/836,472).

Location-based device naming
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,747,032) developed by Barron, Edward, Pepperell, MA, and Silva, James, Bedford, MA, for a “system and method for location-based device naming.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A system and method for uniquely identifying a storage device among an array of storage devices of a storage system is provided. In some embodiments, a storage device of the storage system is identified. The storage device may currently lack a name or may have an invalid name. A shelf identifier of a storage device shelf in which the storage device is installed is determined. A stack identifier associated with a connection of the storage device is also determined. The storage system constructs a device name for the storage device based on the shelf identifier and the stack identifier. In some such embodiments, a bay in which the storage device is installed is determined, and the device name is further based on an identifier of the bay. The device name may include the stack identifier, the shelf identifier, and/or the identifier of the bay.“

The patent application was filed on May 13, 2014 (14/276,611).

Global deduplication across datacenters with minimal coordination
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,740,729) developed by Srinivasan, Kiran Nenmeli, Udayashankar, Kishore Kasi, and Krishnan, Swetha, Sunnyvale, CA, for a “technique for global deduplication across datacenters with minimal coordination.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A system and method for global data de-duplication in a cloud storage environment utilizing a plurality of data centers is provided. Each cloud storage gateway appliance divides a data stream into a plurality of data objects and generates a content-based hash value as a key for each data object. An IMMUTABLE PUT operation is utilized to store the data object at the associated key within the cloud.“

The patent application was filed on April 7, 2016 (15/093,084).

Centralized graphical user interface
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,740,568) developed by Karinta, Vineeth, Fremont, CA, Lolayekar, Santosh C., Saratoga, CA, Pillai, Jayakrishnan Ramakrishna, Fremont, CA, and Doss, Santosh, Palo Alto, CA, for a “centralized graphical user interface and associated methods and systems for a centralized management center for managing storage services in a networked storage environment.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Methods and systems for a networked storage environment are provided. For example, a method includes interfacing by a management device with a plurality of management layers that communicate with a plurality of application plugins executed by a plurality of computing devices, where each application plugin is associated with an application for providing storage services for stored objects managed by a storage system for the plurality of applications, for managing the plurality of computing devices, presenting selectable options for adding an application plugin for a computing device, configuring the application plugin, migrating the application plugin from one location to another and placing the computing device in a maintenance mode, and providing a summary for a plurality of storage service operations and a data protection summary.“

The patent application was filed on June 23, 2015 (14/747,267).

Snapshot creation workflow
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,740,566) developed by Zheng, Ling, Saratoga, CA, Yang, Long, Fremont, CA, Patel, Kayuri H., Cupertino, CA, Prakash, Suhas, San Jose, CA, Kimmel, Jeffrey S., Chapel Hill, NC, Pundir, Anshul, Sunnyvale, CA, and Rokade, Arun, Fremont, CA, for a “snapshot creation workflow.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A technique efficiently creates a snapshot for a logical unit, (LUN) served by a storage input/output, (I/O) stack executing on a node of a cluster that organizes data as extents referenced by keys. In addition, the technique efficiently creates one or more snapshots for a group of LUNs organized as a consistency group, (CG) and served by storage I/O stacks executing on a plurality of nodes of the cluster. To that end, the technique involves a plurality of indivisible operations, (i.e., transactions) of a snapshot creation workflow administered by a Storage Area Network, (SAN) administration layer, (SAL) of the storage I/O stack in response to a snapshot create request issued by a host. The SAL administers the snapshot creation workflow by initiating a set of transactions that includes, inter alia, (i) installation of barriers for LUNs, volumes) across all nodes in the cluster that participate in snapshot creation, (ii) creation of point-in-time,(PIT) markers to record those I/O requests that are included in the snapshot, and, (iii) updating of records, (entries) in snapshot and volume tables of a cluster database, (CDB).“

The patent application was filed on September 29, 2015 (14/869,340).

Just-in-time remote data storage allocation
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,740,421) developed by Levy, Assaf B., Ramat Hasharon, Israel, Rosen, Vered, Tel-Aviv, Israel, Alon, Roee, Kfar-Bilu, Israel, Sharabi, Dekel, and Yakobi, Michael, Tel-Aviv, Israel, for a “just-in-time remote data storage allocation.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A just-in-time storage allocation is initiated for storage at a remote storage device having flash storage. Each of multiple containers comprises a grouping of one or more of the flash storage. The just-in-time storage allocation includes an application profile that includes a priority criteria for the storage of either a priority of performance over efficiency or a priority of efficiency over performance. A determination is made of whether at least one container of the multiple containers satisfies the priority criteria based on at least one attribute of the at least one container. The storage is allocated in the at least one container, in response to the at least one container satisfying the priority criteria.“

The patent application was filed on October 25, 2016 (15/333,819).

Managing storage in storage cluster with distributed zones based on parity values
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,740,403) developed by Storer, Mark W., Walnut Creek, CA, Bisson, Timothy, Fremont, CA, and Pasupathy, Shankar, Milpitas, CA, for a “methods for managing storage in a data storage cluster with distributed zones based on parity values and devices thereof.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Techniques for a data storage cluster and a method for maintaining and updating reliability data and reducing data communication between nodes, are disclosed herein. Each data object is written to a single data zone on a data node within the data storage cluster. Each data object includes one or more data chunks, and the data chunks of a data object are written to a data node in an append-only log format. When parity is determined for a reliability group including the data zone, there is no need to transmit data from other data nodes where the rest of data zones of the reliability group reside. Thus, inter-node data communication for determining reliability data is reduced.“

The patent application was filed on March 2, 2015 (14/636,055).