Hitachi Assigned Twelve Patents

Storage and migration
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,394,662) developed by Kono, Taiki, Suzuki, Hidenori, Nashimoto, Kunihiko, Homma, Shigeo, Suzuki, Toru, Kawaguchi, Tomohiro, Saito, Hideo, Jin, Azusa, Nasu, Hiroshi, Tamura, Keishi, and Sugino, Shoji, Tokyo, Japan, for “storage apparatus and storage apparatus migration method.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A source remote copy configuration in a source storage system is migrated to a destination storage system as a destination remote copy configuration. The destination primary storage apparatus of the destination storage system defines a virtual volume mapped to the primary volume provided by the source primary storage apparatus which is a storage area of the virtual volume, takes over a first identifier of the primary volume to the virtual volume, transfers, when the virtual volume receives an access request, the access request to the source primary storage apparatus to write data in the primary volume, and takes over the first identifier from the virtual volume to another primary volume provided by the destination primary storage apparatus, after completion of copy of data from primary volume of the source primary storage apparatus into primary volume of the destination primary storage apparatus and secondary volume of the destination secondary storage apparatus.”

The patent application was filed on December 1, 2017 (15/828,732).

Storage system
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,394,484) developed by Hayasaka, Mitsuo, and Matsubara, Kazumasa, Tokyo, Japan, for a “storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A first storage node generates a plurality of distributedly arranged write data blocks from write data and generates a first redundant data block from the plurality of distributedly arranged write data blocks. One distributedly arranged write data block is arranged in a second data block and the first redundant data block is arranged in a third storage node. A second storage node generates a second redundant data block from the plurality of distributedly arranged write data blocks selected from the distributedly arranged write data block held therein. The second storage node rearranges each of the plurality of selected distributedly arranged write data blocks in a rearrangement destination storage node and arranges the second redundant data block in a storage node other than the rearrangement destination storage node.”

The patent application was filed on February 26, 2016 (15/777,782).

Storage with cells changeable between two different level cell modes based on predicted lifetime
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,387,062) developed by Doi, Tomotaro, Homma, Shigeo, and Ninose, Kenta, Tokyo, Japan, for a “storage system with cells changeable between two different level cell modes based on predicted lifetime.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A storage system according to one aspect of the present invention includes a plurality of storage devices using flash memory as a storage medium. The flash memory used for the storage device may include flash memory configured to operate each cell as a cell capable of storing n-bit information or a cell capable of storing m-bit information, (where n<m), where n=2 and m=3. The storage system may periodically acquire a number of remaining erasures from the storage device and predict the lifetime of the storage device by using the acquired number of remaining erasures and the storage device operation time. If the predicted lifetime is greater than a predetermined value, service life, a predetermined number of cells may be changed to cells capable of storing m-bit information.”

The patent application was filed on November 27, 2015 (15/744,671).

Storage system
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,372,372) developed by Nakamura, Tatsuya, Inoue, Shintarou, and Nagasoe, Yasuyuki, Tokyo, Japan, for a “storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A storage system includes first storage devices to provide storage areas of a first tier and for which a life usage rate is determined based on an erase count and a guaranteed maximum erase count, second storage devices to provide storage areas of a second tier and for which a guaranteed maximum erase count is not specified, and a controller to perform data reallocation between the first tier and the second tier. The controller determines a weight for a read access and a weight for a write access from a host based on life usage rates of the first storage devices, and determines whether to relocate data stored in the second tier to the first tier based on the weight for a read access, the weight for a write access, a read count for the data in a period, and a write count for the data in the period.”

The patent application was filed on April 22, 2015 (15/554,094).

Storage apparatus and non-volatile memory device including controller
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,360,144) developed by Oshimi, Masatsugu, Oikawa, Yoshihiro, Kanagawa, Japan, Hirayama, Hiroshi, and Ogawa, Junji, Tokyo, Japan, for “storage apparatus and non-volatile memory device including a controller to selectively compress data based on an update frequency level.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A storage apparatus includes a non-volatile memory and a controller to determine whether or not to compress data at a time when a non-volatile memory device receives the data from a host apparatus. A storage controller transmits a specified logical address range, an update frequency level of the specified logical address range, and specified data to a device controller. The update frequency level may indicate whether data is Hot or Cold. On the basis of the update frequency level of the specified logical address range, the device controller determines whether to compress the specified data. When a determination is made to compress the specified data, the device controller compresses the specified data to generate compressed data, and writes the compressed data into a non-volatile memory which may be a flash memory device. A degradation rank of physical blocks in the flash memory may include at least Young and Old. Reclamation processing including selecting a migration destination on the basis of the updated frequency level may also be performed. When a determination is made not to compress the specified data, the device controller writes the specified data into the non-volatile memory.”

The patent application was filed on February 27, 2015 (15/545,094).

Storage and control method
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,353,592) developed by Deguchi, Akira, and Kawaguchi, Tomohiro, Tokyo, Japan, for “storage system, computer system, and control method for storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Saving a capacity of an on-premises storage apparatus, a high access performance of the on-premises storage apparatus, and resuming an operation quickly and accurately by using data on a cloud when a resource in the on-premises fails are achieved. A processor provides a first volume which is a virtual volume, and configures a copy pair of the first volume and a second volume provided from another storage system. Write data to the first volume is transferred to the second volume via a network, based on the copy pair. The processor writes to the memory a part of data written to the second volume, and writes to the storage device the data written to the memory.”

The patent application was filed on September 15, 2015 (15/511,186).

Computer and storage control method
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,346,082) developed by Jin, Azusa, Saito, Hideo, Kawamura, Shunji, Muraoka, Kenji, and Nashimoto, Kunihiko, Tokyo, Japan, for “storage system, computer system, and control method for storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A storage system manages control information, which is information related to responses corresponding to prescribed types of commands, for each of a plurality of logical units associated with a logical device, said logical units being provided to one or more host systems. The prescribed types of commands indicating the logical units provided to a first host system, which is one of the one or more host systems, are received from the first host system by the storage system. Responses based on the control information corresponding to the logical units indicated by the received prescribed types of commands are returned to the first host system by the storage system as responses to the received prescribed types of commands.”

The patent application was filed on June 24, 2015 (15/553,440).

Distributed storage and control method for distributed storage
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,346,075) developed by Watanabe, Yasuo, and Akutsu, Hiroaki, Tokyo, Japan, for “distributed storage system and control method for distributed storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Regarding a distributed storage system including a plurality of nodes, a first node among the plurality of nodes judges whether the same data as first data, which is written to a first virtual partial area managed by the first node from among a plurality of virtual partial areas, exists in the virtual partial area managed by another node among the plurality of nodes, when the same data as the first data exists in the other node, the first node executes inter-node deduplication for changing allocation of either one of logical partial areas for the first virtual partial area or the virtual partial area of the other node to which the same data is written, to the other logical partial area, and when I/O load on the first node after execution of the inter-node deduplication of the first virtual partial area and the predicted value is less than a first threshold, the first node executes the inter-node deduplication of a second virtual partial area managed by the first node from among the plurality of virtual partial areas obtained by dividing the virtual storage area.”

The patent application was filed on March 16, 2015 (15/553,174).

Storage and storage control method
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,310,984) developed by Kawamura, Atsushi, Tokyo, Japan, for “storage apparatus and storage control method.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A storage apparatus includes a first storage device and a second storage device, out of logical-physical translation information which associates a logical page and a physical page in the second storage device with each other. Non-compressed logical-physical translation information in the first storage device is assumed to constitute a first tier, compressed logical-physical translation information in the first storage device is assumed to constitute a second tier, and compressed logical-physical translation information in the second storage device is assumed to constitute a third tier. The storage apparatus includes tier management information for managing which logical page is included in logical-physical translation information of which of the first tier, the second tier, and the third tier. When receiving an I/O with respect to the logical page, the storage apparatus retrieves the logical-physical translation information including the logical page for which the I/O has been received, based on the tier management information.”

The patent application was filed on October 9, 2014 (15/510,594).

Storage system and storage control
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,310,758) developed by Imazaki, Miho, Simozono, Norio, Ogawa, Junji, Yoshihara, Tomohiro, Yamamoto, Akira, and Akutsu, Hiroaki, Tokyo, Japan, for “storage system and storage control method.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A second virtual volume having a plurality of second virtual areas is a clone of a first virtual volume having a plurality of first virtual areas. A first real area is allocated from a pool of real areas and based on storage devices to the first virtual volume. A storage controller allocates a second real area to the second virtual area before a write occurs in the second virtual area corresponding to the first virtual area to which the first real area is allocated. A physical area is allocated to a logical area corresponding to the first real area in each storage device, and data based on user data stored in the first real area is stored in the physical area. Each storage device allocates the physical area allocated to the logical area corresponding to the first real area to a logical area corresponding to the second real area.”

The patent application was filed on March 26, 2014 (15/122,770).

Managing data recovery of distributed storage
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,303,570) developed by Nakajima, Akio, Tokyo, Japan, for “method and apparatus for managing data recovery of distributed storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Exemplary embodiments provide a way to manage data recovery in a distributed system having multiple data store nodes. A storage system comprises: a first node including a first processor, and a plurality of second nodes coupled to the first node, each of the plurality of second nodes including a second processor and one or more second storage devices. The first processor is configured to control to store data and replication of the data in the second storage devices of two or more second nodes. If at least one of the second nodes has failed and a storage capacity of the plurality of second nodes is below a given threshold, one of the second nodes is configured to receive a first data, which is replication of data stored in a failed second node, from another of the second nodes, and create parity data based on the received first data.”

The patent application was filed on October 17, 2014 (15/317,245).

Storage and cache control
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,296,468) developed by Moriguchi, Mioko, Okada, Wataru, and Maki, Nobuhiro, Tokyo, Japan, for “storage system and cache control apparatus for storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”An encryption key used with a storing apparatus and an encryption key used with a non-volatile cache memory are identical to each other. A cache control portion unit effects control in such a way that an encryption key EK used to encrypt first data stored in the storing apparatuses, and an encryption key EK used to encrypt second data which are data corresponding to the first data and are stored in the non-volatile cache memory, are identical to each other. If the cache control portion receives a write request and first data WD, the cache control portion identifies from the storing apparatuses a storing apparatus that is to be the storage destination of the first data, identifies an encryption key allocated to the identified storing apparatus, encrypts the second data corresponding to the first data using the identified encryption key, and stores the data in the non-volatile cache memory.”

The patent application was filed on February 5, 2014 (15/039,967).