Abstract: The present invention is a method and system for providing auxiliary power during a power interruption. An auxiliary power system of the present invention may be added to a power supply to provide auxiliary power during a power dip or power interruption to the power supply. The auxiliary power system may include a power storage device and a power storage charger which is powered by the power supply when power is supplied to the power supply. The power storage charger may charge the power storage device. The auxiliary power system may include a boost converter to provide a constant output voltage during a power interruption. A boost converter may also increase the output voltage supplied by the power storage device suitable for a load receiving power from the power supply.

Abstract: A system for converting alternating electrical current to direct electrical current may include an input supply for supplying alternating electrical current. The input supply may be connected to a rectifier. The rectifier may be configured as a body diode. A comparator may be coupled to the rectifier. The comparator may apply a voltage to the rectifier when the input supply is operating.

Abstract: Embodiments described are generally directed to a system and method for providing virtualized hardware resources within a virtual execution environment. In one embodiment, it is determined whether an operating system (OS) is a guest OS running within a virtual execution environment of a host platform. If an OS is determined to be a guest OS within a virtual execution environment, a virtual driver is provided for the virtual execution to fetch host hardware initiator information from a host server via a virtualization layer. In one embodiment, no corresponding guest driver is available to the virtual execution environment. In one embodiment, the virtualization layer provides virtualized hardware resources, including the virtual driver, for a virtual execution environment. Using the host hardware initiator information, in one embodiment, one or more virtual storage devices may be created within the host attached storage of the host platform. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Abstract: Use of data images to allow release of unneeded data storage. An embodiment of a method includes generating a series of archives of a set of data, each archive of the series of archives being stored in a data storage. The method further includes releasing an older archive in the series of archives from the data storage after a new archive in the series of archives is generated. A point-in-time image of the data storage is generated after each new archive in the series of archives is generated, with the data captured by the image including data contained in the new archive.

Abstract: The status of an appliance may be monitored using promiscuous packets and network reads. In order to establish a peer-to-peer connection between two appliances, a connection manager may issue a communication to a first appliance to establish a connection with a second, remote appliance. The connection manager issues a similar communication to the second appliance. The first appliance issues a promiscuous packet to the second appliance including connection information to establish a peer connection between the two appliances. The first appliance continues to issue the promiscuous packets even after the connection is established to indicate that the first appliance is still available. If the second appliance does not receive a promiscuous packet, the second appliance may attempt to perform a read over the connection. If the attempt to perform a read fails, the second appliance can notify the connection manager that the connection is no longer active.

Abstract: Methods of operating a computer storage system where an identical copy of a mirror source filesystem is maintained on a mirror destination storage volume managed by a mirror destination server. A modification to the mirror source filesystem is planned and executed, and a corresponding change to the mirror destination filesystem is accomplished by storing data directly to the mirror destination storage volume, bypassing filesystem logic that interprets the data stored on the volume. Systems that implement these methods are also described.

Abstract: Provided is a method and system for operating a non-volatile memory charger. Specifically, during the operation of a storage system, the non-volatile memory of the storage system can temporarily store data. The temporarily stored data is flushed to disks of the storage system during the normal operation of the storage system. However, if the storage system is inoperable, then the temporarily stored data is maintained for a time period by a rechargeable battery of the non-volatile memory. The rechargeable battery prevents data loss when the temporarily stored data cannot be flushed to the disks of the storage system. The rechargeable battery maintains sufficient voltage levels to continue to temporarily store data by the operation of a charger connected to the rechargeable battery. A charger policy operated by an operating system of the storage system enables and disables the charging of the rechargeable battery.

Abstract: A method of generating a microcore file, which is a subset of a full core dump, for a networked storage system includes generating a microcore file according to a microcore specification, and dynamically defining the microcore specification at runtime of the network storage system. The microcore specification is dynamically defined with information provided by results of an event that triggers the generation of the microcore file. After the microcore specification is defined, a region of a system memory is identified according to the microcore specification. The method further includes dumping the data from the region of the system memory into the microcore file.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method for building a failover-enabled communications systems is provided. The method comprises clustering a plurality of Fiber Channel (FC) node devices to form a failover cluster. A primary link is established between a first FC node device in the failover cluster and a FC node device outside the failover cluster. In the event of failure of the primary link, a backup link is established between the FC node device outside the failover cluster and a second FC node device in the failover cluster.

Abstract: A storage server maintains an active file system and at least one read-only, persistent point-in-time image (RPPI) of the active file system. The booting time of the storage server is reduced by delaying the mounting of the RPPI(s) until the storage server receives a request to access a corresponding RPPI after the storage server has already booted.

Abstract: A method and system for browsing a document repository are described. According to one embodiment of the invention, one or more hierarchies of categories are generated. For each category in each hierarchy, a search query is generated and assigned to the respective category. The search queries are executed against documents in a document repository and, based on the results of the search queries, a category-to-documents mapping table is updated to indicate the documents that are associated with each category. The categories for which there are associated documents are displayed to a user via a visual interface. As the user selects one or more categories to browse, the hierarchical categories displayed to the user are automatically and dynamically updated to reflect the number of documents associated with the category, based on the user's category selection.

Abstract: An IBM PC compatible processing system typically has a BIOS installed as system firmware. During a boot process of the processing system, the BIOS loads a boot loader from one of the boot media, i.e., hard drives, floppy disks, CDs, USB flash memories, taps, etc. and passes control of the boot loader, the boot loader then loads an OS from the boot media. The present invention takes advantage of the higher reliability and availability provided by the system flash memory and stores a boot loader as system firmware in the system flash memory. Further, it provides changes in the BIOS boot process to load the boot loader from system memory, the ROM, for example, without relying on boot media. With this new process, the boot loader can be loaded even when the boot media is corrupt, defective or un-initialized.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus provide for the combining and filtering of serial data from multiple serial data sources. At least one of the serial data sources frames serial data into packets. The serial data source that frames serial data drives a serial port in an exclusive manner. Another serial data source also provides data to the serial port. As the serial data comes from the sources, the serial port generates a stream of serial data that is sent to a serial stream filter. The serial stream filter extracts the packet from other serial data and selectively forwards the packet and the other serial data to one or more recipients.

Abstract: Data with a short useful lifetime are received and cached by a system. The system waits for the first to occur of two events. If the first event is a local cache flush trigger, the data is written to a longer-term storage subsystem. If the first event is a remote cache flush trigger, the data is discarded. Systems and methods to benefit from this procedure are described and claimed.

Abstract: A network storage filer implements a four-phase commit protocol to coordinate consistency points among a group of volumes (a “group consistency point”) such that, upon recovery, all volumes of the group reflect consistency points taken at the same time. The filer records progress at each phase while creating the consistency points of the volumes. Upon recovery, the same or a different filer uses the last recorded progress indicator to ascertain whether the consistency points were completed on all of the volumes in the group. If all the volume consistency points of the group consistency point were completed, the filer users the volume consistency points to mount the volumes. Otherwise, the filer uses an earlier group consistency point to mount the volumes. In either ease, the volumes are consistent with each other.

Abstract: A network storage server has a non-volatile mass storage facility, a main cache and a victim cache. A technique of intelligently determining whether to cache a data block in the victim cache includes determining whether to store the data block in the victim cache based on a first caching policy and the type of data contained within the data block. The first caching policy may be a global policy. The determination of whether to store the data block in the victim cache further may be based on a second caching policy, which may be a volume-specific control of service (CoS) policy.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for containerization of multiple data objects within a block of a single container. The apparatus and method may pack multiple data objects together in a block of a logical container in a file system. The method may include receiving data in the form of multiple data objects to be stored in a file system, and collectively data packing the multiple data objects together in at least one block of a logical container in the file system. The block is a fundamental unit of storage space of the file system, and each block of the logical container includes multiple extents to store data from at least one data object of the multiple objects. The apparatus may include a plurality of storage devices coupled to a storage server. The storage server is configured to store the multiple data objects in at least one block of the logical container in the file system. Some data objects may be stored in multiple extents of one or more blocks depending on the size of the data object.

Abstract: One or more parts of a storage system may be serviced while the storage system is online. A storage device may be unincorporated from the storage system while maintaining the storage system active. Access to the storage system may continue unaffected, except for the unincorporated section of the storage system, for example, the storage device and possibly other storage devices. Service may be performed on the unincorporated section of the storage system, and the unincorporated section be incorporated back into the storage system.

Abstract: Automatic network configuration of cluster paths to access data within a cluster is described. Each node of the cluster presents to clients an image of the cluster as a single system. Each node also stores information regarding what node has particular data, as well as information about network addresses and corresponding network capabilities for the various network addresses for each node. When a node receives a request for data, the node determines a node where the request data can be accessed, determines network addresses and network capabilities for each network address of the node, and selects a path to access the node based on the determined information. The receiving node may select the path based on network type and capability, as well as load and performance of the network.

Abstract: A plurality of read-only, persistent point-in-time images (RPPIs) of a file system are maintained on a storage server. Each of these RPPIs is created to capture an update of the file system. The file system has at least one subset. If, for each subset of the file system, the file system has an RPPI, other than a first RPPI, having a corresponding subset identical to the first RPPI's corresponding subset, the first RPPI may be deleted, yet all updates captured by the first RPPI are still maintained by other RPPI or RPPIs.