Patents by Inventor Norio Shimozono

Norio Shimozono has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20240134789
    Abstract: Logical hierarchies include an append hierarchy in a storage device. The storage device writes user data received in the append hierarchy to a free area, select a garbage collection operation mode for a first logical area in the append hierarchy from operation modes including first and second operation modes. Conditions of executing the garbage collection in the first operation mode include a capacity of the free area in the append hierarchy being less than a threshold, and an amount of garbage that is invalid data after update in the first logical area being equal to or greater than a threshold. Conditions of executing the garbage collection in the second operation mode include the amount of garbage in the first logical area being equal to or greater than a threshold value, while excluding the condition of the capacity of the free area in the append hierarchy.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 22, 2023
    Publication date: April 25, 2024
    Inventors: Kenichi BETSUNO, Norio SHIMOZONO, Tomohiro YOSHIHARA
  • Publication number: 20240104064
    Abstract: The present invention makes it possible to maintain availability and scale out file performance, while suppressing costs. A unified storage has a plurality of controllers and a storage apparatus (storage device unit), and each of the plurality of controllers is equipped with one or more main processors (CPU) and one or more channel adapters (FE-I/F). Each main processor causes a block storage control program to operate and thereby process data inputted to and outputted from the storage apparatus, each channel adapter has a processor (CPU) that performs transmission and reception to and from a main processor after receiving an access request, and the processors in the plurality of channel adapters cooperate to cause a distributed file system to operate, and distributively store data, written as a file, to the plurality of controllers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 1, 2023
    Publication date: March 28, 2024
    Applicant: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Yuto KAMO, Mitsuo HAYASAKA, Norio SHIMOZONO
  • Publication number: 20220164146
    Abstract: A storage system includes: a controller which includes a processor and a memory; and one or more storage devices. The controller sets a plurality of logical volumes, stores data related to a write request in the memory when the write request is received in the logical volume, and collectively compresses a plurality of pieces of data related to the write request in the memory and writes the compressed data to the storage device. When a plurality of pieces of data related to a plurality of the logical volumes that need to be written to the storage device exist in the memory, the controller selects the plurality of pieces of data in an identical logical volume, and collectively compresses the plurality of pieces of selected data and writes the compressed data in the storage device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 13, 2021
    Publication date: May 26, 2022
    Inventors: Masahiro TSURUYA, Norio SHIMOZONO, Akira YAMAMOTO, Kentaro SHIMADA, Takashi NAGAO
  • Patent number: 11301159
    Abstract: A storage system includes at least one drive chassis connected to at least one host computer via a first network, and a storage controller connected to the drive chassis, in which the storage controller instructs the drive chassis to create a logical volume, and the drive chassis creates a logical volume according to an instruction from the storage controller, provides a storage area of the storage system to the host computer, and receives an IO command from the host computer to the storage area of the storage system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2022
    Assignee: HITACHI, LTD.
    Inventors: Hirotoshi Akaike, Koji Hosogi, Norio Shimozono, Sadahiro Sugimoto, Nobuhiro Yokoi, Ryosuke Tatsumi
  • Patent number: 11237746
    Abstract: In a storage system, attributes of nodes are specified as first attribute nodes and second attribute nodes, the I/O processing in the nodes is executed as a plurality of processes including front-end I/O processing executed by any of the first attribute nodes and back-end I/O processing executed by the first and second attribute nodes having a storage device that stores data relating to the I/O processing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2022
    Assignee: HITACHI, LTD.
    Inventors: Akihiro Hara, Norio Shimozono, Tomohiro Kawaguchi, Akira Deguchi
  • Publication number: 20210034268
    Abstract: In a storage system, attributes of nodes are specified as first attribute nodes and second attribute nodes, the I/O processing in the nodes is executed as a plurality of processes including front-end I/O processing executed by any of the first attribute nodes and back-end I/O processing executed by the first and second attribute nodes having a storage device that stores data relating to the I/O processing.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 5, 2020
    Publication date: February 4, 2021
    Applicant: HITACHI, LTD.
    Inventors: Akihiro HARA, Norio SHIMOZONO, Tomohiro KAWAGUCHI, Akira DEGUCHI
  • Publication number: 20200379668
    Abstract: A storage system includes at least one drive chassis connected to at least one host computer via a first network, and a storage controller connected to the drive chassis, in which the storage controller instructs the drive chassis to create a logical volume, and the drive chassis creates a logical volume according to an instruction from the storage controller, provides a storage area of the storage system to the host computer, and receives an IO command from the host computer to the storage area of the storage system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 18, 2020
    Publication date: December 3, 2020
    Inventors: Hirotoshi AKAIKE, Koji HOSOGI, Norio SHIMOZONO, Sadahiro SUGIMOTO, Nobuhiro YOKOI
  • Publication number: 20200301599
    Abstract: A storage system includes at least one drive chassis connected to at least one host computer via a first network, and a storage controller connected to the drive chassis, in which the storage controller instructs the drive chassis to create a logical volume, and the drive chassis creates a logical volume according to an instruction from the storage controller, provides a storage area of the storage system to the host computer, and receives an IO command from the host computer to the storage area of the storage system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 18, 2020
    Publication date: September 24, 2020
    Inventors: Hirotoshi AKAIKE, Koji HOSOGI, Norio SHIMOZONO, Sadahiro SUGIMOTO, Nobuhiro YOKOI
  • Patent number: 10761764
    Abstract: A storage system includes at least one drive chassis connected to at least one host computer via a first network, and a storage controller connected to the drive chassis, in which the storage controller instructs the drive chassis to create a logical volume, and the drive chassis creates a logical volume according to an instruction from the storage controller, provides a storage area of the storage system to the host computer, and receives an IO command from the host computer to the storage area of the storage system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 1, 2020
    Assignee: HITACHI, LTD.
    Inventors: Hirotoshi Akaike, Koji Hosogi, Norio Shimozono, Sadahiro Sugimoto, Nobuhiro Yokoi
  • Patent number: 10620868
    Abstract: A storage system includes at least one drive chassis connected to at least one host computer via a first network, and a storage controller connected to the drive chassis, in which the storage controller instructs the drive chassis to create a logical volume, and the drive chassis creates a logical volume according to an instruction from the storage controller, provides a storage area of the storage system to the host computer, and receives an IO command from the host computer to the storage area of the storage system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2020
    Assignee: HITACHI, LTD.
    Inventors: Hirotoshi Akaike, Koji Hosogi, Norio Shimozono, Sadahiro Sugimoto, Nobuhiro Yokoi
  • Patent number: 10452557
    Abstract: The processor provides a host computer with a logical volume based on a physical storage device. Based on a command from the host computer, the control device writes, into a memory, address information that associates a logical address in the logical volume with a device address in the physical storage device. The control device receives a command from the host computer and if it is determined that the command is a read command, identifies a first logical address designated by the command and determines whether or not the first logical address is included in the address information. If the first address is included in the address information, the control device specifies a first device address corresponding to the first logical address, reads read data stored in an area indicated by the first device address, and transmits the read data to the host computer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 28, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2019
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Hirotoshi Akaike, Norio Shimozono, Kazushi Nakagawa
  • Patent number: 10229062
    Abstract: A storage system includes a plurality of controllers each including a processor module and a memory, and a relay unit to relay a communication between the processor modules. The relay unit executes assignment determination to determine one of the processor module of a first controller and the processor module of a second controller is a processor module processing a command stored in the memory. The first controller includes memory storing the command, and the second controller is any of the controllers other than the first controller. When the relay unit determines the command of the processor module of the first controller, the relay unit notifies storage location information of the command to the processor module of the first controller, and when the relay unit determines the command to be processed by the processor module of the second controller, the relay unit transfer the command to the second controller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2019
    Assignee: HITACHI, LTD.
    Inventors: Makio Mizuno, Norio Shimozono, Katsuya Tanaka
  • Patent number: 10222988
    Abstract: A storage system is adapted for efficiency by defining beforehand a first size, which is the maximum data that can be read at one time, a second size, which is equal to or less than the first size, and a third size, which is a factor of the first size. A controller provides a virtual volume comprising a plurality of virtual pages. Upon receiving a write request, the controller allocates a pool area comprising a plurality of stripes of the first size, stores the write request data in a cache, and when writing the data stored in the cache to the storage device, compresses the data in accordance with the third size unit, selects a storage area in accordance with the second size unit, and writes the compressed data to the selected second size storage area sequentially from the start address of a free area without leaving spaces therebetween.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2019
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Yoshihiro Yoshii, Kazuei Hironaka, Akira Yamamoto, Norio Shimozono
  • Patent number: 10182110
    Abstract: If resources allocated to a host computer exist in different physical storage nodes within a virtual storage system after performing migration to a storage system, mapping of resources among the physical storage nodes becomes necessary, and if the amount of communication between physical storage nodes that occurs during access to resources exceeds a bandwidth of the connection path, the host I/O performance may be deteriorated compared to the performance before migration. Therefore, when migration is performed from a first physical storage node to a virtual storage system composed of a plurality of second physical storage nodes, a management computer allocates resources of the second physical storage nodes within a range of bandwidth of the transfer path between the second physical storage nodes based on configuration information of the plurality of second physical storage nodes, performance information, and load information of the volume provided by the first physical storage node.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 15, 2019
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Wataru Okada, Norio Shimozono
  • Patent number: 10089033
    Abstract: A storage system according to the present invention has a plurality of flash packages equipped with a deduplication function. When a storage controller transmits a write data and a feature value of write data to a flash package, the flash package compares contents of the write data with data having a same feature value as the feature value of the write data. As a result of the comparison, if there is no corresponding data, the write data is stored in the flash memory, but if there is a corresponding data, the new data will not be stored. Thus, a greater number of data can be stored in the flash memory while preventing deterioration of performance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2018
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Akira Yamamoto, Junji Ogawa, Norio Shimozono, Yoshihiro Yoshii, Kazuei Hironaka, Atsushi Kawamura
  • Patent number: 9977813
    Abstract: As a method for migrating data of a volume adopting a snapshot function to a new storage system, in order to perform migration without depending on a method for compressing snapshot data of a migration source storage system, and without stopping transmission and reception of data between the host computer and the storage system, at first, after migrating data of a volume being the source of snapshot (PVOL), migration is performed sequentially from newer generations. At this time, migration target data of each SVOL is all the data within the migration source storage system. The SVOL data copied to a migration destination storage is compared with one-generation-newer SVOL data within the migration destination storage system, and based on the comparison result, a difference management information is created. If there is difference, a VOL allocation management table is updated, and difference data is stored in the area allocated within the pool.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2018
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Ryosuke Tatsumi, Tadato Nishina, Norio Shimozono
  • Publication number: 20180018272
    Abstract: The processor provides a host computer with a logical volume based on a physical storage device. Based on a command from the host computer, the control device writes, into a memory, address information that associates a logical address in the logical volume with a device address in the physical storage device. The control device receives a command from the host computer and if it is determined that the command is a read command, identifies a first logical address designated by the command and determines whether or not the first logical address is included in the address information. If the first address is included in the address information, the control device specifies a first device address corresponding to the first logical address, reads read data stored in an area indicated by the first device address, and transmits the read data to the host computer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 28, 2015
    Publication date: January 18, 2018
    Inventors: Hirotoshi AKAIKE, Norio SHIMOZONO, Kazushi NAKAGAWA
  • Patent number: 9760296
    Abstract: To detect an abnormality of logical and physical addresses, a storage device includes: plural drives each having a storage medium configuring a logical volume provided to a host device; a front end I/F that receives an I/O request including a logical address for identifying a logical storage area of the logical volume, and user data from the host computer; a processor that controls conversion from the logical address into the physical address for identifying a physical storage area of the storage medium; and a back end I/F that controls write/read of user data with respect to the drives based on the physical address. In the drives, data where a first guarantee code obtained based on the physical address and the logical address corresponding to the physical address is added to the user data is stored in the physical storage area designated by the physical address of the storage medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2017
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Takanobu Suzuki, Norio Shimozono, Hiroaki Akutsu, Kohei Tatara
  • Patent number: 9720608
    Abstract: A storage control apparatus performs, for each virtual area to which a physical area is allocated, any one of coarse-grained management for managing a correspondence relationship between a virtual area and a physical area in a first size unit, and fine-grained management for managing a correspondence relationship between a virtual area and a physical area in a second size unit smaller than the first size unit. The storage control apparatus manages mapping information that expresses a correspondence relationship between a virtual area and a physical area. The storage control apparatus performs at least one of change of any of fine-grained virtual areas to a coarse-grained virtual area and change of any of coarse-grained virtual areas to a fine-grained virtual area, based on the number of duplication areas of each virtual area and a size of the mapping information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 7, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 1, 2017
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Yasuo Watanabe, Norio Shimozono
  • Publication number: 20170177485
    Abstract: A storage system includes a plurality of controllers each including a processor module and a memory, and a relay unit to relay a communication between the processor modules. The relay unit executes assignment determination to determine one of the processor module of a first controller and the processor module of a second controller is a processor module processing a command stored in the memory. The first controller includes memory storing the command, and the second controller is any of the controllers other than the first controller. When the relay unit determines the command of the processor module of the first controller, the relay unit notifies storage location information of the command to the processor module of the first controller, and when the relay unit determines the command to be processed by the processor module of the second controller, the relay unit transfer the command to the second controller.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 11, 2014
    Publication date: June 22, 2017
    Applicant: HITACHI, LTD.
    Inventors: Makio MIZUNO, Norio SHIMOZONO, Katsuya TANAKA