Abstract: A system and method for planning and configuring the components of a modular computing system is provided. In some embodiments, the method for planning an implementation of a modular computing system comprises presenting a user interface at a display device, the user interface including a plurality of user-selectable objects, each of the user-selectable objects representing a component of the modular computing system. A user selection is received via a user input device. The user selection is from among the user-selectable objects and specifies one of an enclosure, an existing component, and a future component of the modular computing system. A representation of the specified one of an enclosure, an existing component, and a future component is displayed at a display device. The user selection is verified with respect to an implementation guideline. An indicator of whether the user selection meets the implementation guideline is displayed at the display device.

Abstract: Methods and systems for managing resources in a networked storage environment are provided. One method includes generating a relationship between latency and utilization of a resource in a networked storage environment using observation based, current and historical latency and utilization data, where latency is an indicator of delay at the resource for processing any request and utilization of the resource is an indicator of an extent the resource is being used at any given time; and selecting an optimal point for the generated relationship between latency and utilization, where the optimal point is an indicator of resource utilization beyond which throughput gains for a workload is smaller than increase in latency.

Abstract: A testing framework has been developed to address these issues that takes common functionality normally imported by the testing scripts on the client device and instead splits the functionality into standalone, fault tolerant, scalable services. Accordingly, the scripts can utilize the functionality through APIs and therefore test drivers executing a test or building a test environment or other testing processes may access the services through an API. Therefore, each testing client and test driver does not need to separately import the functionality and run the functionality on the memory of the client device separately. Rather, multiple tests can use these functionalities, allowing the testing services to be scaled between tests.

Abstract: Methods and systems for recovering data containers is provided. One method includes creating a first set of one or more incremental backups for a data container; associating by a processor the first set of one or more incremental backups with the first full backup of the data container; presenting the association of the first set of one or more incremental backups with the first full backup; and restoring the data container within a recovery time period associated with the data container.

Abstract: An OEM product label may be associated with a plurality of different OEM products; an identity of the manufacturer of the product associated with the label is determined based on the context of the product.

Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed for implementing an event based retention schedule for a read only file. When a regular file is to be converted to an event based retention read only file, an “event-retain” property may be enabled on the file allowing the feature to be implemented. Then, that file may have its permissions changed to read only. This will allow the file to be changed to a read only file without using a default retention time. Then, once the event is triggered, the retention time may be set so the file can be scheduled for automatic deletion.

Abstract: A method for ingesting data, the method comprising receiving a file including a plurality of portions, each of the portions corresponding to a respective characteristic of a hardware or software component in a deployed system; breaking the file into a plurality of sections, each of the sections corresponding to a respective portion of the file; for each section, adding first metadata to uniquely identify the file and provide a name for the section; and distributing the sections to a plurality of container files.

Abstract: Embodiments described herein provide an object store that efficiently manages and services objects for use by clients of a distributed data processing system. Illustratively, the object store may be embodied as a quasi-shared storage system that interacts with nodes of the distributed data processing system to service the objects as blocks of data stored on a plurality of storage devices, such as disks, of the storage system. To that end, an architecture of the object store may include an on-disk layout, e.g., of the storage system, and an incore layout, e.g., of the nodes, that cooperate to illustratively convert the blocks to objects for access by the clients.

Abstract: Methods and systems for executing a copy-offload operation are provided. The method includes determining if content of a source data container can be changed, after the source data container is opened for a copy-offload operation to copy the source data container from a source location to a destination location. The method further includes using a direct copy mode for generating a token for the copy-offload operation, without taking a point in time image of the source data container, when the content cannot be changed based on a mode in which the source data container is opened; and selecting a point in time copy mode by taking the point in time image of the source data container for generating the token, when the content can be changed.

Abstract: Methods and systems for presenting a plurality of options to a client for using storage space in a cloud computing environment are provided. Each option is associated with a latency target and/or a throughput target. The latency target provides a delay in processing input/output (I/O) requests and the throughput target provides a number of I/O requests that are processed within a unit of time. An existing volume is assigned to the client when the existing volume meets a guaranteed latency target and/or a guaranteed throughput target for an option selected from the plurality of options, otherwise a new volume is allocated.

Abstract: Embodiments described herein provide a storage conversion technique for rapidly converting between storage representations served by a storage system and presented to a host computer of a virtualized computing environment. The storage representations may include physical storage represented by a sequential set of blocks on disks of the storage system that are presented to the host computer in the form of a logical unit number (LUN) and virtual storage represented by a virtual storage device of the storage system that is presented to a hypervisor of the virtualized computing environment in the form of a virtual disk file. Illustratively, the LUN and virtual disk file may be storage objects (e.g., files) having different (file) types and formats in a volume of the storage system; yet each storage object may be organized as a buffer tree having indirect blocks that contain pointers configured to reference data blocks used to store data.

Abstract: Technology is disclosed for managing data in a distributed file system (“the technology”). The technology can gather metadata information associated with the data stored within a first file system, store the metadata information in association with a data identifier within a second file system, retrieve the stored metadata information using the data identifier from within the second file system and locate and retrieve the data associated with the metadata information from within first file system.

Abstract: Methods and systems for replicating a virtual machine and its associated data containers are provided. The virtual machine is placed in an inactive state and a replication directory is generated for cloning each data container from an active directory to the replication directory. The clone of each data container references a physical location where data associated with each data container is stored; and thereafter, the virtual machine is placed in an active state after the cloning is completed.

Abstract: Data consistency and availability can be provided at the granularity of logical storage objects in storage solutions that use storage virtualization in clustered storage environments. To ensure consistency of data across different storage elements, synchronization is performed across the different storage elements. Changes to data are synchronized across storage elements in different clusters by propagating the changes from a primary logical storage object to a secondary logical storage object. To satisfy the strictest RPOs while maintaining performance, change requests are intercepted prior to being sent to a filesystem that hosts the primary logical storage object and propagated to a different managing storage element associated with the secondary logical storage object.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide a mechanism for converting an existing mirror relationship between an original dataset at a source storage system and a copy of the original dataset at a destination system to a new mirror without discarding the existing copy of the original dataset and without transferring data to create a new dataset to replace the copy of the original dataset at the destination storage system. Rather, a directory structure (including file attributes) of the source storage system is transferred to the destination storage system and a comparison is made to identify file attributes at the destination system that match the transferred file attributes. If a match is found, a mapping between the matched file attributes is created. Subsequent updates to the destination storage system can be done using a technique other than the one that was used to create a copy of the source dataset.

Abstract: Described herein is a system and method for a scalable crash-consistent snapshot operation. Write requests may be received from an application and a snapshot creation request may further be received. Write requests received before the snapshot creation request may be associated with pre-snapshot tags and write requests received after the snapshot creation request may be associated with post-snapshot tags. Furthermore, in response to the snapshot creation request, logical interfaces may begin to be switched from a pre-snapshot configuration to a post-snapshot configuration. The snapshot may then be created based on the pre-snapshot write requests and the post-snapshot write requests may be suspended until the logical interfaces have switched configuration.

Abstract: Storage providers can securely store data and avoid data duplication with secure derivative data and offload the responsibility of generating the secure derivative data to the data owners. Initially, a data source will provide an encrypted version of data and the secure derivative data to a remote storage provider. The secure derivative data can include a hash of the data, a hash of the encrypted version of the data, a hash tree generated from the data, and an encrypted version of the key used to encrypt the data. When the remote storage provider later receives a request to store the same data, the remote storage provider uses the secure derivative data for secure proofs of storage and for proof of data possession.

Abstract: A system can maintain multiple queues for deduplication requests of different priorities. The system can also designate priority of storage units. The scheduling priority of a deduplication request is based on the priority of the storage unit indicated in the deduplication request and a trigger for the deduplication request.

Abstract: In some embodiments, a first location server, in response to a request from a client to access an object, determines whether a first location information stored at the first location server indicates locations of instance(s) of the object. The first location server, in response to a determination that the first location information indicates the locations of the instances of the object, determines a first location of a first instance of the object at a first payload server and a second location of a second instance of the object at a second payload server from the first location information. The first location server determines priority values of the first and second locations. The first location server generates a reply to the request, the reply indicating the first and second locations of the first and second instances of the object, and the priority values of the first and second locations.

Abstract: A distributed object store in a network storage system uses location-independent global object identifiers (IDs) for stored data objects. The global object ID enables a data object to be seamlessly moved from one location to another without affecting clients of the storage system, i.e., “transparent migration”. The global object ID can be part of a multilevel object handle, which also can include a location ID indicating the specific location at which the data object is stored, and a policy ID identifying a set of data management policies associated with the data object. The policy ID may be associated with the data object by a client of the storage system, for example when the client creates the object, thus allowing “inline” policy management. An object location subsystem (OLS) can be used to locate an object when a client request does not contain a valid location ID for the object.