Patents Assigned to Network Appliance
  • Method and apparatus for generating user-level difference information about two data sets
    Patent number: 7624106
    Abstract: A method and apparatus to generate information representing differences between two data sets are described. Information representing differences between a first data set and a second data set is acquired, where the first and second data sets each include multiple nodes. A traversal map that identifies nodes for which a difference has been detected between the first and second data sets is generated, and then during an output phase, a hierarchy of nodes is traversed to generate output indicating user-level differences between the first and second data sets. The traversal map is used to avoid traversing at least some of the nodes in the hierarchy during the output phase. A child map may be generated to represent parent-child relationships between the nodes and used during the output phase to prefetch certain nodes in the hierarchy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2004
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2009
    Assignee: Network Appliance, Inc.
    Inventors: Stephen L. Manley, William R. Taylor
  • Method and apparatus to utilize free cache in a storage system
    Patent number: 7606807
    Abstract: A system is provided to improve performance of a storage system. The system comprises a multi-tier buffer cache. The buffer cache may include a global cache to store resources for servicing requests issued from one or more processes at the same time, a free cache to receive resources from the global cache and to store the received resources as free resources, and a local cache to receive free resources from the free cache, the received free resources to store resources that can be accessed by a single process at one time. The system may further include a buffer cache manager to manage transferring resources from the global cache to the free cache and from the free cache to the local cache.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2006
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2009
    Assignee: Network Appliance, Inc.
    Inventors: Jason S. Sobel, Jonathan T. Wall
  • Creating links between nodes connected to a fibre channel (FC) fabric
    Patent number: 7603453
    Abstract: In one embodiment, the invention provides a method for establishing links between Fiber Channel (FC) protocol node devices through a FC fabric. In the method a common name is assigned to a pair of ports. Each port in the pair is located on first and second FC node devices, respectively. The common name-to-port assignment is then stored within a name server for the FC fabric. Each port in the pair of ports is configured to query the name server to establish an identity for the other port in the pair of ports based on the common name. The first and second FC node devices are configured to create a link between the pairs of ports that have been assigned a common name.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 2003
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2009
    Assignee: Network Appliance, Inc.
    Inventors: Naveen Bali, Ravi Budhia
  • Method and system for automatic write request suspension
    Patent number: 7600083
    Abstract: A system and method are provided to manage storage space. The method comprises suspending a request responsive to detecting of a condition indicating a lack of a resource necessary to serve the request; applying a resource management procedure to increase availability of the resource; and, responsive to successful completion of the resource management procedure, serving the request.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2005
    Date of Patent: October 6, 2009
    Assignee: Network Appliance, Inc.
    Inventors: Himanshu Aggarwal, Eric Hamilton
  • Apparatus for providing visual indication of engagement of a drive received within a drive cage
    Patent number: 7599176
    Abstract: An apparatus for providing the visual indication of engagement of a drive received within a drive cage includes an indicator attached to a carrier mounted on a drive received within, a drive cage. The drive cage may be a redundant array of independent disks storage shelf and the drive may be a hard disc drive suitable for being received in the drive cage. Further, the indicator may be attached to at least one of the drive and the drive cage and provides visual indication of when the drive is properly seated in the drive cage. The indicator is at least one of a contrasting color, symbol, pattern, portrait and the like, to what it is attached to.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 2003
    Date of Patent: October 6, 2009
    Assignee: Network Appliance, Inc.
    Inventor: Marc Moisson
  • Method and system for efficiently accessing a storage redundancy group
    Patent number: 7596712
    Abstract: A method and system for efficiently accessing a pool of mass storage devices are described. In one embodiment of the invention, a primary storage server and a secondary storage server share a pool of mass storage devices. The secondary storage server is configured to provide read-only access to the storage pool of mass storage devices, while the primary storage server is configured to provide read and write access to the pool of mass storage devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 29, 2009
    Assignee: Network Appliance, Inc.
    Inventors: Abhijeet P. Gole, Joydeep Sen Sarma, Stephen H. Strange
  • Synchronous mirroring including writing image updates to a file
    Patent number: 7596672
    Abstract: A destination storage server, which may be a filer, mirrors a volume managed by a source storage server, which may also be a filer. According to an embodiment of the invention, changes made to the source volume are logged and persistently stored on a data container, such as a file, on the destination volume. The source storage server is coupled to clients that make data access requests to the volume. When an access request is made by a client, the request is written to a log on the source storage server. At the same time, the request is written to a data container on a volume managed by the destination storage server. Each source storage server coupled to the destination storage server has its own file on the volume.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 2003
    Date of Patent: September 29, 2009
    Assignee: Network Appliance, Inc.
    Inventors: Abhijeet Gole, Nitin Muppalaneni, Mark Smith, Mike Federwisch
  • Control of service workload management
    Patent number: 7593948
    Abstract: A system and method are provided to manage different types of workload. The method comprises receiving a request, determining a class of the request, determining a priority level associated with the class of the request, and servicing the request utilizing the priority level of the class of the request. The class of the request may be associated with a target volume, as well as with a network protocol, or with a network port.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2005
    Date of Patent: September 22, 2009
    Assignee: Network Appliance, Inc.
    Inventors: Darrell Suggs, John Scott, Robert L. Fair
  • Dual access pathways to serially-connected mass data storage units
    Patent number: 7594134
    Abstract: A group of data storage units are serially connected in a sequential data communication path to communicate read and write operations to first and second interfaces of each data storage unit in the group. A data management computer device (“filer”) manages read and write operations of the data storage units of the group through an adapter of the filer. Main and redundant primary communication pathway connectors extend from the filer to the interfaces of the data storage unit, thereby establishing redundancy through multiple pathways to communicate the read and write operations to the data storage units of the group. Main and redundant secondary communication pathway connectors extend from partner filers to the groups of data storage units associated with each partner filer, thereby further enhancing redundancy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 14, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 22, 2009
    Assignee: Network Appliance, Inc.
    Inventors: Sue Coatney, George Kong, Doug Coatney
  • Method and system for efficient database cloning
    Patent number: 7590660
    Abstract: A cloned database is created in the form of a writeable point-in-time image (WPPI) of the source database. After the cloned database is created, either the source database or the cloned database is modified so that both databases may be online simultaneously in a same domain.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2009
    Assignee: Network Appliance, Inc.
    Inventors: Alvin J. Richards, William E. Taylor
  • Backup and restore for heterogeneous file server environment
    Patent number: 7587402
    Abstract: A file server that provides for backup and restore of files in a heterogeneous file server environment. Metadata associated with each file by each model or protocol is preserved across backup and restore operations. The file server performs at least three tasks as part of the backup and restore operations. The file server notes all file attributes associated with each file in either model. These file attributes can include Unix perms, ownership and timestamp information, and link information. On backup, the file server records those file attributes in an analogous record using a different model. The file server records each element of Unix metadata as an NT Extended Attribute for use by an NT backup element. On restore, the file server restores those file attributes from the analogous record. The NT Extended Attributes provided by an NT restore element are translated into Unix metadata.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2003
    Date of Patent: September 8, 2009
    Assignee: Network Appliance, Inc.
    Inventor: Mark Muhlestein
  • Method and system to make a read-only file system appear to be writeable
    Patent number: 7587563
    Abstract: A writeable clone of a read-only dataset, e.g., an RPPI of a file system, a mirror file system, etc., is created to make the read-only dataset appear from a client's perspective to be modifiable/writeable, yet without actually modifying the read-only dataset itself. Any change attempted to be made on the read-only dataset is stored in the writeable clone. In one embodiment, the clone shares data blocks with the read-only dataset.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 8, 2009
    Assignee: Network Appliance, Inc.
    Inventors: Boris Teterin, Manish Dhirajlal Patel
  • Unique airflow path using fungible chassis components
    Patent number: 7586745
    Abstract: A chassis assembly for an electronic device such as a storage device. The assembly includes a chassis for housing various functional components included in the electronic device. A sub-housing for containing a waste heat generating device, a device which requires temperature moderation, is included. The sub-housing defines a first airflow exhaust path for exhausting air in a first direction and a second airflow exhaust path for exhausting air in a second direction. The directing of airflow from the sub-housing is based on a chassis enclosure configuration such as to allow for the implementation of a common component including a component enclosure in a variety of chassis form factors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 8, 2009
    Assignee: Network Appliance, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael Szelong, Keith Son
  • Method and system for rapidly recovering data from a “dead” disk in a RAID disk group
    Patent number: 7587630
    Abstract: A method and system for rapidly recovering data from a failed disk in a RAID disk group are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, a RAID-based storage system identifies a particular disk in a RAID disk group as a “dead” disk (e.g., incapable of servicing client-initiated requests in a timely manner). Accordingly, a spare disk is allocated to replace the “dead” disk and client-initiated read/write requests are directed to the spare disk for servicing. In addition, a disk-to-disk copy operation is initiated. Without overwriting valid data on the target disk with stale data from the “dead” disk, the disk-to-disk copy operation copies data from the “dead” disk to the target by directly reading data from the “dead” disk while reconstructing only the data that cannot be read directly from the “dead” disk.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2005
    Date of Patent: September 8, 2009
    Assignee: Network Appliance, Inc.
    Inventors: Loellyn Cassell, Atul Goel, James Leong, Rajesh Sundaram
  • Method and system for rapidly recovering data from a “sick” disk in a RAID disk group
    Patent number: 7574623
    Abstract: A method and system for recovering data from a “sick” disk are described. One embodiment of the invention relates to a RAID-based storage system that predicts the failure of a disk (e.g., a “sick” disk) in a RAID disk group. Accordingly, the storage system allocates a target disk, selected from several spare disks, to replace the “sick” disk in the RAID disk group upon completion of a disk-to-disk copy operation. Once a target disk has been allocated, a disk-to-disk copy operation is initiated to copy data from the “sick” disk to the target disk, thereby preventing the need to reconstruct data on the “sick” disk if the “sick” disk actually fails. During the disk-to-disk copy operation, client-initiated disk access operations continue to be serviced. Upon completion of the disk-to-disk copy operation, the storage system reconfigures the RAID disk group by swapping the target disk with the “sick” disk.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2005
    Date of Patent: August 11, 2009
    Assignee: Network Appliance, Inc.
    Inventors: Atul Goel, Tomislav Grcanac, Stephen H. Strange, Rajesh Sundaram
  • Method and system for reliable access of expander state information in highly available storage devices
    Patent number: 7574630
    Abstract: An apparatus and method for detecting an interface failure of a first interface of a first expander of a storage system, and retrieving state information from a second expander to the first expander using a second interface of the first expander when the interface failure of the first interface is detected. The state information is normally available to the first expander through the first interface, but is unavailable through the first interface due to the interface failure of the first interface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 14, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 11, 2009
    Assignee: Network Appliance, Inc.
    Inventors: Samantha L. Ranaweera, Andrew Reynolds
  • ENCRYPTION AND COMPRESSION OF DATA FOR STORAGE
    Publication number: 20090190760
    Abstract: Described is a process for encrypting and compressing data for storage by computing systems. A data stream received by a computing system is separated into data chunks for storage on a storage device using a data layout format. Each data chunk is examined and if possible, compressed to produce a compressed data chunk. Whether or not the data chunk can be compressed, the data chunk is encrypted and stored on the storage device in addition to metadata that describes the data chunk. When reading the stored data chunk from the storage device, the metadata identifies the starting location of the stored data chunk and provides metadata information to the computing system for decryption and decompression processing.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 28, 2008
    Publication date: July 30, 2009
    Applicant: NETWORK APPLIANCE, INC.
    Inventors: Hristo Bojinov, Yuval Frandzel, Robert Paul Wood
  • Storage defragmentation based on modified physical address and unmodified logical address
    Patent number: 7562203
    Abstract: A method in a storage system reads blocks having both physical addresses and logical addresses in the storage system from a first set of locations in non-volatile storage to a cache memory and determines the level of data fragmentation in the non-volatile storage. If the level of data fragmentation exceeds a threshold level, the cache memory is marked and the blocks are written to physically sequential locations with new physical addresses in the non-volatile storage at a data consistency point without changing the logical addresses of the blocks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2009
    Assignee: Network Appliance, Inc.
    Inventors: John A. Scott, Eric C. Hamilton
  • Method and system to quarantine system software and configuration
    Patent number: 7562208
    Abstract: The present invention provides a system and method to quarantine in the storage operating system and configuration information in which the storage operating system is stored in a designated partition on a removable nonvolatile memory device, such as a compact flash or a personal computer (PC) card that is interfaced with a motherboard of a filer system server. By providing for separate partitions, a failure or error arising during an upgrade to the storage operating system will not corrupt the other partitions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2002
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2009
    Assignee: Network Appliance, Inc.
    Inventors: John Marshal Reed, R. Guy Lauterbach, Michael J. Tuciarone
  • Write-in-place within a write-anywhere filesystem
    Patent number: 7562189
    Abstract: In a write-anywhere filesystem, a write-in-place property allows the write-anywhere filesystem to selectively perform write-in-place processing for write allocation to selected data blocks. The filesystem stores a data block in a storage, and references the data block with both physical and virtual or logical block number references. The block number references allow the filesystem to manage storage of the data blocks through indirection. The data block may be modified, which generates an updated data block in memory having the new data. The filesystem performs write allocation to store the updated data block to the storage. Write-in-place within the write-anywhere filesystem allows the write-anywhere filesystem to write the data block to the same physical location and thus maintain the same physical block number reference while modifying the virtual block number reference.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2009
    Assignee: Network Appliance, Inc.
    Inventors: Eric Hamilton, John A. Scott