Abstract: Enabling an off-host computer to migrate data of a data volume. In one embodiment, the off-host computer copies data contents of n data blocks of a first data volume to n data blocks, respectively, of a second data volume. A host computer is capable of modifying data contents of a first plurality of data blocks of the n data blocks of the first data volume after the off-host computer begins copying data contents of the n data blocks of the first data volume to the n data blocks, respectively, of the second data volume.

Abstract: A method for encapsulation of extensibility records for backup and restore comprises determining whether a storage object to be backed up, such as a file or a directory of a primary data set, has an extensibility record associated with it. In response to determining that the storage object has an associated extensibility record, the method may include storing an encoding of at least a portion of the extensibility record, and generating a backup version of the storage object.

Abstract: A system includes one or more storage devices and virtualization software configured to aggregate storage in the one or more storage devices into a virtual storage device accessible to a storage consumer. The virtualization software may include a group validation layer comprising a device-independent interface configured to validate a proposed group configuration operation on the one or more storage devices. The device-independent interface may be used to verify that the proposed configuration operation would, if completed, result in a configuration capable of supporting a desired virtualization functionality. The device-independent interface may allow an application to manage the one or more devices as a unit known as a virtual device group.

Abstract: A computer accessible medium comprises instructions which, when executed, receive a request to allocate one or more blocks for a file. At least one allocation policy is assigned to the file, wherein the allocation policy specifies one or more storage units on which the blocks are to be allocated. Additionally, if more than one storage unit is specified, the allocation policy includes a control indication indicating a mechanism for selecting among the storage units. The instructions, when executed, may also allocate blocks according to the allocation policy. In another implementation, a computer accessible medium comprises instructions which, when executed receive a request to allocate one or more blocks for a file in a filesystem and allocate blocks according to an allocation policy. Allocation policies are specifiable at two or more levels of granularity in the filesystem.

Abstract: Methods and systems that use a client locality table when performing client-side data deduplication are disclosed. One method involves searching one or more client locality tables for the signature of a data unit (e.g., a portion of a volume or file). The client locality tables include signatures of data units stored in a deduplicated data store. If the signature is not found in the client locality tables, the signature is sent from a deduplication client to a deduplication server and added to one of the client locality tables. If instead the signature is found in the client locality tables, sending of the new signature to the deduplication server is inhibited.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for peer-to-peer compliancy validation in secure managed networks. Embodiments may provide a peer compliancy mechanism that may augment compliancy control conventionally implemented on one or more trusted servers. Embodiments may enable nodes seeking admission to a secure managed network to communicate with a trusted node or nodes on the secure managed network for at least some compliancy functions including, but not limited to, health validation and remediation, thus reducing the load and reliance on central compliancy servers in the secure managed network.

Abstract: Various systems and methods are disclosed for applying incremental changes prior to initialization of a point-in-time copy. For example, one method involves identifying an incremental change to information stored on a primary device. The incremental change is identified subsequent to a first point in time. The incremental change is applied to a first target device, prior to completing initialization of a second target device. The initialization of the second target device initializes the second target device as a point-in-time copy of the primary device. The point-in-time copy of the primary device is a copy of the primary device at the first point in time.

Abstract: In some embodiments, a system comprises at least one computer system, wherein the computer system is configured to execute a virtual machine corresponding to a user. The system further comprises a storage subsystem configured to store data representing the virtual machine and at least one file server. The file server is coupled to a network to which the computer system is configured to be coupled, and is also coupled to the storage subsystem. The file server is configured to provide the computer system with access to the data representing the virtual machine from the storage subsystem over the network. In some embodiments, the computer system is configured for essentially continuous connection to the network during use. In other embodiments, the computer system is configured for intermittent connection to the network during use.

Abstract: A system and method for detecting mirror inconsistencies in a distributed storage environment. Inconsistencies between mirrors may be detected by comparing session tags among individual storage devices. Each data write may include a tag and storage devices may calculate session tags from the write tags. Additionally, a storage device may keep a history including tags from recent writes. When a client sessions ends, a metadata server may compare the respective session tags from different storage devices to determine whether the mirrors are synchronized. If the session tags do not match, the metadata server may examine the metadata histories from the storage devices to determine a cause for the discrepancy in the session tags. If examining the session histories fails to reveal the discrepancy's source, a metadata server may request individual data block checksums from storage devices to attempt a re-synchronization of the mirrored storage devices.

Abstract: A system and method for instrumenting program instructions. A processing system includes a compiler and a profiler. The compiler is configured to notify the profiler of a compilation event corresponding to first program instructions. In response to detecting the event, the profiler is configured to intercept compilation of the first program instructions, determine whether an instrumented version of the first program instructions is currently available, instruct the compiler to compile the instrumented version of the first program instructions if available, and retrieve and instrument the first program instructions if not available. The profiler may maintain an instrumentation cache for storing instrumented versions of program instructions. The instrumentation cache may further include metadata which identifies portions of program code which have been instrumented and their location. The profiler may generally instrument program instructions once during the resident life of a corresponding application.

Abstract: Methods and computer program products that provide for extracting a portion of a file system for use as an independent file system and merging a file system into another file system are presented. One or more storage objects containing data from a multi-volume file system can be extracted from the multi-volume file system. One or more storage objects containing a first file system can be merged with one or more other storage objects containing a second file system, thus forming a merged file system.

Abstract: A system and method of characterizing a logical storage object. Information associated with the logical storage object is stored. The information includes information characterizing quiesce capabilities and split characteristics for the logical storage object. That information is transmitted to a processor and is used to characterize the logical storage object.

Abstract: A method and system for generating ranking criteria used to rank items in a computer system. The ranking criteria is based, at least in part, on storage information related to each of the items to be ranked. The storage information includes a storage parameter and/or a backup parameter. In one embodiment, a list of items is received in which storage information associated with each of the items is gathered. The items are ranked according to a relationship between the determined ranking criteria and at least the storage information associated with each of the items.

Abstract: A client computer system of a cluster may send a request to create a file in a cluster file system. A server may create a file in response to the information and allocate space in a storage to the file. If a request to write to the file is received within a predetermined amount of time, the write may complete without requiring that additional operations be performed to allocate space to the file. If a write to the file is not received within the predetermined amount of time, the space allocated to the file when it was created may be de-allocated. The file system may additionally or alternatively perform a method for opening a file while delaying an associated truncation of space allocated to the file. If a request to write to the file is received within a predetermined amount of time, the write may be performed in the space already allocated to the file.

Abstract: Various methods and systems for maintaining a communication protocol connection during a failover are disclosed. One method involves obtaining a first value of a parameter associated with a communication protocol connection between a primary node and a client and sending a flow control message to the client, in response to detecting that the primary node is failed. The flow control message includes the parameter.

Abstract: A system and method for performing a granular restore of data objects from a directory service is disclosed. In one embodiment, at the time a backup of the directory services database is performed, a metadata file with index values for some data objects is created. The metadata file may include an index of the name and an object identifier for each included data object. During granular restore of one or more data objects selected for restoration, the corresponding object identifier is retrieved from the metadata file using the name of the data object. The object identifier is then used to restore the data object in the directory service.

Abstract: A system or network may provide for communication between two or more applications. The communication is achieved by initiating communication between a first and second application. The communication is directed from the first application to a second virtual address of the second application. An actual address associated with the second application is determined. A first data channel is established between a first computer associated with the first application and a second computer associated with the second application over a control channel, to coordinate the communication over the first data channel. The communication is then directed to the actual address associated with the second application over the data channel. Further, the first data channel is taken down and a second data channel is established to maintain communication without the knowledge of the first and second applications.

Abstract: A system and method for provisioning a virtual network is provided. Virtual networks can be automatically formed including switches in networks, such as local and private networks. Once the virtual networks are formed, virtual computing devices can be provisioned in place of physical computing devices that are connected to the switches. A system for provisioning a virtual network including a first virtual subnet and a second virtual subnet is provided. The system includes a first switch; a second switch; a first software process associated with first switch for provisioning the first virtual subnet; a second software process associated with the second switch for provisioning the second virtual subnet; and a communication link connecting the first switch and the second switch.

Abstract: A system, method and apparatus for maintaining the location of a removable data medium once that removable data medium has been taken off-line is provided. Such a capability is provided by a mobile device that includes a data transmission mechanism configured to transmit the identity of a data medium and an identity of the location of that data medium. The transmission from the mobile device is received by a web service module that provides the data medium identity and the identity of the location of the data medium to a data store. In one embodiment, the data store comprises an identification of each of a plurality of data media, the status of each of the data media indicating whether that data medium is on or off-line, and if off-line the identity of the location of the off-line data medium.

Abstract: A system for a redundancy management service for peer-to-peer (P2P) networks includes one or more processors and memory coupled to the processors. The memory stores program instructions executable by the processors to receive a request at a device to upload a data object from the device into a P2P network. In response to receiving the request, the instructions are executable to identify a redundancy manager associated with the device and to transmit the data object to the redundancy manager. In addition, the instructions are executable to upload, from the redundancy manager to one or more target devices of the P2P network, a plurality of data blocks derived from the data object, such that the data object may be recovered from a subset of the plurality of data blocks.