Abstract: A drill bit has a plurality of cutters secured to the bit body, including a gauge cutter defining a gauge diameter of the drill bit. A reciprocating gauge assembly on the bit comprises a cavity defined in the bit body, a piston reciprocably disposed in the cavity, a wear element on an outwardly facing end of the piston, a piston retainer for moveably retaining the piston in the cavity, and a spring biasing the piston outwardly to a neutral position of the wear element with respect to the gauge diameter. The wear element and piston may be urged inwardly in response to an applied load at the drill bit gauge pad, increasing the lateral depth of cut and thereby controlling the aggressiveness of the bit in response to the load.

Abstract: Methods, apparatus, and processor-readable storage media for tracking data mirror differences are provided herein. An example computer-implemented method includes obtaining a request to start tracking data differences between a plurality of data mirror volumes of a storage system, wherein the storage system is configured to apply at least a first data tracking technique that tracks the data differences using one or more bitmap records and a second data tracking technique that tracks the data differences using or more journal records; selecting at least one of the first data tracking technique and the second data tracking technique using one or more selection criteria; and tracking the data differences in accordance with the selected at least one data tracking technique.

Abstract: Methods, apparatus, and processor-readable storage media for tracking data mirror differences are provided herein. An example computer-implemented method includes obtaining a request to start tracking data differences between a plurality of data mirror volumes of a storage system, wherein the storage system is configured to apply at least a first data tracking technique that tracks the data differences using one or more bitmap records and a second data tracking technique that tracks the data differences using or more journal records; selecting at least one of the first data tracking technique and the second data tracking technique using one or more selection criteria; and tracking the data differences in accordance with the selected at least one data tracking technique.

Abstract: Handling I/O operations between a plurality of virtual machines and a plurality of data storage volumes containing data for the virtual machines includes the virtual machines accessing a virtual data storage cluster engine that transfers I/O data between the virtual machines and the data storage volumes and caches at least some of the I/O data, where the virtual data storage cluster appears as a data storage volume to the virtual machines and includes drivers of at least some of the virtual machines routing at least some I/O operations directly to the volumes, where data for I/O operations that is directly routed does not pass through the virtual data storage cluster engine. Drivers for at least one of the virtual machines on a local site may communicate with drivers on a remote site in response to performing an I/O operation with at least one volume on the remote site.

Abstract: A thermally broken framing system and method of use are disclosed. The thermal framing system is comprised generally of a structural apparatus, exterior retention framing and a fastener system comprised of thermal spacer material, and structural fasteners. A structural component, such as a T-shaped member with a structural tab may lie flatly against a wall while providing a thermal break. The structural tab is further comprised of apertures located at regular intervals. The exterior retention framing is comprised generally of a retention face represented as and two framing tabs attached to a retention face. The framing tabs have framing tab apertures placed at regular intervals from each other to match the spacing of the structural tab apertures. The structural tab apertures and framing tab apertures are aligned and thermally insulated fastening units placed through the apertures, securing the system.

Abstract: A thermally broken framing system and method of use are disclosed. The thermal framing system is comprised generally of a structural apparatus, exterior retention framing and a fastener system comprised of thermal spacer material, and structural fasteners. A structural component, such as a T-shaped member with a structural tab may lie flatly against a wall while providing a thermal break. The structural tab is further comprised of apertures located at regular intervals. The exterior retention framing is comprised generally of a retention face represented as and two framing tabs attached to a retention face. The framing tabs have framing tab apertures placed at regular intervals from each other to match the spacing of the structural tab apertures. The structural tab apertures and framing tab apertures are aligned and thermally insulated fastening ants placed through the apertures, securing the system.

Abstract: A thermally broken framing system and method of use are disclosed. The thermal framing system is comprised generally of a structural stud, exterior retention framing and a fastener system comprised of thermal spacer material, and structural fasteners. In one representative embodiment, the structural stud, in cross section is C-shaped, and at one end of the structural stud is a structural tab facing in the direction of the exterior retention framing. The structural tab is further comprised of apertures located at regular intervals. The exterior retention framing is comprised generally of a retention face represented as and two framing tabs attached to the retention face. The framing tabs have framing tab apertures placed at regular intervals from each other to match the spacing of the apertures. The structural tab apertures and framing tab apertures are aligned and thermally insulated fastening units placed through the apertures, securing the apparatus.

Abstract: A method, computer program product, and computing system for defining a group of availability zones within a Platform-as-a-Service environment. A user is allowed to define a level of availability for the Platform-as-a-Service environment by selecting a plurality of availability zones from the group of availability zones.

Abstract: A share group for a distributed volume is separated into two non-overlapping, cluster-local SGCs (share group cliques). Each SGC has an independent local meta-directory master hosted by a computing node of the SGC cluster. Each SGC maintains an independent local directory for the distributed volume. The directory may be spread across multiple computing nodes of the SGC cluster. Changes to the distributed volume (writes) are coordinated across the pair of SGCs to provide data consistency. The coordination of these changes is conducted using relatively few inter-SGC round-trips. Read access to the distributed volume is safely conducted without inter-SGC coordination.

Abstract: Described are techniques for processing I/O operations. A read operation is received that is directed to a first location of a logical device. Data stored at the first location of the logical device is replicated on a plurality of data storage systems. In accordance with one or more criteria, a set of at least one of the plurality of data storage systems is determined. The one or more criteria include information describing current configuration options of the plurality of data storage systems affecting I/O operation performance. The read operation is sent to each data storage system of the set.

Abstract: A thermally broken framing system and method of use are disclosed. The thermal framing system is comprised generally of a structural stud, exterior retention framing and a fastener system comprised of thermal spacer material, and structural fasteners. In one representative embodiment, the structural stud, in cross section is C-shaped, and at one end of the structural stud is a structural tab facing in the direction of the exterior retention framing. The structural tab is further comprised of apertures located at regular intervals. The exterior retention framing is comprised generally of a retention face represented as and two framing tabs attached to the retention face. The framing tabs have framing tab apertures placed at regular intervals from each other to match the spacing of the apertures. The structural tab apertures and framing tab apertures are aligned and thermally insulated fastening units placed through the apertures, securing the apparatus.

Abstract: A distributed processing system includes a first site and a second site, each containing at least one device having cache storage, nonvolatile storage, where, in response to moving a process running on the processor of the first site to the processor running on the second site, data in the cache storage of the first site is no longer accessed by the process, the data being read into the cache of the storage of the first site in response to the process accessing data in the non-volatile memory of the first site prior to being moved to the second site. A process running on the processor of the first site moving to the processor running on the second site and corresponding cache slots may be detected by parsing the VMFS containing virtual machine disks used by the process.

Abstract: Storage virtualization systems and methods that allow customers to manage storage as a utility rather than as islands of storage which are independent of each other. A demand mapped virtual disk image of up to an arbitrarily large size is presented to a host system. The virtualization system allocates physical storage from a storage pool dynamically in response to host I/O requests, e.g., SCSI I/O requests, allowing for the amortization of storage resources-through a disk subsystem while maintaining coherency amongst I/O RAID traffic. In one embodiment, the virtualization functionality is implemented in a controller device, such as a controller card residing in a switch device or other network device, coupled to a storage system on a storage area network (SAN). The resulting virtual disk image that is observed by the host computer is larger than the amount of physical storage actually consumed.

Abstract: Storage virtualization systems and methods that allow customers to manage storage as a utility rather than as islands of storage which are independent of each other. A demand mapped virtual disk image of up to an arbitrarily large size is presented to a host system. The virtualization system allocates physical storage from a storage pool dynamically in response to host IO requests, e.g., SCSI I/O requests, allowing for the amortization of storage resources-through a disk subsystem while maintaining coherency amongst I/O RAID traffic. In one embodiment, the virtualization functionality is implemented in a controller device, such as a controller card residing in a switch device or other network device, coupled to a storage system on a storage area network (SAN). The resulting virtual disk image that is observed by the host computer is larger than the amount of physical storage actually consumed.

Abstract: Storage virtualization systems and methods that allow customers to manage storage as a utility rather than as islands of storage which are independent of each other. A demand mapped virtual disk image of up to an arbitrarily large size is presented to a host system. The virtualization system allocates physical storage from a storage pool dynamically in response to host I/O requests, e.g., SCSI I/O requests, allowing for the amortization of storage resources-through a disk subsystem while maintaining coherency amongst I/O RAID traffic. In one embodiment, the virtualization functionality is implemented in a controller device, such as a controller card residing in a switch device or other network device, coupled to a storage system on a storage area network (SAN). The resulting virtual disk image that is observed by the host computer is larger than the amount of physical storage actually consumed.

Abstract: Storage virtualization systems and methods that allow customers to manage storage as a utility rather than as islands of storage which are independent of each other. A demand mapped virtual disk image of up to an arbitrarily large size is presented to a host system. The virtualization system allocates physical storage from a storage pool dynamically in response to host I/O requests, e.g., SCSI I/O requests, allowing for the amortization of storage resources-through a disk subsystem while maintaining coherency amongst I/O RAID traffic. In one embodiment, the virtualization functionality is implemented in a controller device, such as a controller card residing in a switch device or other network device, coupled to a storage system on a storage area network (SAN). The resulting virtual disk image that is observed by the host computer is larger than the amount of physical storage actually consumed.

Abstract: Storage virtualization systems and methods that allow customers to manage storage as a utility rather than as islands of storage which are independent of each other. A demand mapped virtual disk image of up to an arbitrarily large size is presented to a host system. The virtualization system allocates physical storage from a storage pool dynamically in response to host I/O requests, e.g., SCSI I/O requests, allowing for the amortization of storage resources through a disk subsystem while maintaining coherency amongst I/O RAID traffic. In one embodiment, the virtualization functionality is implemented in a controller device, such as a controller card residing in a switch device or other network device, coupled to a storage system on a storage area network (SAN). The resulting virtual disk image that is observed by the host computer is larger than the amount of physical storage actually consumed.

Abstract: Storage virtualization systems and methods that allow customers to manage storage as a utility rather than as islands of storage which are independent of each other. A demand mapped virtual disk image of up to an arbitrarily large size is presented to a host system. The virtualization system allocates physical storage from a storage pool dynamically in response to host I/O requests, e.g., SCSI I/O requests, allowing for the amortization of storage resources through a disk subsystem while maintaining coherency amongst I/O RAID traffic. In one embodiment, the virtualization functionality is implemented in a controller device, such as a controller card residing in a switch device or other network device, coupled to a storage system on a storage area network (SAN). The resulting virtual disk image that is observed by the host computer is larger than the amount of physical storage actually consumed.