Abstract: Data compression is performed on a storage system for which one or more host systems have direct access to data on the storage system. The storage system may compress the data for one or more logical storage units (LSUs) having data stored thereon, and may update compression metadata associated with the LSUs and/or the data portions thereof to reflect that the data is compressed. In response to a read request for a data portion received from a host application executing on the host system, compression metadata for the data portion may be accessed. If it is determined from the compression metadata that the data portion is compressed, the data compression metadata for the data portion may be further analyzed to determine how to decompress the data portion. The data portion may be retrieved and decompressed, and the decompressed data may be returned to the requesting application.

Abstract: In response to receiving a read metadata request from the host system for a data portion, the storage system may determine a status and location of the data portion, including determining whether the data portion is in a cache of the storage system. If the data portion is in the cache, the storage system may send a response that includes the data portion itself along with the status and location of the data portion. If the data portion is not in the cache, the storage system may send a response to the read metadata request that includes the status and location of the data portion, but not the data portion itself. The host system may be configured to determine whether the data portion has been returned with the metadata response, and if so, refrain from sending a separate data request, for example, to retrieve the data portion from cache.

Abstract: A backup data storage system includes non-volatile memory units, a disk interface coupled to at least some of the non-volatile memory units, a connection component that facilitates exchanging data with the backup data storage system, and a smart network interface controller, coupled to the disk interface and the connection component to provide tape emulation to a host coupled to the backup data storage system. The disk interface, the connection component, and the smart network interface controller may be coupled using a PCIe bus. Tape data written to the backup storage device may be stored on the non-volatile memory units. A processor coupled to the smart network interface controller and the disk interface may receive the data from the smart network interface controller and may provide the data to the disk interface to store the data on the non-volatile memory units. The connection component may be a FICON connection component.

Abstract: A storage system may maintain a purge counter for one or more logical storage units. When an instruction is received to perform an operation that will modify data across the one or more logical storage units, the purge counter may be incremented. One or more host systems implementing host caching may periodically poll the storage system to determine the purge counter value. When the current value of the purge counter value is different than a previously polled purge counter value recorded on a host system, the host system may purge from its host cache any entries for logical storage units associated with the purge counter. The data storage system may not execute the data modification instruction until it receives acknowledgement from all host systems caching data affected by the modification instruction that the host system has purged any host cache entries corresponding to the LSUs affected by the modification operation.

Abstract: A storage system may maintain a purge counter for one or more logical storage units. When an instruction is received to perform an operation that will modify data across the one or more logical storage units, the purge counter may be incremented. One or more host systems implementing host caching may periodically poll the storage system to determine the purge counter value. When the current value of the purge counter value is different than a previously polled purge counter value recorded on a host system, the host system may purge from its host cache any entries for logical storage units associated with the purge counter. The data storage system may not execute the data modification instruction until it receives acknowledgement from all host systems caching data affected by the modification instruction that the host system has purged any host cache entries corresponding to the LSUs affected by the modification operation.

Abstract: When a read request for the data portion is received from an application executing on a host, the host may determine whether the data portion is in host cache, and if so, whether the logical storage unit of the data portion is shared by another host system. If there is another host system sharing the logical storage unit, a latest version stored on the storage system may be determined and compared to the version stored in the host cache. If the version in the host cache is the same as the latest version stored on the storage system, the data portion may be retrieved from the host cache. If the version in the host cache is not the latest version stored on the storage system, the data portion may be retrieved from the storage system, and the host cache may be updated with the latest version of the data portion.

Abstract: A host system is connected to the internal fabric of a storage system without an intervening external network or director or other component of the storage system controlling the host system's access to the internal fabric. The host system may exchange I/O communications with physical storage devices and/or global memory over an I/O path that does not include any directors, for example, over the internal fabric to which the host system is directly attached. In embodiments in which at least a portion of the global memory is considered part of a director, the host system may be configured to communicate with such global memory over the internal fabric and without use of director compute resources.

Abstract: Secure access to data on a storage system via direct connection to an internal fabric of the storage system may be provided. A storage system interface (SSI) may validate each I/O communication originating on the host system before allowing a corresponding I/O communication to be transmitted on the internal fabric. The validation may include applying predefined rules and/or ensuring that the I/O communication conforms to one or more technologies, e.g., NVMe. The SSI may be configured to encrypt I/O communications originating on a host system and to decrypt I/O communications received from the storage system, for example, in embodiments in which data is encrypted in flight from the host system to physical storage devices, and data may be encrypted at rest in memory of the storage system and/or on physical storage devices.

Abstract: In a data processing system having multiple production hosts, each with a backup agent, interfaced to a storage array and to a backup server, an array I/O priority engine on the storage array establishes and enforces I/O priorities for I/O backup and production communications with the array to ensure that backup does not consume a disproportionate CPU processing and array bandwidth load or disrupt more critical production processing.

Abstract: A system for improving backup performance includes an interface, a processor, and a memory. The interface is to receive a volume identifier to backup. The processor is to determine allocation for data of a volume associated with the volume identifier in a plurality of storage tiers to improve backup processing, move data based at least in part on the allocation, and backup data of the volume. The memory is coupled to the processor and configured to provide the processor with instructions.

Abstract: A storage system may include an interface configured to connect with a mainframe computing system. The interface converts the protocol used by the mainframe computing system to another protocol. Once the data, which may be present in a backup data stream, from the mainframe computing system is converted, the storage system may direct or transmit the backup data stream for further processing such as deduplication and/or compression. The de-duplicated and/or compressed backup data stream is then stored to storage of the storage system.

Abstract: A host system may include metadata mapping logical storage devices and logical addresses therein to physical storage devices and physical addresses therein. For a read operation, the host system, if it is determined that the data is not in cache on the storage system, the host system may determine, from the device-mapping metadata, the physical storage device and physical location (e.g., address range) therein of the data to be read. The data then may be read from the physical storage device over the internal fabric of the storage system without use of a director. Data may be read from the physical storage device to the host system using RDMA communications that do not involve use of any CPU resources on the host system or the storage system.

Abstract: In a data processing system having multiple production hosts, each with a backup agent, interfaced to a storage array and to a backup server, an array I/O priority engine on the storage array establishes and enforces I/O priorities for I/O backup and production communications with the array to ensure that backup does not consume a disproportionate CPU processing and array bandwidth load or disrupt more critical production processing.

Abstract: Embodiments provide for a primary storage array having multiple storage tiers. The multiple storage tiers include one or more performance tiers and at least one deduplicated storage tier storing deduplicated data. One embodiment provides for a data storage system including management logic to manage the deduplicated storage tier. The management logic can receive a request to store deduplicated data and respond to the request to store the deduplicated data based on workload statistics associated with the data. In one embodiment the response to the request includes storing at least a portion of the deduplicated data to a first storage device in the second set of storage devices and the workload statistics include input/output (I/O) statistics associated with the unit of deduplicated data. In other embodiments the response includes reallocating drives between storage tiers and/or providing migration hints with respect to data on the deduplicated storage tier.

Abstract: A storage system interface (SSI) located externally to a data storage system serves as an interface between a host system and the data storage system. The SSI may be part of the host system, and in some embodiments may be a separate and discrete component from the remainder of the host system, physically connected to the remainder of the host system by one or more buses that connect periphery devices to the remainder of the host system. The SSI may be physically connected directly to the internal fabric of the data storage system, and may be implemented on a card or chipset physically connected to the remainder of a host system by a PCIe bus. The SSI may provide functionality traditionally provided on data storage systems, enabling at least some I/O processing to be offloaded from data storage systems to hosts that include SSIs.

Abstract: A host system performs I/O processing functions traditionally performed on storage systems. Metadata about data stored on the storage system may be stored on the host system, including metadata about the data stored in a cache of the storage system. The SSI may be configured to determine whether an I/O operation is a read or write operation. If the I/O operation is a read operation, the SSI may determine from metadata stored thereon whether the data to be read is in cache. If the data is in cache, the SSI may read the data directly from cache over the internal fabric without use of CPU resources of a director, and, in some embodiments, without use of a director at all. If the data is not in cache, the SSI may read the data directly from the physical storage device over the internal fabric without use of a director.

Abstract: Embodiments provide for a primary storage array having multiple storage tiers. The multiple storage tiers include one or more performance tiers and at least one deduplicated storage tier storing deduplicated data. One embodiment provides for a data storage system including a first storage tier including a first set of storage devices; a second storage tier including a second set of storage devices, the second storage tier including deduplicated data; and a quality of service (QoS) manager to manage data migration between the first storage tier and the second storage tier, the QoS manager to maintain deduplication statistics for the deduplicated data, wherein the QoS manager, based on the deduplication statistics, is to partially migrate a data extent between the first storage tier and the second storage tier, the data extent including data stored at a range of storage addresses.

Abstract: A backup engine of a first storage system receives a request to perform a backup session from the first storage system to a second storage system based on a backup service level objective (SLO) that has been configured for the backup session. In response to the request, it is determined that a first backup resource allocated for the backup session by the first storage system cannot satisfy the SLO based on statistics of prior backup sessions in view of characteristics of the backup session to be performed. A dynamic resource allocation (DRA) module is to dynamically perform a first DRA to modify the first backup resource to satisfy the SLO. The backup engine then initiates the backup session by transmitting backup data from the first storage system to the second storage system using the modified first backup resource.

Abstract: A backup copy of a production device is used to quantify suitability of host application data for placement on individual managed drives and virtualized managed drives based on storage capabilities associated with those drives. A data analysis program on a data backup storage array may generate block backup statistics to indicate that a production device or certain chunks, blocks or volumes of host application data are highly compressible or reducible via deduplication. The block backup statistics are sent from the data backup storage array to the primary storage array. The primary storage array uses the block backup statistics to select a particular storage resource with suitable storage capabilities for the data. Highly compressible data may be stored on a storage virtualization storage array with data compression capability, and data that is neither highly compressible nor reducible with deduplication may be stored on local resources.

Abstract: Techniques for inter-host communication may include issuing a first message from a first host; and sending the first message from the first host to a second host. Sending the first message may include transmitting the first message indirectly to the second host over a first connection between a first data storage system and a second data storage system. The first connection may be used in connection with data replication to maintain a first device of the first data storage system and a second device of the second data storage system as synchronous mirrored copies of a first logical device. Multiple logical devices configured for synchronous replication may be used for inter-host communication. Alternatively, a single logical device configured for synchronous replication may be used for inter-host communication.