Abstract: A gear drive assembly is used in an actuator. The gear drive assembly includes a housing and a gear arrangement including a drive gear, a driven gear, and one of a first selected gear and a second selected gear engageable with both of the drive and driven gears. The drive and driven gears and the first selected gear have a first gear ratio. The drive and driven gears and the second selected gear have a second gear ratio not equal to the first gear ratio. The internal surface of the housing defines first and second gear retention features to facilitate selective rotatable coupling of the first and second selected gears with the housing, respectively. A method of manufacturing the gear drive assembly includes the steps of selecting one of the first and second selected gears, engaging it with the drive and driven gears, and coupling it with the housing.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a system for managing a virtualization environment includes a set of host machines, each of which includes a hypervisor, virtual machines, and a virtual machine controller, and a file server splitting system configured to split an existing virtualized file server (VFS) into a set of new virtualized file servers (VFSs), the splitting system configured to select one or more existing file server virtual machines (FSVMs) to be removed from the existing VFS. For each existing FSVM, the splitting system is configured to identify an available FSVM that is separate from the existing VFS, provide resources of the existing FSVM to the available FSVM, incorporate the available FSVM into one of the new VFSs, and remove the existing FSVM from the existing VFS. The splitting system may be further configured to re-direct requests to access storage items served by the existing FSVM to the available FSVM.

Abstract: Particular embodiments provide a plurality of host machines, one or more virtual disks comprising a plurality of storage devices, and a virtualized file server (VFS) comprising a plurality of file server virtual machines (FSVMs), wherein each of the FSVMs is running on one of the host machines and conducts I/O transactions with the one or more virtual disks. A distributed health monitoring service (HMS) may be running on each of the host machines running a FSVM. The HMS may monitor the FSVMs to determine whether any of the FSVMs has failed or is having problems. The HMS may detect that a plurality of the FSVMs have failed, wherein the failed FSVMs form a portion of the FSVMs comprising the VFS. For each of the failed FSVMs, the HMS may reassign an IP address corresponding to the failed FSVM to a live one of the FSVMs.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a system for managing a virtualization environment comprises a plurality of host machines, one or more virtual disks comprising a plurality of storage devices, a virtualized file server (VFS) comprising a plurality of file server virtual machines (FSVMs), wherein each of the FSVMs is running on one of the host machines, and a backup system configured to, in response to a request to access a data item, determine an access frequency for the data item. The backup system is further configured to, in response a request to store a data item, determine a storage tier at which the data item is to be stored in a cloud storage service, wherein the tier is determined based on the access frequency associated with the data item, and store the data item at the determined tier of the cloud storage service.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a system for managing a virtualization environment comprises a plurality of host machines, one or more virtual disks comprising a plurality of storage devices, a virtualized file server (VFS) comprising a plurality of file server virtual machines (FSVMs), wherein each of the FSVMs is running on one of the host machines, wherein the VFS is configured to detect a failure of one of the FSVMs on a first one of the host machines, wherein the first host machine is located within a first block of host machines. The VFS may then identify a failover path to a second FSVM. For each storage resource associated with the first FSVM, the VFS may migrate the storage resource to the second FSVM.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a system for managing a virtualization environment includes host machines implementing a virtualization environment, a plurality of clusters of the host machines, a virtualized file server (VFS) comprising a plurality of file server virtual machines (FSVMs), and a VFS cluster manager (CM) configured to distribute storage items among the clusters and receive cluster storage statistics for one or more shares of the VFS. The CM is further configured to, in response to a request from a first FSVM to identify a storage location for a storage item, identify a cluster at which the storage item is to be located based on the cluster storage statistics, identify a second FSVM at which the storage item is to be located based on compute usage statistics of one or more FSVMs in the identified cluster, and send an address of the second FSVM to the first FSVM.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a system for managing a virtualization environment includes a set of host machines, each of which includes a hypervisor, virtual machines, and a virtual machine controller, and a first virtualized file server configured to receive a request to access a storage item located at a second virtualized file server, determine that the storage item is designated as being accessible by other virtualized file servers, identify an FSVM of the second virtualized file server at which the storage item is located, and forward the request to the FSVM of the second virtualized file server. The storage item may be designated as being accessible by other virtualized file servers when the storage item is associated with a predetermined tag value indicating that the storage item is shared among virtualized file servers. The predetermined tag value may be stored in a sharding map in association with the storage item.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a system for managing a virtualization environment includes a set of host machines, each of which includes a hypervisor, virtual machines, and a virtual machine controller, and a virtualized file server backup system configured to identify backup data, wherein the backup data comprises data stored on the virtual disks and VFS configuration information, and the first data is identified in accordance with a backup policy, send the backup data to one or more remote sites for storage, and, in response to detection of changes in the backup data, send the changes to the remote sites in accordance with a replication policy. The backup data may be identified based on a protection domain associated with the backup policy. The data stored on the VFS may include one or more storage objects. The storage objects may include shares, groups of shares, files, or directories.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a system for managing a virtualization environment includes a set of host machines, each of which includes a hypervisor, virtual machines, and a virtual machine controller, and a data migration system configured to identify one or more existing storage items stored at one or more existing File Server Virtual Machines (FSVMs) of an existing virtualized file server (VFS). For each of the existing storage items, the data migration system is configured to identify a new FSVMs of a new VFS based on the existing FSVM, send a representation of the storage item from the existing FSVM to the new FSVM, such that representations of storage items are sent between different pairs of FSVMs in parallel, and store a new storage item at the new FSVM, such that the new storage item is based on the representation of the existing storage item received by the new FSVM.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a system for managing a virtualization environment includes a plurality of host machines, wherein each of the host machines comprises a hypervisor and one or more user virtual machines (user VMs), and a virtual machine controller, one or more virtual disks comprising a plurality of storage devices, a virtualized file server (VFS) comprising a plurality of file server virtual machines (FSVMs), wherein each of the FSVMs is running on one of the host machines. The VFS may be configured to receive a request for storage system information from a user and generate and send a response to the request, wherein the response is customized according to configuration information of the VFS that is specific to the user. The storage system information requested may include a total size of storage available to the user, and the user may have an associated storage quota limit.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a system for managing communication connections in a virtualization environment includes a plurality of host machines implementing a virtualization environment, wherein each of the host machines includes a hypervisor, at least one user virtual machine (user VM), and a distributed file server that includes file server virtual machines (FSVMs) and associated local storage devices. Each FSVM and associated local storage device are local to a corresponding one of the host machines, and the FSVMs conduct I/O transactions with their associated local storage devices based on I/O requests received from the user VMs. Each of the user VMs on each host machine sends each of its respective I/O requests to an FSVM that is selected by one or more of the FSVMs for each I/O request based on a lookup table that maps a storage item referenced by the I/O request to the selected one of the FSVMs.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a system for managing a virtualization environment comprises a plurality of host machines, one or more virtual disks comprising a plurality of storage devices, a virtualized file server (VFS) comprising a plurality of file server virtual machines (FSVMs), wherein each of the FSVMs is running on one of the host machines and conducts I/O transactions with the one or more virtual disks, and a virtualized file server self-healing system configured to identify one or more corrupt units of stored data at one or more levels of a storage hierarchy associated with the storage devices, wherein the levels comprise one or more of file level, filesystem level, and storage level, and when data corruption is detected, cause each FSVM on which at least a portion of the unit of stored data is located to recover the unit of stored data.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a system for managing a virtualization environment comprises a plurality of host machines, one or more virtual disks comprising a plurality of storage devices, a virtualized file server (VFS) comprising a plurality of file server virtual machines (FSVMs), wherein each of the FSVMs is running on one of the host machines and conducts I/O transactions with the one or more virtual disks, and a virtualized file server backup system configured to back up data stored in a VFS located a cluster of host machines to an object store, and retrieve the backed-up data as needed to restore the data in the VFS. The object store may be located in a public cloud. The object store may include a low-cost storage medium within the cluster. An FSVM of the VFS may provide an object store interface to low-cost storage media.

Abstract: Particular embodiments provide a system for managing a virtualization environment, the system comprising a plurality of host machines, one or more virtual disks comprising a plurality of storage devices, and a virtualized file server (VFS) comprising a plurality of file server virtual machines (FSVMs), wherein each of the FSVMs is running on one of the host machines and conducts I/O transactions with the one or more virtual disks, and the host machines form a cluster. A health monitoring service may monitor the FSVMs to determine whether any of the FSVMs has failed or is having problems. If the health monitoring service detects a failure of one of the FSVMs on a first one of the host machines, for each resource lock associated with the first FSVM, the health monitoring service may reassign the resource lock to another one of the FSVMs.

Abstract: A blended learning solution is defined by determining degrees of elements in learning zones. The zones are defined by the types of interactions of the learners. Both formal and informal learning is defined for each zone. A specialized circular display is constructed to depict the optimal blended learning solution.

Abstract: Apparatus for obtaining an image of a specimen (6) by optical projection tomography comprises a light scanner, such as a light-scanning confocal microscope (1, 2, 3) for subjecting the specimen (6) to a scanning movement of incident light.

Abstract: Apparatus for treating tissue specimens comprises a stationary outer casing (2) in the top of which is positioned an annular trough (3) for holding a liquid. Rotatably mounted in the outer casing (2) is a central hub (5) supporting a disc-like lid (6) the underside of which carries a magnet (7). In use, the magnets hold, in a detachable manner, tissue specimens (12) and the trough (3) is filled with a liquid for treating the specimens. The hub (5) is capable of vertical translational movement with respect to the casing (2) to enable the specimens to be lowered into and subsequently lifted out of the trough (3). A method of treating tissue specimens is also provided.

Abstract: Apparatus for obtaining an image of a specimen (6) by optical projection tomography comprises a confocal microscope (1, 2, 3) which produces a light beam which scans the specimen (6) whilst the latter is supported in a rotary stage (7). Light passing through the specimen is passed through a convex lens (8) which directs, onto a central light detector of an array of detectors (9), light which exits or by-passes the specimen parallel to the beam incident on the specimen.

Abstract: A knowledge management system allocating expert resources, method of allocating expert resources and program product therefor. Information requests are provided over networked devices, e.g., over voice and data networks. Data on experts may be stored in an expert database and data on requesters stored in a requestor database. A pairing unit identifies an appropriate expert matched to each request and requestor. The pairing unit includes a request/requestor characterization unit collecting request/requestor attributes, a matching unit matching request/requestor attributes with an expert, and a routing unit routing each incoming request to a selected matching expert.

Abstract: A blended learning solution is defined by determining degrees of elements in learning zones. The zones are defined by the types of interactions of the learners. Both formal and informal learning is defined for each zone. A specialized circular display is constructed to depict the optimal blended learning solution.