Patents by Inventor Masayuki Yamamoto

Masayuki Yamamoto has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20130254504
    Abstract: A computer system and data migration method capable of replacing a storage apparatus with another storage apparatus and avoiding stopping data transmission or reception between a host computer and the storage apparatuses without depending on the configuration of existing storage apparatuses and other devices is suggested.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 13, 2013
    Publication date: September 26, 2013
    Applicant: HITACHI, LTD.
    Inventors: Hideo SAITO, Yoshiaki EGUCHI, Masayuki YAMAMOTO, Akira YAMAMOTO
  • Publication number: 20130246668
    Abstract: A computer system including a management computer for managing the entire system, an integral apparatus, and a high-level connecting device for connecting the management computer and the integral apparatus is designed so that the management computer retains integral apparatus internal configuration information, configuration information about an integral apparatus to be introduced, that indicates the configuration of the integral apparatus that may possibly be introduced to the system, and lifetime information indicating lifetime of the integral apparatus; obtains connectivity guarantee information indicating whether connectivity between the computer and the storage apparatus is guaranteed or not; selects an integral apparatus to be removed from the system by referring to the lifetime information; selects an integral apparatus to be introduced to the system by referring to the integral apparatus internal configuration information, the configuration information about the integral apparatus to be introduced, an
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 6, 2013
    Publication date: September 19, 2013
    Applicant: HITACHI, LTD.
    Inventors: Yasunori KANEDA, Yutaka KUDO, Yukio OGAWA, Masakatsu MORI, Tomoki SEKIGUCHI, Masayuki YAMAMOTO, Naoto MATSUNAMI
  • Publication number: 20130238845
    Abstract: For a storage apparatus where flash memory disks and hard disks coexist, high-density mounting of flash memory modules is achieved. The storage apparatus includes flash memories and a storage controller. A second storage apparatus including magnetic disks is connected to the storage apparatus. The storage controller can form a storage area using a flash memory or a magnetic disk to create a logical volume. When an input/output request is issued from a host computer, if a storage area is formed with a flash memory, the storage controller directly accesses the flash memory to handle the request. When the storage apparatus defines a storage area formed with a flash memory, the storage apparatus defines the storage area by adding up the capacity of a storage area to be provided for the host computer and a substitute area capacity determined in consideration of restrictions on the number deletions of the flash memory.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 22, 2013
    Publication date: September 12, 2013
    Applicant: HITACHI, LTD.
    Inventors: Masayuki YAMAMOTO, Akira YAMAMOTO, Akira FUJIBAYASHI, Jun KITAHARA, Yoshiki KANO
  • Patent number: 8533421
    Abstract: A management computer monitors an allocated capacity of a source virtual volume and an allocated capacity of a virtual pool having a storage area allocated to a destination virtual volume in a storage, judges whether the allocated capacity of the source virtual volume can be covered in the virtual pool or not, and informs the user of a result that data migration fails when the allocated capacity of the source virtual volume cannot be covered. When the allocated capacity of the source virtual volume cannot be covered, the management computer uses another storage area to increase the capacity of the virtual pool. Accordingly, when data migration is performed between the virtual volumes, capacities of physical areas allocated to the source virtual volume and the destination virtual volume can be grasped so that the data migration can be performed accurately between the source virtual volume and the destination virtual volume.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2013
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Masayasu Asano, Tetsuya Maruyama, Masayuki Yamamoto
  • Patent number: 8510515
    Abstract: A first virtual storage and a second virtual storage share an external LU (Logical Unit) inside an external storage. The first virtual storage comprises a first LU, which comprises multiple first virtual areas and conforms to thin provisioning, and an external capacity pool, which is a storage area based on the external LU, and which is partitioned into multiple external pages, which are sub-storage areas. The second virtual storage comprises a second LU, which comprises multiple second virtual areas and conforms to thin provisioning.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 13, 2013
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Akira Yamamoto, Noboru Morishita, Hideo Saito, Yoshiaki Eguchi, Masayuki Yamamoto
  • Patent number: 8491695
    Abstract: An iron-base sintered part having high density and totally enhanced strength, toughness and abrasion resistance, a manufacturing method of the iron-base sintered part, and an actuator are disclosed. The iron-base sintered part is formed by an iron-nickel-molybdenum-carbon-based sintered alloy, has density of 7.25 g/cm3 or more, and has a carburization quenched structure. A method for manufacturing the iron-base sintered part includes a molding process of charging a raw mixture powder of an iron-nickel-molybdenum-based metal powder and a carbon-based powder into a cavity of a molding die and compressing the raw powder in the cavity to form a consolidation body, a sintering process of sintering the consolidation body at a sintering temperature to form a sintered alloy, and a carburization quenching process of heating the sintered alloy in a carburization atmosphere and quenching the heated alloy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2013
    Assignee: JTEKT Corporation
    Inventors: Toshiyuki Saito, Takumi Mio, Koji Nishi, Hajime Fukami, Kentaro Yamauchi, Hiroyuki Yao, Masayuki Yamamoto, Hideki Yamazaki
  • Patent number: 8495325
    Abstract: Data migration can be preformed between source and target storage subsystems without stopping exchanging data between a host computer and each of the storage subsystems. After a next access path, which should be set instead of a specific access path in an available state among access paths, is set between the host computer and a migration target logical unit via a host port and a target port, the status of the next access path is set to an available state and the status of the specific access path is set to an unavailable state. After the next access path is set to an available state, data is migrated from a migration source logical unit of the source storage subsystem to the migration target logical unit of the target storage subsystem.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2013
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Masayuki Yamamoto, Akio Nakajima, Yasunori Kaneda, Akira Yamamoto
  • Patent number: 8489845
    Abstract: A pool, which is configured by multiple actual areas, is formed on the basis of two or more storage devices. A second storage control apparatus (DKC) determines, for each storage device, an unused capacity to be given to a first DKC with respect to each first DKC based on an unused capacity of each storage device and a request value of each storage device for each first DKC, and gives, for each first DKC, the unused capacity for each storage device determined with respect to the first DKC, to this first DKC. The request value of the storage device is based on a performance value, which is a value related to the performance of this storage device. The total capacity of multiple actual areas allocated to the virtual volumes by the first DKC is equal to or less than the unused capacity given with respect to each storage device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2013
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Satoru Ozaki, Yuko Matsui, Masayuki Yamamoto, Shigeo Homma, Hiroshi Kawano
  • Patent number: 8484414
    Abstract: The storage system comprises a plurality of flash packages configuring one or more RAID groups, and a controller coupled to the plurality of flash packages. Each flash package comprises a plurality of flash chips configured from a plurality of physical blocks. The controller identifies a target area related to an unnecessary area, unmaps a physical block allocated to a logical block belonging to this target area from this logical block, and manages the unmapped physical block as a free block.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 9, 2013
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Sadahiro Sugimoto, Akira Yamamoto, Masayuki Yamamoto, Akihiko Araki
  • Publication number: 20130164478
    Abstract: A double-faced pressure-sensitive adhesive sheet, including a first pressure-sensitive adhesive layer, and a second pressure-sensitive adhesive layer provided on one side of the aforementioned first pressure-sensitive adhesive layer, wherein a primary component of the first pressure-sensitive adhesive layer is a two-part acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive (I), and a weight average molecular weight of the pertinent two-part acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive (I) is 150,000-800,000, and wherein a primary component of the second pressure-sensitive adhesive layer is a two-part acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive (II), and a weight average molecular weight of the pertinent two-part acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive (II) is 900,000-2,000,000.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 3, 2011
    Publication date: June 27, 2013
    Applicants: OJI HOLDINGS CORPORATION, NEW TAC KASEI CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Masayuki Yamamoto, Yohei Nakamura, Kuniaki Muto, Yasufumi Sumitomo
  • Publication number: 20130151763
    Abstract: A storage system 100, which has a plurality of flash packages 230, has a function for minimizing the imbalance of the number of deletions of each block inside the flash package 230 and a block-unit capacity virtualization function, and efficiently manifests lessening of the imbalance of the number of deletions and reduction in the data storage capacity for the entire storage system 100 by having functions for calculating the number of deletions and the data occupancy of each flash package 230, and for transferring data between the flash packages 230 on the basis of the values of these number of deletions and data occupancy.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 7, 2013
    Publication date: June 13, 2013
    Applicant: HITACHI, LTD.
    Inventors: Akira YAMAMOTO, Sadahiro SUGIMOTO, Akihiko ARAKI, Masayuki YAMAMOTO
  • Patent number: 8463995
    Abstract: A storage system has multiple disk controller (DKC) units that are coupled to one another in accordance with a coupling mode that satisfies the following (a1) through (a3): (a1) One DKC inside one DKC unit and one DKC inside another DKC unit are coupled via a second type of coupling medium that differs from the internal bus of the DKC and has a longer maximum communication distance than a first type of coupling medium, which is the same type of coupling medium as the internal bus of the DKC; (a2) the one DKC unit virtualizes a logical volume of the other DKC unit and provides this virtualized logical volume to host(s) coupled to the one DKC unit; and (a3) the other DKC unit virtualizes a logical volume of the DKC unit and provides this virtualized logical volume to host(s) coupled to the other DKC unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 2010
    Date of Patent: June 11, 2013
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Yuko Matsui, Hiroshi Kawano, Shigeo Homma, Masayuki Yamamoto
  • Patent number: 8458424
    Abstract: A storage system comprises a virtual volume configured of multiple virtual areas and a pool configured of multiple actual area groups of different performances. The controller of the storage system manages which actual areas are assigned to which virtual areas and the access load on the actual areas assigned to the virtual areas. The controller, if the access load of a first actual area assigned to a first virtual area is inappropriate for a first actual area group comprising the first actual area, migrates data to a second actual area in a second actual area group which is appropriate for the access load of the first actual area from the first actual area. The controller performs data migration between actual areas for achieving data allocation at a certain point of time based on history information which is the information related to a virtual area at a point of time in the past and an actual area assigned to the virtual area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2010
    Date of Patent: June 4, 2013
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Azusa Sudo, Yoshiaki Eguchi, Masayuki Yamamoto, Yoichi Mizuno
  • Patent number: 8452923
    Abstract: A storage system including a first storage apparatus having at least one volume to be provided to a host computer, a second storage apparatus connected to the first storage apparatus and having a second volume having a pair relationship with a first volume, and a management apparatus. The management apparatus includes a user interface for setting an attribute of functions related to at least one volume of the first storage apparatus and at least one volume of the second storage apparatus. The management apparatus compares an attribute of a first function related to the first volume and an attribute of a second function related to the second volume, and sets the attribute of the second function to be consistent with the attribute of the first function. The management apparatus there commands restoration of the first volume or the second volume to a state before the set the attribute operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 28, 2013
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Hirotaka Nakagawa, Masayasu Asano, Yuichi Taguchi, Masayuki Yamamoto
  • Patent number: 8447937
    Abstract: A data migrating method including calculating, in a case where data stored in a volume is migrated to another volume, a required period of time for migrating the data based on a size of data to be migrated and volume configuration information on the volume in which the migrated data is stored and the volume to which the data is to be migrated, determining a start time at which the data migration starts to generate a volume migration plan, setting a priority of the generated volume migration plan, prioritizing, in a case where a periods of time during which the generated volume migration plan is executed and a period of time during which an existing volume migration plan is executed are overlapped with each other, and changing the start time of at least one of those volume migration plans having a lower priority.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 21, 2013
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Tetsuya Maruyama, Yuichi Taguchi, Masayasu Asano, Masayuki Yamamoto
  • Patent number: 8447915
    Abstract: A controller in a flash memory device manages erase count of each physical block and manages the erase frequency of each logical block. The controller allocates a logical block whose erase frequency is high to one or more physical blocks whose erase count is low.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 23, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 21, 2013
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Akihiko Araki, Sadahiro Sugimoto, Masayuki Yamamoto, Akira Yamamoto
  • Patent number: 8443160
    Abstract: With a computer system having a host computer and first and second storage apparatuses, the second storage apparatus virtualizes first logical units in the first storage apparatus and provides them as second logical units to the host computer, collects configuration information about each first logical unit, and sets each piece of the collected configuration information to each corresponding second logical unit. The host computer adds a path to the second logical units and deletes a path to the first logical units. The second storage apparatus copies data stored in the first logical units to a storage area provided by the second storage device and associates the storage area with the second logical units.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2013
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Hideo Saito, Yoshiaki Eguchi, Masayuki Yamamoto, Akira Yamamoto
  • Patent number: 8438316
    Abstract: A computer system including a management computer for managing the entire system, an integral apparatus, and a high-level connecting device for connecting the management computer and the integral apparatus is designed so that the management computer retains integral apparatus internal configuration information, configuration information about an integral apparatus to be introduced, that indicates the configuration of the integral apparatus that may possibly be introduced to the system, and lifetime information indicating lifetime of the integral apparatus; obtains connectivity guarantee information indicating whether connectivity between the computer and the storage apparatus is guaranteed or not; selects an integral apparatus to be removed from the system by referring to the lifetime information; selects an integral apparatus to be introduced to the system by referring to the integral apparatus internal configuration information, the configuration information about the integral apparatus to be introduced, an
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2013
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Yasunori Kaneda, Yutaka Kudo, Yukio Ogawa, Masakatsu Mori, Tomoki Sekiguchi, Masayuki Yamamoto, Naoto Matsunami
  • Patent number: 8429372
    Abstract: For a storage apparatus where flash memory disks and hard disks coexist, high-density mounting of flash memory modules is achieved. The storage apparatus includes flash memories and a storage controller. A second storage apparatus including magnetic disks is connected to the storage apparatus. The storage controller can form a storage area using a flash memory or a magnetic disk to create a logical volume. When an input/output request is issued from a host computer, if a storage area is formed with a flash memory, the storage controller directly accesses the flash memory to handle the request. When the storage apparatus defines a storage area formed with a flash memory, the storage apparatus defines the storage area by adding up the capacity of a storage area to be provided for the host computer and a substitute area capacity determined in consideration of restrictions on the number deletions of the flash memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 8, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2013
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Masayuki Yamamoto, Akira Yamamoto, Akira Fujibayashi, Jun Kitahara, Yoshiki Kano
  • Patent number: 8412908
    Abstract: A storage system allocates a data storage area in response to an access request from a first computer if the capacity of a first physical storage device configuring a first logical storage area, provided to the first computer, is equal to or lower than a predetermined threshold. The storage system associates the first logical storage area with another physical storage device, which is different from the first physical storage device associated with a second logical storage area provided to the first computer and a second computer, and allocates a data storage area from the another physical storage device if the capacity of the first physical storage device associated with the first logical storage area exceeds the predetermined threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2013
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Masayuki Yamamoto, Takayuki Nagai, Masayasu Asano, Yasunori Kaneda