Patents by Inventor Ronald H. McLean

Ronald H. McLean 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).

  • Patent number: 6161192
    Abstract: Metadata described herein on a RAID array includes both device metadata and RAIDset metadata. The device metadata has a device FE bit on each storage device corresponding to each RAID protected block on the storage device. The device FE bit indicates if a corresponding RAID protected block is consistent and thereby useable to regenerate data in another RAID protected block in the corresponding RAID protected block's sliver. The user data also has a forced error bit to indicate if a physical block in the user block has inconsistent data, the RAIDset FE bit. The RAID array of storage devices has user data blocks on each storage device RAID protected by being distributed as slivers of blocks across the RAID array of storage devices. Each sliver has a plurality of user data blocks and one parity block. The RAIDset metadata has the RAIDset FE bit corresponding to each RAID protected user data block in the RAID array.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 1995
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2000
    Assignee: Compaq Computer Corporation
    Inventors: Clark E. Lubbers, Stephen J. Sicola, Ronald H. McLean, James Perry Jackson, Robert A. Ellis
  • Patent number: 5933592
    Abstract: A RAID array includes redundant storage devices. Data is distributed across the storage devices, and organized as slivers of RAID protected data blocks. This redundancy provides for the reconstruction of valid data when data at a particular data block of a sliver is found to be inconsistent. However, when more than one data block of a sliver is found to have inconsistent data, reconstruction of the inconsistent data blocks may not be possible. Nonetheless, data consistency can still be restored to that sliver. Consistency is restored to such a sliver by replacing any inconsistent data in a data block with predetermined data and reconstructing the parity data block using the predetermined data. Other data in the RAID array keeps track of those data blocks with the predetermined data to indicate that such blocks do not contain valid data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 1995
    Date of Patent: August 3, 1999
    Assignee: Digital Equipment Corporation
    Inventors: Clark E. Lubbers, Stephen J. Sicola, Ronald H. McLean, James Perry Jackson, Robert A. Ellis
  • Patent number: 5826001
    Abstract: A data block in a RAID array is reconstructed under the control of metadata recorded on the RAID array. The RAID array has a plurality of members, each member being a data storage device. The metadata includes device metadata for data blocks recorded on each member and RAIDset metadata for RAID protected data blocks recorded across the members of the RAID array. The RAID protected data blocks include user data blocks, RAIDset metadata blocks and parity data blocks. The data blocks are reconstructed by detecting from a device FE bit in the device metadata that a bad data block corresponding to or associated with the device FE bit needs to be reconstructed. The data is read from each data block, other than the bad data block, in the same RAID sliver with bad data block. A RAID sliver of data blocks includes all the data blocks in a RAID protected sliver of data blocks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 1995
    Date of Patent: October 20, 1998
    Assignee: Digital Equipment Corporation
    Inventors: Clark E. Lubbers, Stephen J. Sicola, Ronald H. McLean, James Perry Jackson, Robert A. Ellis
  • Patent number: 5774643
    Abstract: Disclosed is a method and apparatus for reconstructing data in a computer system employing a modified RAID 5 data protection scheme. The computer system includes a write back cache composed of non-volatile memory for storing (1) writes outstanding to a device and associated data read, and (2) storing metadata information in the non-volatile memory. The metadata includes a first field containing the logical block number or address (LBN or LBA) of the data, a second field containing the device ID, and a third field containing the block status. From the metadata information it is determined where the write was intended when the crash occurred. An examination is made to determine whether parity is consistent across the slice, and if not, the data in the non-volatile write back cache is used to reconstruct the write that was occurring when the crash occurred to insure consistent parity, so that only those blocks affected by the crash have to be reconstructed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 1995
    Date of Patent: June 30, 1998
    Assignee: Digital Equipment Corporation
    Inventors: Clark E. Lubbers, Susan G. Elkington, Ronald H. McLean