Abstract: Systems and methods which implement a buffer for storing data to be written to a storage device when a data write operation of the storage device is determined to be outside of an acceptable parameter are disclosed. An elasticity buffer of embodiments may provide buffering on an as needed basis with respect to storage device cache flushing operations to thereby persistently store dirty write data from a storage device cache when a storage device data write is experiencing aberrant operation, such as when the data write is taking too long. The resources of the storage device cache may thus be cleaned and made available for subsequent data caching. The data may subsequently be written from the elasticity buffer to the storage device, such as after recovery action is taken with respect to the storage device, when the storage device starts completing data write operations in a timely fashion, etc.

Abstract: Systems and associated methods for flexible scalability of storage systems. In one aspect, a storage controller may include an interface to a fabric adapted to permit each storage controller coupled to the fabric to directly access memory mapped components of all other storage controllers coupled to the fabric. The CPU and other master device circuits within a storage controller may directly address memory an I/O devices directly coupled thereto within the same storage controller and may use RDMA features to directly address memory an I/O devices of other storage controllers through the fabric interface.

Abstract: Systems and associated methods for flexible scalability of storage systems. In one aspect, a storage controller may include an interface to a fabric adapted to permit each storage controller coupled to the fabric to directly access memory mapped components of all other storage controllers coupled to the fabric. The CPU and other master device circuits within a storage controller may directly address memory an I/O devices directly coupled thereto within the same storage controller and may use RDMA features to directly address memory an I/O devices of other storage controllers through the fabric interface.

Abstract: Systems and associated methods for flexible scalability of storage systems. In one aspect, a storage controller may include an interface to a fabric adapted to permit each storage controller coupled to the fabric to directly access memory mapped components of all other storage controllers coupled to the fabric. The CPU and other master device circuits within a storage controller may directly address memory an I/O devices directly coupled thereto within the same storage controller and may use RDMA features to directly address memory an I/O devices of other storage controllers through the fabric interface.

Abstract: Methods and systems for dynamic storage tiering may comprise: discovering one or more remote virtual drives associated with one or more remote storage arrays; advertising one or more local virtual drives associated with a local storage array; receiving one or more IO requests from a client addressed to one or more remote virtual drives associated with one or more remote storage arrays; transmitting one or more command descriptor block (CDB) requests to one or more remote storage arrays associated with the one or more virtual drives to allocate local cache space and transmitting the one or more IO requests to the one or more remote storage arrays via Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA).

Abstract: The present invention is a method for providing atomicity for host write Input/Outputs (I/Os) in a Continuous Data Protection (CDP)-enabled volume. When a host overwrite Input/Output (I/O) is initiated by a host against a data block of the CDP-enabled volume, the method may include creating an in-flight write log entry and providing the in-flight write log entry to an in-flight write log of the CDP-enabled volume. The in-flight write log entry may correspond to the host overwrite I/O. The method may further include locating mapping table information in a mapping table of the CDP-enabled volume. The mapping table information may correspond to the data block. The method may further include recording a journal entry in a journal of the CDP-enabled volume. The journal entry may include a journal entry timestamp which corresponds to the host overwrite I/O. The method may further include allocating a storage location for the host overwrite I/O.

Abstract: Methods and systems for rapid creation of copies of a mapped storage volume. A new copy of a mapped storage volume is created by copying the mapping table and updating meta-data associated with the new copy and any ancestral parents thereof. The physical blocks remain untouched when creating a new copy as does any meta-data associated with the physical blocks. Rather, reference meta-data associated with each physical block is updated only in response to processing of a write request to an identified block of an identified copy of the mapped storage volume. Thus copy creation is rapid as compared to prior techniques reliant on reference counters.

Abstract: A non-disruptive method for updating firmware in a first controller 210 of a redundant controller 200 in a storage subsystem 120 is disclosed. This updating occurs while the storage subsystem 120 presents data to a host system 130 in response to a host request 132. During the non-disruptive updating, the updating first controller 210 redirects the host request 132 for data, e.g., drive-A volume 252 normally owned by the first controller 210, to second controller 220 of the redundant controller 200. After the second controller 220 obtains data 134 identified in the host request 132, the operating second controller 220 transfers the data 134 to the updating first controller 210 via an inter-controller channel 202. Once the updating first controller 210 receives the data 134, the first controller 210 presents the data 134 to the host system 130. The host system 130 does not detect that the first controller 210 is updating because the updating process is invisible to the host system 130.

Abstract: Methods and systems for dynamic storage tiering may comprise: discovering one or more remote virtual drives associated with one or more remote storage arrays; advertising one or more local virtual drives associated with a local storage array; receiving one or more IO requests from a client addressed to one or more remote virtual drives associated with one or more remote storage arrays; transmitting one or more command descriptor block (CDB) requests to one or more remote storage arrays associated with the one or more virtual drives to allocate local cache space and transmitting the one or more IO requests to the one or more remote storage arrays via Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA).

Abstract: The present invention is a method for providing atomicity for host write Input/Outputs (I/Os) in a Continuous Data Protection (CDP)-enabled volume. When a host overwrite Input/Output (I/O) is initiated by a host against a data block of the CDP-enabled volume, the method may include creating an in-flight write log entry and providing the in-flight write log entry to an in-flight write log of the CDP-enabled volume. The in-flight write log entry may correspond to the host overwrite I/O. The method may further include locating mapping table information in a mapping table of the CDP-enabled volume. The mapping table information may correspond to the data block. The method may further include recording a journal entry in a journal of the CDP-enabled volume. The journal entry may include a journal entry timestamp which corresponds to the host overwrite I/O. The method may further include allocating a storage location for the host overwrite I/O.

Abstract: Methods and systems for rapid creation of copies of a mapped storage volume. A new copy of a mapped storage volume is created by copying the mapping table and updating meta-data associated with the new copy and any ancestral parents thereof. The physical blocks remain untouched when creating a new copy as does any meta-data associated with the physical blocks. Rather, reference meta-data associated with each physical block is updated only in response to processing of a write request to an identified block of an identified copy of the mapped storage volume. Thus copy creation is rapid as compared to prior techniques reliant on reference counters.

Abstract: Systems and methods for distribution of a product that may be configured in accordance with any of a plurality of sub-model configurations. An unconfigured product may be shipped to a customer accompanied by a plurality of authorization codes each representing a possible sub-model configuration of the unconfigured product. The authorization code may be encrypted and indicates the serial number of the product and the corresponding sub-model code. The product's controller may configure the product at the time of end-user installation or purchase using the authorization code and returns an acknowledgement message to the product manufacturer indicating the selected sub-model configuration of the product. The authorization codes and acknowledgement message may be encrypted using public key encryption. The acknowledgement message may be returned manually as a report or electronically to the manufacturer for product sales auditing.

Abstract: A system and method for packaging a command string in an offline mode into a script, transmitting the script, and using a controller to read the script and send commands and data to an individual device attached to the controller. The script may contain a header and one or more action and action payloads. When the script is interpreted by the controller, various commands and data may be passed directly to the individual device. Such a system may be useful for performing low level commands on the device, including loading firmware.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to a method and system for high bandwidth fault tolerance in a storage system while the system, maintaining dual parity scheme, may tolerate the failure of more than one disk. An array controller may comprise a parity buffer sufficiently large enough to hold all of the parity blocks for an entire stripe of data. This may provide for high bandwidth fault tolerance without reading the source blocks twice while the dual parity values are calculated using two different/independent parity computations for a given stripe. Such a dual parity scheme may allow the storage system to tolerate the failure of more than one disk.

Abstract: The present invention provides for a method and computer program product for handling timeout in a standard RPC connection. First, a client establishes a connection with a server with unique identification. After submitting an RPC request, the client system will periodically make secondary requests to the server to determine if the server is still actively processing the primary RPC request. If the secondary request is processed successfully and the server indicates that the primary request is still in progress, the client will continue to wait until either the primary request completes or enough time elapses to warrant another secondary request. The success of the secondary request hinges on finding a match of identification for the primary and secondary requests. If the secondary request fails, this failure is treated as a sign that there is either a network or a server problem, and the client is triggered into taking appropriate corrective action.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to a method and system for managing the coherency of mirrored storage volumes, including a method and system for restoring coherency in the event of communication disruption between the primary volume and the secondary volume mirroring the data on the primary volume. The system includes a primary and a secondary storage controllers for managing the primary and secondary storage volumes. The storage controllers are capable of performing cyclic redundancy checking scans of their respective storage volumes and comparing the results to determine data from the primary storage volume needed to update the secondary storage volume so that it mirrors the primary storage volume.

Abstract: The present invention is a method and system for associating metadata with user data in a storage array in a manner that provides independence between metadata management and a storage controller's cache block size. Metadata may be associated with user data according to multiple fashions in order to provide a desired performance benefit. In one example, the metadata may be associated according to a segment basis to maximize random I/O performance and may be associated according to a stripe basis to maximize sequential I/O performance.

Abstract: A method and system for communicating across heterogeneous networks having components with dissimilar data structure definitions is disclosed in which determinations are made as to whether the sender is up-level or down-level and whether the up-level data structure size is greater or lesser than the down-level data structure size. According to these determinations, data fields for the decoded data structure may skip data or assign default values. The invention reduces upgrade costs and system down time.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method for continuing a rebuilding process of a RAID system by flagging a block of data as being bad when a media error or other error occurs that prohibits the reconstruction of data. The block of data may be flagged by writing a bad error correction code to the block of data, by keeping a log of bad blocks of data, or by otherwise indicating that the block of data is known bad.

Abstract: A transparent switch is able to emulate the arbitration and addressing steps for devices that are normally connected to a bus-type communications network. The switch is connected to the devices in a star-type arrangement, with each device connected to a separate port. The switch performs the arbitration and addressing communications with a transmitting device, selects the proper port as defined by the addressing communication, arbitrates with the receiving device, and then switches the communications to occur directly from the transmitting device to the receiving device.