Abstract: Described herein are processes and devices that control and use virtual universe wish lists. One of the devices described is a virtual wish list device. The virtual wish list device determines an item in a virtual universe that is a desired by an avatar. The virtual wish list device designates the item as a desired item in a wish list. The wish list may be stored in the avatar's virtual universe inventory. The wish list device determines details about the desired item, such as whether the item is desired in the virtual universe or in the real world. The wish list device stores the details about the desired item in the wish list. The virtual wish list device may use the details to conduct transactions related to the desired item.

Abstract: Provided are a method, system, and program for using a heartbeat signal to maintain data consistency for writes to source storage copied to target storage. A copy relationship associates a source storage and target storage pair, wherein writes received at the source storage are transferred to the target storage. A determination is made whether a signal has been received from a system within a receive signal interval. A freeze operation is initiated to cease receiving writes at the source storage from an application in response to determining that the signal has not been received within the receive signal interval. A thaw operation is initiated to continue receiving write operations at the source storage from applications after a lapse of a freeze timeout in response to the freeze operation, wherein after the thaw operation, received writes completed at the source storage are not transferred to the target storage.

Abstract: Methods and systems are provided for recursively backing up modified data files where only modified data files are backed up and that provide a user with an efficient way to determine which original files have been modified to allow the user to readily locate original files if the user is not satisfied with any modifications to the original files. A mirror memory structure is created, but only modified files are saved to the mirror memory structure and modified files bear the same names as original files to assist in easily locating original files.

Abstract: An availability metric is obtained for groups of databases or other computer resources by capturing related stop and start events which are set. Event data, including the stop and start events, can be communicated from agents associated with the databases to a central manager. An availability monitoring server periodically queries the central manager to obtain the stop and start events, and analyzes the event data to determine time periods in which the databases are unavailable. The availability metric can be determined based on a ratio of: (a) a sum of the downtimes of the databases in a given time period and (b) a product of the total number of databases and the time period, e.g., expressed in units of database-minutes. The availability metric can be determined separately for separate clusters of databases and used to provide a service level agreement.

Abstract: A hosted multi-tenant application is provided that permits a tenant to self-manage aspects of the operation of the application. A tenant may be permitted to upgrade the multi-tenant application on-demand or according to a schedule, to place the multi-tenant application into a read-only mode of operation, to create a shadow copy of their unshared organization database, to merge changes to a shadow copy into a master version of the unshared organization database, to create and revert to snapshots of an unshared organization database, and to perform other functions. A computing architecture that utilizes site-wide server computers and scale groups may be utilized to implement this functionality.

Abstract: A data storage device stores therein files as mirror source or mirror destination, and has ownership rights to files stored as mirror source. Having received a number of read/write requests to a file stored as mirror destination from a data processing device, the data storage device obtains an ownership right to the file, and updates ownership status of the file from mirror destination to mirror source. Thus, response time to the read/write requests to the file can be improved. After that, if the data processing device frequently requests another data storage device for access to the file, an ownership right to the file is transferred to the other data storage device, and accordingly, the ownership status of the file is updated.

Abstract: Methods, computer-readable media, and apparatuses support data transfer through electronic and secured channels, in which manual intervention for collecting, collating, or posting reporting results is reduced. Consistent data sets over different data sources may be collected for different accounts. Data entries in a data set may be further audited in order to verify data integrity. A data source may be backed up through a local (distributed) network of administrator machines so that the data may be analyzed at another data site without possibly corrupting the original data. Reports may also be generated using standard business rules across accounts. Moreover, custom reports are supported allowing multiple (as determined by entry criteria) degrees of freedom.

Abstract: One aspect of the present invention provides a system for failover comprising at least one client selectively connectable to one of at least two interconnected servers via a network connection. In a normal state, one of the servers is designated a primary server when connected to the client and a remainder of the servers are designated as backup servers when not connected to the client. The at least one client is configured to send messages to the primary server. The servers are configured to process the messages using at least one service that is identical in each of the servers. The services are unaware of whether a server respective to the service is operating as the primary server or the backup server. The servers are further configured to maintain a library, or the like, that indicates whether a server is the primary server or a server is the backup server. The services within each server are to make external calls via its respective library.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer program products to provide temporal storage in a fabric-based virtualization environment are presented. Such capacity is provided through the association of a temporal storage appliance, which is configured as a member of a linked VLUN with a non-temporal disk volume. The linked VLUN is provided by a virtualizing fabric switch to a network node such as a network node.

Abstract: Achieving improvement in protection of recorded data and reproduction performance and editing performance of video data and audio data, in addition to minimizing the number of disk devices, an inexpensive and high-performance video recording and reproducing apparatus (100) and a method thereof include: a first disk device and a second disk device; a mirroring unit which mirrors video data and audio data to an identical logical address employed by the first disk device and the second disk device; a reading unit which reads (i) the video data out of one of the first disk device and the second disk device, and (ii) the audio data out of another one of the first disk device and the second disk device; and a reproducing unit which reproduces, via synchronization, the video data and the audio data read by the reading unit.

Abstract: An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for continuously protecting data. A mirror module mirrors a primary record set to a base record set. A log module accumulates each record change to the primary record set in a log. A change selection module selects a record change from the log. A change application module applies the selected record change to the base record set to form a recovered record set.

Abstract: The Secure Networked Data Shadowing System is connected to a plurality of monitored computer systems via an existing communication medium to store the shadowed data. The data is encrypted by the monitored computer system using a cryptokey, and the data file is processed using a hash function prior to encryption, so the contents of this file are uniquely identified. Thus, the encrypted file is stored in its encrypted form and the hash index is used to identify the encrypted file. A “data de-duplication” process avoids storing multiple copies of the same files by identifying instances of duplication via the hash index. Files that have the same hash index can be reduced to a single copy without any loss of data as long as the file structure information for each instance of the file is maintained.

Abstract: Methods and a system to acquire and perform write validation of data generated by one or more networked host nodes to perform secondary storage are disclosed. According to one embodiment, a method to passively acquire and perform write validation of data generated by one or more networked host nodes to perform secondary storage in a SAN-based data storage and recovery network includes generating data to store in primary storage. The method further includes generating metadata describing the data generated to store in primary storage, sending the data and metadata to a primary SAN storage device, acquiring passive access to data traveling a data path between a generating node and the primary SAN storage device, the data mirrored over an access line to a secondary storage server. The method further includes receiving, at the secondary storage server, an exact copy of a data stream that passes a splitter.

Abstract: A method to copy computer files, where that method includes receiving a computer file, mapping that file to its constituent blocks, generating meta-data describing those constituent blocks, saving that meta-data in a memory device, and copying the file to one or more information storage media, where the mapping step, the generating step, and the saving step, are performed substantially synchronously, and where the copying step is performed at a later time. A data storage and retrieval system comprising a computer useable medium having computer readable program code disposed therein to copy computer files on one or more information storage media disposed therein. A computer program product usable with a programmable computer processor having computer readable program code embodied therein for copying computer files.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and system are presented for establishing redundant computer resources. According to one embodiment, in a system including a plurality of processor devices and a plurality of storage devices, the processor devices, the storage devices and the management server being connected via a network, the method comprises storing device information relating to the processor devices and the storage devices and topology information relating to topology of the network, identifying at least one primary computer resource, selecting at least one secondary computer resource suitable to serve as a redundant resource corresponding to the at least one primary computer resource based on the device information and the topology information, and assigning the at least one secondary computer resource as a redundant resource corresponding to the at least one primary computer resource.

Abstract: A system and method for nearly in-band search indexing. A network switch (or other intermediate network device) is configured to provide port mirroring so that data access requests directed to a storage system are forwarded to both the storage system and to a search appliance. The search appliance collects index information from the received data access requests to update a search index. As the search appliance is nearly in-band, i.e., not directly in-line of the data access request path, no increase of latency occurs for processing data access requests by the storage system.

Abstract: Performing data management operations on replicated data in a computer network. Log entries are generated for data management operations of an application executing on a source system. Consistency point entries are used to indicate a time of a known good, or recoverable, state of the application. A destination system is configured to process a copy of the log and consistency point entries to replicate data in a replication volume, the replicated data being a copy of the application data on the source system. When the replicated data represents a known good state of the application, as determined by the consistency point entries, the destination system(s) may perform a storage operation (e.g., snapshot, backup) to copy the replicated data and to logically associate the copied data with a time information (e.g., time stamp) indicative of the source system time when the application was in the known good state.

Abstract: A system and method are provided for performing storage operations relating to a first secondary copy of electronic data. A storage policy or storage preferences may dictate that a replication copy should be used in storage operations performed to a particular client, sub-client, data, media or other item. Based on the storage policy, when a new client, sub-client, data, media or other item is received, a media agent determines whether there is a replication copy of the item. In the absence of a replication copy, one may be created. The replication copy may be provided by a third party application, or created by the client or a storage management system component. Information regarding the replication copy and its corresponding first secondary copy may be stored in a database. To optimize use of system resources, storage operations relating to the first secondary copy may be performed using the replication copy instead of the first secondary copy.

Abstract: Systems and methods are presented that facilitate automatic database backup and restore for databases resident in personal computing devices, and which are transparent to a user, utilizing database page mirroring. Modifications to a data page in a data file can be validated and written to a backup, or mirror, database and then subsequently written to an original database after a predetermined time. An I/O latch on a mirrored data page can be limited to a duration of a single I/O write operation to facilitate sequential data page writing to each of the databases while mitigating potential for both databases to be written simultaneously, which can detrimentally affect data quality during a recovery operation.

Abstract: A system is disclosed for synchronizing partially-replicated collections using the concept of item-set knowledge and move-out notifications. Move-out notifications are provided to allow removal of changed items from replicas when the change in the item takes that item outside of the interest set of the replicas.

Abstract: A primary processor manages metadata of a production dataset and a snapshot copy, while a secondary processor provides concurrent read-write access to the primary dataset. The secondary processor determines when a first write is being made to a data block of the production dataset, and in this case sends a metadata change request to the primary data processor. The primary data processor commits the metadata change to the production dataset and maintains the snapshot copy while the secondary data processor continues to service other read-write requests. The secondary processor logs metadata changes so that the secondary processor may return a “write completed” message before the primary processor commits the metadata change. The primary data processor pre-allocates data storage blocks in such a way that the “write anywhere” method does not result in a gradual degradation in I/O performance.

Abstract: The invention relates to a system for providing and pricing travel product inventory contained in external databases not under the control of the operator and additionally comprises ghost databases which are a mirror of the external databases. The system further comprises an information manager adapted to receive search criteria from a user and to apply pricing rules to the search results which determine the final display price quoted to the user. The information manager thereafter filters the priced search results by a productmaster UID to group the same actual travel product inventory as supplied by different suppliers, into a single search result, and then provides the grouped results to the user connected to the system via the communications module.