| INFINIDAT LTD. Patent applications |
| Patent application number | Title | Published |
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| 20120117322 | MASS DATA STORAGE SYSTEM AND METHOD OF OPERATING THEREOF - There are provided a mass storage system comprising a control layer operatively coupled to a physical storage space and operable to interface with one or more clients and to present to said clients a plurality of logical volumes. The method of operating the storage system comprises: dividing one or more logical volumes into a plurality of statistical segments with predefined size; assigning to each given statistical segment a corresponding activity level characterizing statistics of I/O activity with regard to data portions within the given statistical segment, said statistics collected over a plurality of cycles of fixed counting length; and managing one or more data storage processes in the storage system (e.g. a background defragmentation process, a background garbage collection process, a destage management process, etc.) using said activity level. | 05-10-2012 |
| 20120079207 | MASS STORAGE SYSTEM AND METHOD OF OPERATING THEREOF - There is provided a mass storage system and a method of operating thereof. The method comprises: a) generating one or more consistency checkpoints; b) associating each generated consistency checkpoint with a global number of snapshots generated in the storage system corresponding to time of generation of respective checkpoint; c) upon generating, placing each consistency checkpoint at the beginning of a sequence of dirty data portions which are handled in a cache memory with the help of a replacement technique with an access-based promotion; d) enabling within the sequence of dirty data portions an invariable order of consistency checkpoints and dirty data portions corresponding to volumes with generated snapshots; and e) responsive to destaging a certain consistency checkpoint, recording associated with the certain checkpoint global number of generated snapshots to a predefined storage location configured to be read during a recovery of the storage system. The invariable order can be provided by ceasing access-related promotion of all dirty data portions corresponding to all volumes with generated snapshots. | 03-29-2012 |
| 20120072694 | VIRTUALIZED STORAGE SYSTEM AND METHOD OF OPERATING THEREOF - A storage system and method is provided including physical storage devices controlled by storage control devices constituting a storage control layer operatively coupled to the physical storage devices and hosts. The storage control layer includes a first virtual layer interfacing with the hosts, operable to represent a logical address space available to said hosts and characterized by an Internal Virtual Address Space (IVAS); a second virtual layer characterized by a Physical Virtual Address Space (PVAS), interfacing with the physical storage devices, and operable to represent an available storage space; and an allocation module operatively coupled to the first and second virtual layers and providing mapping between IVAP and PVAS. Each address in PVAS is configured to have a corresponding address in IVAS. The allocation module facilitates management of IVAS and PVAS, enabling separation of a process of deleting certain logical object into processes performing changes in IVAS and PVAS, respectively. | 03-22-2012 |
| 20120066469 | VIRTUALIZED STORAGE SYSTEM AND METHOD OF OPERATING THEREOF - A storage system and method are provided including physical storage devices controlled by storage control devices constituting a storage control layer operatively coupled to the physical storage devices and hosts. The storage control layer includes: a first virtual layer interfacing with the hosts, operable to represent a logical address space characterized by logical block addresses, characterized by an Internal Virtual Address Space (IVAS) and operable, responsive to I/O requests addressed to logical block addresses, to provide protocol-dependent translation of said logical block addresses into IVAS addresses; and a second virtual layer interfacing with the physical storage space, and operable to represent available physical space to said hosts and characterized by a Physical Virtual Address Space (PVAS). Each address in PVAS having a corresponding address in IVAS. The second virtual layer is operable to translate PVAS addresses corresponding to IVAS addresses into addresses in physical address space in a protocol-independent manner. | 03-15-2012 |
| 20120066450 | VIRTUALIZED STORAGE SYSTEM AND METHOD OF OPERATING THEREOF - A storage system and method is provided including physical storage devices controlled by storage control devices constituting a storage control layer operatively coupled to the physical storage devices and hosts. The storage control layer includes: a first virtual layer interfacing with the hosts, operable to represent a logical address space characterized by logical block addresses and available to said hosts and characterized by an Internal Virtual Address Space (IVAS) and operable, responsive to a configuration or I/O request addressed to the logical block addresses, to translate said logical block addresses into IVAS addresses; and a second virtual layer interfacing with the physical storage devices, operable to represent an available physical space to said hosts and characterized by a Physical Virtual Address Space (PVAS), addresses in PVAS having corresponding address in IVAS. The second virtual layer is operable to translate said respective IVAS addresses into addresses in the physical address space. | 03-15-2012 |
| 20120030426 | METHOD OF ACCESS CONTROL TO STORED INFORMATION AND SYSTEM THEREOF - The presently disclosed subject relates at least to a method and system for controlling access to a logical unit (LU) in a logical storage space, available to a given initiator, representing a corresponding physical storage space, said logical storage space being accessible via a storage control layer, said storage control layer being associated with a security manager. A first value is generated by the security manager, based on a secret key, and transmitted to host requesting permission to access the logical storage space, while the secret key is made available to a target associated with the logical storage space. The host sends to the control device an access related request, the request comprising a second value which was generated based on the first value. Responsive to the command the target calculates the first value, based on the secret key and the second value based on the first value. The second value is validated with the help of said secret key and the respective access is allowed in case the second value is validated. | 02-02-2012 |
| 20120011319 | MASS STORAGE SYSTEM AND METHOD OF OPERATING THEREOF - There are provided a mass storage system and a method of operating thereof. The method comprises: dividing one or more logical volumes into a plurality of statistical segments with predefined size; assigning to each given statistical segment a corresponding activity vector characterizing statistics of I/O activity with regard to data portions within the given statistical segment, said statistics collected over a plurality of cycles of fixed counted length; and evaluating similarity of expected I/O activity with regard to certain data portions with the help of activity vectors. Two data portions are characterized by similar expected I/O activity if a distance between activity vectors characterizing respective statistical segments matches a similarity criterion. | 01-12-2012 |
| 20120011314 | STORAGE SYSTEM WITH REDUCED ENERGY CONSUMPTION AND METHOD OF OPERATING THEREOF - There are provided a storage system with reduced energy consumption and a method of operating thereof. The method comprises caching in the cache memory a plurality of data portions corresponding to one or more incoming write requests, to yield cached data portions; consolidating the cached data portions characterized by a given level of expected I/O activity addressed thereto into a consolidated write request; and, responsive to a destage event, enabling writing the consolidated write request to one or more disk drives dedicated to accommodate data portions characterized by said given level of expected I/O activity addressed thereto. The cached data portions consolidated into the consolidated write request can be characterized by expected low frequency of I/O activity, and the respective one or more dedicated disk drives can be configured to operate in low-powered state unless activated. | 01-12-2012 |
| 20120011313 | STORAGE SYSTEMS WITH REDUCED ENERGY CONSUMPTION - Storage systems with reduced energy consumption, methods of operating thereof, corresponding computer program products and corresponding program storage devices. Some non-limiting examples of a write method include: configuring a plurality of storage disk units such that at any given point in time there are at least two storage disk drives operating in active state in any storage disk unit; caching in a cache memory one or more write requests and generating a consolidated write request corresponding to a stripe in a RAID group; destaging the consolidated write request; and writing the destaged consolidated write request in a write out of place manner to one or more storage disk drives operating at the destage point of time in active state. Some non-limiting examples of a read method include: configuring local storage disk drives so that at any given point in time, a part of the local storage disk drives operates in low power state, wherein the local storage disk drives are operable to switch between low power state and active state; and responsive to a read request for a portion on a local storage disk drive, reading from the local storage disk drive, if active; and if the local storage disk drive is not active, enquiring if a remote mirror storage disk drive storing a copy of the portion is active, and if yes, reading from the remote mirror storage disk drive. | 01-12-2012 |
| 20120011312 | STORAGE SYSTEM WITH REDUCED ENERGY CONSUMPTION - A control layer of a data storage system is configured to identify one or more physical data units in the physical storage, which are associated only with corresponding logical snapshot data units, and to reallocate such physical snapshot data units to a dedicated storage space. The dedicated storage space can be a low-power storage space, which includes one or more disks designated as low power disks. The reallocation of snapshot data units to low power disks can be carried out according to an energy-aware migration policy, directed for minimizing the activation of the low power disks, and maintaining the disks in an inactive state for longer periods of time. | 01-12-2012 |
| 20110208914 | STORAGE SYSTEM AND METHOD OF OPERATING THEREOF - There are provided a storage system, storage control unit and method of operating thereof. A storage system comprises a permanent storage subsystem comprising a first cache memory and a non-volatile storage medium, and a storage control unit operatively coupled to said subsystem and to a second cache memory operable to cache “dirty” data pending to be written to the permanent storage subsystem and to enable, responsive to at least one command by the control storage unit, destaging said “dirty” data or part thereof to the permanent storage subsystem. The storage control unit is operable to determine achievement of a “writing criterion”, to provide, upon achieving, at least one command to the permanent storage subsystem requiring flushing destaged data or part thereof from the first cache memory to the non-volatile storage medium, and to provide at least one command to the second cache memory requiring reclassification of the “washed” data or a respective part thereof into the “clean” data, wherein the storage control unit is further operable to configure the “writing criterion” responsive to indicating one or more predefined events during an operation of the storage system. | 08-25-2011 |
| 20110202723 | Method of allocating raid group members in a mass storage system - There are provides an allocation module and a method of allocating a logical disk to a next member of a given RAID group. The method comprises: identifying one or more physical disks comprising at least one logical disk with already allocated member of said given RAID group, thus giving rise to allocated physical disks; identifying one or more pairs constituted by at least one allocated physical disk with non-allocated physical disks, said pairs having minimal number of RAID groups with members allocated to both physical disks in the pair, thus giving rise to a first group of pairs with minimal contention value; and selecting among the first group of pairs with minimal contention value one or more non-allocated physical disks as candidate physical disks for allocating said next member MEM | 08-18-2011 |
| 20110202722 | Mass Storage System and Method of Operating Thereof - There are provided a storage system and a method of operating thereof. The method comprises: caching in the cache memory a plurality of data portions matching a certain criterion, thereby giving rise to the cached data portions; analyzing the succession of logical addresses characterizing the cached data portions; if the cached data portions cannot constitute a group of N contiguous data portions, where N is the number of RG members, generating a virtual stripe being a concatenation of N data portions wherein at least one data portion among said data portions is non-contiguous with respect to any other portion in the virtual stripe, and wherein the size of the virtual stripe is equal to the size of the stripe of the RAID group; destaging the virtual stripe and writing it to a respective storage device in a write-out-of-place manner. The virtual stripe can be generated responsive to receiving a write request from a client and/or responsive to receiving a write instruction from a background process. | 08-18-2011 |
| 20110082997 | VIRTUALIZED STORAGE SYSTEM AND METHOD OF OPERATING THEREOF - There are provided a storage system and a method of operating thereof. The method comprises: a) representing to a plurality of hosts an available logical address space divided into one or more logical groups (e.g. logical volumes, virtual partitions, snapshots, combinations of a given logical volume and its respective snapshot(s), etc.), and b) mapping between one or more contiguous ranges of addresses related to the logical address space and one or more contiguous ranges of addresses related to the physical address space, wherein said mapping is provided with the help of one or more mapping trees, each tree assigned to a separate logical group in the logical address space. Mapping between contiguous ranges of addresses related to the logical address space and contiguous ranges of addresses related to the physical address space can be a) mapping between LBA and DBA addresses; b) mapping between VUA and VDA addresses; c) mapping between LBA and VDA addresses; and d) mapping between VUA and DBA addresses, wherein virtual unit addresses (VUA) characterize a first virtual layer operable to represent the logical address space, and virtual disk addresses (VDA) characterize a second virtual layer operable to represent the physical storage space. | 04-07-2011 |
