| Network Appliance, Inc. Patent applications |
| Patent application number | Title | Published |
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| 20120136832 | INCREMENTAL RESTORE OF DATA BETWEEN STORAGE SYSTEMS HAVING DISSIMILAR STORAGE OPERATING SYSTEMS ASSOCIATED THEREWITH - A method includes quiescing a file system of source storage system through a backup engine associated with the source storage system and a destination storage system and capturing, at the source storage system, a point-in-time image of the file system thereof through the backup engine. The method also includes sharing the captured point-in-time image of the file system of the source storage system with the destination storage system to enable the storage systems to have a common base data and negotiating between the storage systems for the common base data. Further, the method includes applying, to the common base data at the source storage system, a differential change corresponding to a difference between the common base data and a point-in-time image of the file system of the source storage system backed up at the destination storage system. | 05-31-2012 |
| 20120131341 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IMPROVING STORAGE SECURITY IN A CLOUD COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT - A method of improving storage security in a cloud environment includes interfacing a secure microcontroller with a storage controller associated with a client device in the cloud environment to authenticate a platform associated with the storage controller and registering the storage controller with an authentication server configured to be set up in the cloud environment. The method also includes authenticating the storage controller based on a communication protocol between the client device, the authentication server and the storage controller, and obtaining, at the client device, a signature data of the storage controller following the authentication thereof. The signature data is configured to be stored in the secure microcontroller interfaced with the storage controller. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120130874 | PROVIDING SECURITY IN A CLOUD STORAGE ENVIRONMENT - A method of providing security as a service in a cloud storage environment includes storing, through a cloud manager of the cloud storage environment, a security level of access of a storage controller associated with a customer of the security as a service, and receiving a request from the customer to access security information of the storage controller associated therewith. The method also includes providing, through the cloud manager, security information of the storage controller associated with the customer in accordance with the request and the stored security level of access of the storage controller associated with the customer. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20110246733 | RESTORATION OF A PARENT LUN THROUGH MODIFICATION OF A READ-WRITE CLONE LUN AS THE PARENT LUN - A method, apparatus and system of restoration of a parent LUN through modification of a read-write clone LUN as the parent LUN are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes transforming a snapshot of a parent LUN from a read-only state to a read-write clone LUN using a target module of a storage system. The method also includes changing a first data structure of a block transfer protocol to refer to the parent LUN as another clone LUN. Further, the method includes modifying a second data structure of the block transfer protocol to refer to the read-write clone LUN as the parent LUN. Then, the method includes restoring the parent LUN when the modification of the second data structure is completed. | 10-06-2011 |
| 20110225359 | FAST MIGRATION OF VIRTUAL STORAGE PARTITION DATA ACROSS STORAGE SYSTEMS - A method includes reading a superblock of a read-only replica of a source virtual volume in a source virtual storage partition associated with a source aggregate of a source storage system at the destination storage system, modifying the superblock of the read-only replica in a memory of the destination storage system, and associating the modified superblock with one or more virtual volume block number(s) configured to be previously associated with the superblock of the read-only replica of the source virtual volume without initiating a destination consistency point (DCP) at the destination storage system to render the destination virtual volume writable. The method also includes modifying a disk group label to reflect an association of the destination storage disk with the writable destination virtual volume, and initiating the DCP to ensure that the modified superblock and the modified disk group label are flushed to the destination storage disk. | 09-15-2011 |
| 20090327818 | MULTI-CORE ENGINE FOR DETECTING BIT ERRORS - The following description includes a method and a system of detecting bit errors in a multi-core processor. When a subatomic particle, or other matter, impacts the processing cores of the processor, bit flips may occur. To detect these bit flips and thereby prevent erroneous results, operations performed by one core are inversely performed by another core. By comparing the results of the original operation and the inverse operation, embodiments of the invention can detect errors in binary data. If an error is detected, then the operations are performed again. Alternatively, multiple cores do not perform inverse operations, but instead perform identical operations in parallel. The results from the parallel operations are compared and if the results are not identical, then the operations are repeated. | 12-31-2009 |
| 20090190760 | ENCRYPTION AND COMPRESSION OF DATA FOR STORAGE - Described is a process for encrypting and compressing data for storage by computing systems. A data stream received by a computing system is separated into data chunks for storage on a storage device using a data layout format. Each data chunk is examined and if possible, compressed to produce a compressed data chunk. Whether or not the data chunk can be compressed, the data chunk is encrypted and stored on the storage device in addition to metadata that describes the data chunk. When reading the stored data chunk from the storage device, the metadata identifies the starting location of the stored data chunk and provides metadata information to the computing system for decryption and decompression processing. | 07-30-2009 |
| 20090164536 | Using The LUN Type For Storage Allocation - In an embodiment of the invention, an apparatus uses a LUN (logical unit number) data type for storage allocation. The apparatus includes a storage appliance that specifies a LUN data type for a LUN. The storage appliance then allocates data blocks in the LUN based on the LUN data type. The storage appliance allocates data blocks in the LUN as contiguous data blocks or as non-contiguous data blocks, based on the LUN data type. The LUN data type may be, for example, database data type, user data type, or binary data type. | 06-25-2009 |
| 20090164409 | Selective Extraction Of Information From A Mirrored Image File - An embodiment of the invention provides a method to extract selected information from an image file selectively without requiring the user to restore, on the destination storage server, the image file which has the data for a file system. The selected information can be, for example, contents of a file, contents of a directory, other information from the image file. The selected information can be selectively extracted by reading the blocks of the file from the WAFL data structures that has been stored in the image file. An index file is generated and this index file tracks the location of VBNs (virtual block numbers) in an image file so that the user can easily obtain the selected information from disk blocks that are identified by these VBNs. | 06-25-2009 |
| 20090157998 | Policy based storage appliance virtualization - An embodiment of the invention provides an apparatus and method for a policy-based storage appliance virtualization that identifies the storage space based on a desired storage management operation type. One example of a storage management operation type is the allocation of storage space from a storage appliance(s) to a host(s). The requested storage space amount to be allocated to a host is first specified in a management console. The management console checks one or more policies and compares the policies with the requested storage space amount and identity of the host, so that the management console identifies the storage space(s) that are available for allocation from a storage appliance(s) to the host. The management console may generate a candidate virtualized storage pool identification that identifies the storage space(s) that are available for allocation from the storage appliance(s) to the host. The server administrator then selects the storage space(s) to be allocated to the host. The policies may also be used as constraints to other storage management operation types besides the above-mentioned storage allocation to hosts. | 06-18-2009 |
| 20090144755 | RETRIEVING DIAGNOSTICS INFORMATION IN AN N-WAY CLUSTERED RAID SUBSYSTEM - A method and system for reading exception data by a storage server from a storage controller. An exception event is detected at the storage server. The storage server registers with the controller, such that only one storage server can read the exception data at a time. If the storage server is registered with the controller, the storage server reads the exception data. If the storage server does not successfully register with the controller, the controller keeps track of which storage servers have not read the exception data, to ensure that all storage servers can read the data. | 06-04-2009 |
| 20090070536 | Managing snapshots using messages - A method and apparatus for managing snapshots of a file system using messages. A snapshot is a restorable version of a file system created at a predetermined point in time. A message is a persistent data structure supported by a file server. A message may include one or more snapshots, attributes for the message, and/or access control information for the message. The attributes and access control information are applied to all snapshots in the message. The attributes in the message enable users to perform automatic event-based management of the snapshots in the message. The access control information in the message provides granular access control to the snapshots in the message. | 03-12-2009 |
| 20090055901 | De-Centralization Of Group Administration Authority - An embodiment of a network manager permits a resource group administrator (with resource group level permissions but without global permissions) to add a global object to his/her resource group as a managed object, without requiring the administrator to have a global permission, as discussed further below. An embodiment of the network manager permits a resource group administrator to also edit the configuration settings that are attached to his/her resource group without requiring the administrator to have a global permission. | 02-26-2009 |
| 20080270461 | Data containerization for reducing unused space in a file system - An apparatus and method for containerization of multiple data objects within a block of a single container. The apparatus and method may pack multiple data objects together in a block of a logical container in a file system. The method may include receiving data in the form of multiple data objects to be stored in a file system, and collectively data packing the multiple data objects together in at least one block of a logical container in the file system. The block is a fundamental unit of storage space of the file system, and each block of the logical container includes multiple extents to store data from at least one data object of the multiple objects. The apparatus may include a plurality of storage devices coupled to a storage server. The storage server is configured to store the multiple data objects in at least one block of the logical container in the file system. Some data objects may be stored in multiple extents of one or more blocks depending on the size of the data object. | 10-30-2008 |
