Eric M Hamilton

US Patent:

7194595, Mar 20, 2007

Filed:

Sep 27, 2004

Appl. No.:

10/951196

Inventors:

Robert L. Fair - Cary NC, US
Ashish Prakash - Morrisville NC, US
Eric Hamilton - Durham NC, US
John K. Edwards - Sunnyvale CA, US
Robert M. English - Menlo Park CA, US

Assignee:

Network Appliance, Inc. - Sunnyvale CA

International Classification:

G06F 12/00

US Classification:

711202, 711203, 711209, 718 1

Abstract:

A technique translates a hybrid virtual volume (vvol) having a file system that contains intermingled virtual and physical volume block numbers (vbns) into a “pure” stream of virtual vbns (vvbns). The stream of vvbns is illustratively embodied as an output file system data stream of a vvol image that is transferred by a source storage system (“source”) to a destination storage system (“destination”) in accordance with image transfer operations, such as volume copying and synchronous or asynchronous mirroring, provided by a volume replication facility. The blocks that are sent as part of the image transfer are selected from a container file of the hybrid vvol on the source. In particular, the invention is directed to a technique for translating physical vbns (pvbns) of a source aggregate on the source to pure vvbns of the output file system data stream that can be used on a destination aggregate of the destination, where embedded pvbns in the source hybrid vvol image are not valid.

US Patent:

7243207, Jul 10, 2007

Filed:

Sep 27, 2004

Appl. No.:

10/950893

Inventors:

Ashish Prakash - Morrisville NC, US
Robert L. Fair - Cary NC, US
John K. Edwards - Sunnyvale CA, US
Eric Hamilton - Durham NC, US
Robert M. English - Menlo Park CA, US

Assignee:

Network Appliance, Inc. - Sunnyvale CA

International Classification:

G06F 12/02

US Classification:

711202, 711209, 718 1

Abstract:

A technique converts a stream of virtual volume block numbers (vvbns) into a hybrid virtual volume (vvol) file system containing both physical volume block numbers (pvbns) and vvbns. The stream of vvbns is illustratively embodied as a file system data stream of a vvol that is transferred by a source to a destination in accordance with image transfer operations, such as volume copying and synchronous or asynchronous mirroring. Transfer of the vvol involves converting a file system on the source vvol into the file system data stream (i. e. , a “pure” vvol stream), where all blocks of the vvol are represented by vvbns. The file system data stream is then transferred to the destination, where the vvbns of the pure vvol stream blocks are converted to pvbns of a hybrid stream.

US Patent:

7321962, Jan 22, 2008

Filed:

Feb 7, 2007

Appl. No.:

11/703380

Inventors:

Robert L. Fair - Cary NC, US
Ashish Prakash - Morrisville NC, US
Eric Hamilton - Durham NC, US
John K. Edwards - Sunnyvale CA, US
Robert M. English - Menlo Park CA, US

Assignee:

Network Appliance, Inc. - Sunnyvale CA

International Classification:

G06F 12/00

US Classification:

711202, 711203, 711209, 718 1

Abstract:

A method for transferring data of a hybrid virtual volume of a computer data storage system from a source to a destination is disclosed. The method first translates intermingled virtual and physical volume block numbers of the hybrid virtual volume into a data stream having only virtual volume block numbers. The method then sends the data stream to a destination computer.

US Patent:

7370143, May 6, 2008

Filed:

Jun 20, 2005

Appl. No.:

11/157227

Inventors:

John A. Scott - Cary NC, US
Darrell Suggs - Raleigh NC, US
Eric Hamilton - Durham NC, US

Assignee:

Network Appliance, Inc. - Sunnyvale CA

International Classification:

G06F 13/00

US Classification:

711113

Abstract:

In one embodiment of the present invention, a method and system are provided to control access to the non-volatile log (NVlog) of a storage server. By controlling access to the NVLog of a storage server the relative disk write bandwidth available to different client write requests can be controlled. The incoming write request can be categorized, and, during times of heavy load, only be permitted to use NVLog space as permitted based on the categorization of each write request. In one embodiment, the present invention includes receiving a write request from a client at a storage server, and determining whether the received write request can be presently logged in a NVlog based on a category of the write request.

US Patent:

7401093, Jul 15, 2008

Filed:

Nov 10, 2003

Appl. No.:

10/705493

Inventors:

Eric Hamilton - Durham NC, US
Jeffrey S. Kimmel - Chapel Hill NC, US
Robert L. Fair - Cary NC, US
Ashish Prakash - Morrisville NC, US

Assignee:

Network Appliance, Inc. - Sunnyvale CA

International Classification:

G06F 17/00

US Classification:

707102, 707101, 707103 Y, 7071041, 707202, 707203, 707204, 711162

Abstract:

A system and method for managing file data during consistency points in a file system is provided. A buffer data control structure is modified to include a flags array that tracks various status flags for both a current and a next consistency point (CP). By utilizing multiple pointers within a buffer control structure, the file system may permit write operations to continue to a file undergoing write allocation. Received writes during a write allocation procedure are stored in raw data buffers and the buffer control structure is marked as being dirty for a next CP.

US Patent:

7506111, Mar 17, 2009

Filed:

Dec 20, 2004

Appl. No.:

11/017026

Inventors:

Eric Hamilton - Durham NC, US

Assignee:

Network Appliance, Inc. - Sunnyvale CA

International Classification:

G06F 12/00

US Classification:

711156, 711100, 707100

Abstract:

A system and method for quickly and efficiently determining the number of overwritten blocks between two data containers served by a storage system is provided. A novel vbnspace namespace is provided that is “parallel” to the file system (the “active” file system) and tracks location information (i. e. , indirect block pointers) of level data blocks within each data container, e. g. , the active file system or a PCPI. The vbnspace namespace effectively eliminates the conventional level data blocks from a storage viewpoint to thereby reduce the quantity of information needed to determine the number of overwritten blocks between the data containers.

US Patent:

7533235, May 12, 2009

Filed:

Oct 3, 2005

Appl. No.:

11/242805

Inventors:

Eric C. Hamilton - Durham NC, US
John K. Edwards - Sunnyvale CA, US

Assignee:

Network Appliance, Inc. - Sunnyvale CA

International Classification:

G06F 12/00

US Classification:

711170, 711 4, 711100, 711104, 711105, 711114, 711117, 711171, 711172, 711173, 707100, 707103 X, 719312, 719313, 709213, 709214, 709215, 709216

Abstract:

The reserves of a flexible volume and the aggregate which contains the flexible volume are “stacked”. When the flexible volume is created, a portion of the flexible volume having a capacity equal to or less than an unreserved portion of the flexible volume is guaranteed by the aggregate. When the flexible volume creates or modifies metadata, the flexible volume issues a request to the aggregate. The aggregate then issues a portion of the reserve of the aggregate to the flexible volume for storing the metadata.

US Patent:

7562189, Jul 14, 2009

Filed:

Sep 28, 2006

Appl. No.:

11/529858

Inventors:

Eric Hamilton - Durham NC, US
John A. Scott - Cary NC, US

Assignee:

Network Appliance, Inc. - Sunnyvale CA

International Classification:

G06F 12/16

US Classification:

711114, 711155, 711203

Abstract:

In a write-anywhere filesystem, a write-in-place property allows the write-anywhere filesystem to selectively perform write-in-place processing for write allocation to selected data blocks. The filesystem stores a data block in a storage, and references the data block with both physical and virtual or logical block number references. The block number references allow the filesystem to manage storage of the data blocks through indirection. The data block may be modified, which generates an updated data block in memory having the new data. The filesystem performs write allocation to store the updated data block to the storage. Write-in-place within the write-anywhere filesystem allows the write-anywhere filesystem to write the data block to the same physical location and thus maintain the same physical block number reference while modifying the virtual block number reference.