Robert L English

US Patent:

6993701, Jan 31, 2006

Filed:

Dec 28, 2001

Appl. No.:

10/035607

Inventors:

Peter F. Corbett - Lexington MA, US
Steven R. Kleiman - Los Altos CA, US
Robert M. English - Menlo Park CA, US

Assignee:

Network Appliance, Inc. - Sunnyvale CA

International Classification:

G11C 29/00
G06F 11/00

US Classification:

714770, 714 6, 711114

Abstract:

A “row-diagonal” (R-D) parity technique reduces overhead of computing diagonal parity for a storage array adapted to enable efficient recovery from the concurrent failure of two storage devices in the array. The diagonal parity is computed along diagonal parity sets that collectively span all data disks and a row parity disk of the array. The parity for all of the diagonal parity sets except one is stored on the diagonal parity disk. The R-D parity technique provides a uniform stripe depth and an optimal amount of parity information.

US Patent:

7185144, Feb 27, 2007

Filed:

Nov 24, 2003

Appl. No.:

10/720364

Inventors:

Peter F. Corbett - Lexington MA, US
Steven R. Kleiman - Los Altos CA, US
Robert M. English - Menlo Park CA, US

Assignee:

Network Appliance, Inc. - Sunnyvale CA

International Classification:

G06F 12/00
G06F 11/00

US Classification:

711114, 711170, 714 7

Abstract:

A semi-static distribution technique distributes parity across disks of an array. According to the technique, parity is distributed (assigned) across the disks of the array in a manner that maintains a fixed pattern of parity blocks among the stripes of the disks. When one or more disks are added to the array, the semi-static technique redistributes parity in a way that does not require recalculation of parity or moving of any data blocks. Notably, the parity information is not actually moved; the technique merely involves a change in the assignment (or reservation) for some of the parity blocks of each pre-existing disk to the newly added disk.

US Patent:

7203892, Apr 10, 2007

Filed:

Dec 16, 2005

Appl. No.:

11/303788

Inventors:

Peter F. Corbett - Lexington MA, US
Steven R. Kleiman - Los Altos CA, US
Robert M. English - Menlo Park CA, US

Assignee:

Network Appliance, Inc. - Sunnyvale CA

International Classification:

G11C 29/00

US Classification:

714770

Abstract:

A “row-diagonal” (R-D) parity technique reduces overhead of computing diagonal parity for a storage array adapted to enable efficient recovery from the concurrent failure of two storage devices in the array. The diagonal parity is computed along diagonal parity sets that collectively span all data disks and a row parity disk of the array. The parity for all of the diagonal parity sets except one is stored on the diagonal parity disk. The R-D parity technique provides a uniform stripe depth and an optimal amount of parity information.

US Patent:

7257676, Aug 14, 2007

Filed:

Dec 5, 2006

Appl. No.:

11/633900

Inventors:

Peter F. Corbett - Lexington MA, US
Steven R. Kleiman - Los Altos CA, US
Robert M. English - Menlo Park CA, US

Assignee:

Network Appliance, Inc. - Sunnyvale CA

International Classification:

G06F 12/00
G06F 11/00

US Classification:

711114, 711170, 714 7

Abstract:

A semi-static distribution technique distributes parity across disks of an array. According to the technique, parity is distributed (assigned) across the disks of the array in a manner that maintains a fixed pattern of parity blocks among the stripes of the disks. When one or more disks are added to the array, the semi-static technique redistributes parity in a way that does not require recalculation of parity or moving of any data blocks. Notably, the parity information is not actually moved; the technique merely involves a change in the assignment (or reservation) for some of the parity blocks of each pre-existing disk to the newly added disk.

US Patent:

7356731, Apr 8, 2008

Filed:

Jan 16, 2007

Appl. No.:

11/653651

Inventors:

Peter F. Corbett - Lexington MA, US
Robert M. English - Menlo Park CA, US
Steven R. Kleiman - Los Altos CA, US

Assignee:

Network Applicance, Inc. - Sunnyvale CA

International Classification:

G06F 11/00

US Classification:

714 6, 714770

Abstract:

A uniform and symmetric, double failure-correcting technique protects against two or fewer disk failures in a disk array of a storage system. A RAID system of the storage system generates two disks worth of “redundant” information for storage in the array, wherein the redundant information (e. g. , parity) is illustratively derived from computations along both diagonal parity sets (“diagonals”) and row parity sets (“rows”). Specifically, the RAID system computes row parity along rows of the array and diagonal parity along diagonals of the array. However, the contents of the redundant (parity) information disks interact such that neither disk contains purely (solely) diagonal or row redundancy information; the redundant information is generated using diagonal parity results in row parity computations (and vice versa).

US Patent:

7366837, Apr 29, 2008

Filed:

Apr 29, 2005

Appl. No.:

11/118298

Inventors:

Peter F. Corbett - Lexington MA, US
Robert M. English - Menlo Park CA, US
Steven R. Kleiman - Los Altos CA, US

Assignee:

Network Appliance, Inc. - Sunnyvale CA

International Classification:

G06F 12/00
G06F 11/00

US Classification:

711114, 711170, 714 7, 39518205

Abstract:

A technique places content, such as data, of one or more data containers on volumes of a striped volume set (SVS). The placement of data across the volumes of the SVS allows specification of a deterministic pattern of fixed length. That is, the pattern determines a placement of data of a data container that is striped among the volumes of the SVS. The placement pattern is such that the stripes are distributed exactly or nearly equally among the volumes and that, within any local span of a small multiple of the number of volumes, the stripes are distributed nearly equally among the volumes. The placement pattern is also substantially similar for a plurality of SVSs having different numbers of volumes.

US Patent:

7409625, Aug 5, 2008

Filed:

Feb 23, 2007

Appl. No.:

11/710304

Inventors:

Peter F. Corbett - Lexington MA, US
Steven R. Kleiman - Los Altos CA, US
Robert M. English - Menlo Park CA, US

Assignee:

Network Appliance, Inc. - Sunnyvale CA

International Classification:

G11C 29/00

US Classification:

714770

Abstract:

A method for enabling recovery from concurrent failure of a plurality of storage devices in a storage array is disclosed. The method stores data on a first plurality of storage devices of the storage array. The first plurality of storage devices may have a number of storage devices equal to a prime number greater then three. Row parity is stored on one or more storage devices of the storage array. A diagonal parity set is computed for the plurality of storage devices. The diagonal parity set is stored on an additional diagonal parity device, the diagonal parity device separate from the first plurality of storage devices.

US Patent:

7577692, Aug 18, 2009

Filed:

Apr 25, 2003

Appl. No.:

10/423391

Inventors:

Peter F. Corbett - Lexington MA, US
Cheryl Thompson - Sunnyvale CA, US
Robert M. English - Menlo Park CA, US
Jeffrey L. Heller - Menlo Park CA, US

Assignee:

NetApp, Inc. - Sunnyvale CA

International Classification:

G06F 17/30

US Classification:

707205, 707204

Abstract:

The present invention provides a system and method for reserving space to guarantee file writability in a file system supporting PCPIs. An administrator of a storage system implants a set of space reservation policies to ensure that clients of the storage system do not receive an out of space error in response to overwriting a section of a particular file.