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US 6,269,431 B1Granted
Virtual storage and block level direct access of secondary storage for recovery of backup data
AssigneeEMC Corporation
InventorScott R. Dunham
Life of this patent
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AssigneeEMC Corporation
InventorScott R. Dunham
Estimating the term…
A data storage system has a primary data storage subsystem including primary data storage and a secondary data storage subsystem including secondary data storage. The secondary data storage contains backup versions of data stored in the primary data storage. To permit a host processor to access a specified backup version, the primary data storage subsystem assigns a virtual storage address to a specified backup version, and the host processor sends to the primary data storage subsystem data access requests that specify the virtual storage address. If the primary data storage subsystem has spare data storage, then a copy of the specified backup version is read from the secondary storage and written into the spare storage, and the address of the copy in the spare storage is mapped to the virtual storage address and accessed in response to the storage access requests from the host processor. Otherwise, a block-level direct access of the secondary storage is performed to access the specified backup version. In either case, the backup version appears to be in the primary data storage subsystem when the host accesses it.
A method of permitting at least one host processor to obtain from a data storage subsystem access to backup versions, the data storage subsystem having primary data storage, the backup versions being stored in secondary data storage linked to the data storage subsystem for transfer of the backup versions from the secondary data storage to the data storage subsystem, said method comprising:
A machine-readable program storage device containing a program for a storage controller of a data storage subsystem permitting at least one host processor to obtain from the data storage subsystem access to backup versions, the backup versions being stored in secondary data storage linked to the data storage subsystem for transfer of the backup versions from the secondary data storage to the data storage subsystem, said program being executable by the storage controller for:
A machine readable program storage device containing a program for a storage controller for a data storage subsystem permitting at least one host processor to obtain from the data storage subsystem access to backup versions, the backup versions being stored in secondary data storage linked to the data storage subsystem for transfer of the backup version from the secondary data storage to the data storage subsystem, said program being executable by the storage controller for:
A data storage subsystem for permitting at least one host processor to obtain access to backup versions stored in secondary data storage, wherein the data storage subsystem comprises primary data storage and a storage controller coupled to the primary data storage for controlling access to the primary data storage, the storage controller having at least one data port for linking the primary data storage and the secondary data storage to the host processor for transfer of data between the primary data storage and the secondary data storage and the host processor, wherein the storage controller is programmed for:
A data storage subsystem for permitting at least one host processor to obtain access to backup versions stored in secondary data storage, wherein the data storage subsystem comprises primary data storage and a storage controller coupled to the primary data storage for controlling access to the primary data storage, the storage controller having at least one data port for linking the primary data storage and the secondary data storage to the host processor for transfer of data between the primary data storage and the secondary data storage and the host processor, wherein the storage controller is programmed for:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.