Timothy C Bisson from 325 Johnson Ave, Los Gatos, CA 95030, age 44

Us Patents

Process For Fast File System Crawling To Support Incremental File System Differencing
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US Patent:

8078653, Dec 13, 2011
Filed:

Oct 7, 2008
Appl. No.:

12/247174
Inventors:

Timothy C. Bisson - Fremont CA, US
Shankar Pasupathy - Sunnyvale CA, US
Yuvraj Patel - Bangalore, IN
Assignee:

NetApp, Inc. - Sunnyvale CA
International Classification:

G06F 12/00
G06F 17/30
G06F 7/00
G06F 17/00
G06F 15/16
US Classification:

707829, 707641
Abstract:

A network storage server implements a method to perform fast crawling of a hierarchical storage structure. The hierarchical storage structure contains data entities stored by a network storage server. The hierarchical storage structure can be recursively divided into a plurality of sections. A plurality of parallel-processing threads can be used to process the plurality of sections. Each thread selects and processes one of the plurality of sections at a time to generate a sorted list of metadata corresponding to the section of the hierarchical storage structure. The sorted lists generated by the plurality of threads are merged to a baseline list. The baseline list contains sorted metadata for entities managed by the hierarchical storage structure. The baseline list can then be outputted as a representation of the state of data stored by the network storage server.

Storage System-Based Hole Punching For Reclaiming Unused Space From A Data Container
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US Patent:

8086652, Dec 27, 2011
Filed:

Aug 15, 2007
Appl. No.:

11/838966
Inventors:

Timothy Bisson - Sunnyvale CA, US
Shankar Pasupathy - Sunnyvale CA, US
Garth Richard Goodson - Sunnyvale CA, US
Steven R. Kleiman - Los Altos CA, US
Assignee:

NetApp, Inc. - Sunnyvale CA
International Classification:

G06F 12/02
US Classification:

707823, 707827
Abstract:

A system and method reclaims unused storage space from a data container, such as a logical unit number (LUN) of a storage system. In particular, a novel technique is provided that allows a storage system to reclaim storage space not used by a client file system for which the storage system maintains storage, without requiring assistance from the client file system to determine storage usage. In other words, storage system may independently reclaim storage space not used by the client file system, without that file system's intervention.

Methods And Systems For Concurrently Reading Direct And Indirect Data Blocks
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US Patent:

8171064, May 1, 2012
Filed:

Sep 1, 2009
Appl. No.:

12/552216
Inventors:

Gaurav Makkar - Bangalore, IN
Timothy C. Bisson - Fremont CA, US
Assignee:

NetApp, Inc. - Sunnyvale CA
International Classification:

G06F 17/30
G06F 15/16
US Classification:

707822, 707802, 709203
Abstract:

Methods and systems for concurrently reading direct and indirect data blocks of a data object stored in a network storage server system. In one embodiment, upon receiving a request to read a data object, the storage server identifies a location of an indirect data-block of the data object and a total number of direct data-blocks associated with the data object. Using this information, the storage server concurrently reads, using a single read operation, both the indirect data-block and a specific number of data blocks that are contiguous with the location of the indirect data-block. The specific number is commensurate with the total number of direct-data blocks associated with the data object. In one embodiment, the storage server verifies whether the data object is represented using a contiguous-mode layout scheme before performing the concurrent single-read operation to read the data object.

Incremental File System Differencing
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US Patent:

8176018, May 8, 2012
Filed:

Apr 30, 2008
Appl. No.:

12/112651
Inventors:

Timothy Bisson - Sunnyvale CA, US
Shankar Pasupathy - Sunnyvale CA, US
Assignee:

NetApp, Inc. - Sunnyvale CA
International Classification:

G06F 17/30
US Classification:

707690, 707697
Abstract:

A facility for comparing two datasets and identifying metadata differences between the two datasets irrespective of the manner in which the data is stored. In some embodiments, the facility includes a comparison unit and a catalog unit. The comparison unit compares a hierarchical hash of a first dataset with a hierarchical hash of a second dataset, the hierarchical hashes each including a plurality of hierarchical hash values, to identify differences in metadata of the first and second datasets by progressively comparing the hierarchical hash values of the first and second hierarchical hashes without comparing the metadata of the first and second datasets. The catalog unit generates a catalog of differences between the first and second datasets, the catalog indicating differences in metadata of the first and second datasets.

Two-Dimensional Indexes For Quick Multiple Attribute Search In A Catalog System
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US Patent:

8219564, Jul 10, 2012
Filed:

Apr 29, 2008
Appl. No.:

12/111530
Inventors:

Minglong Shao - Sunnyvale CA, US
Andrew Leung - Pleasanton CA, US
Shankar Pasupathy - Sunnyvale CA, US
Timothy Clayton Bisson - San Jose CA, US
Assignee:

NetApp, Inc. - Sunnyvale CA
International Classification:

G06F 7/00
G06F 17/30
US Classification:

707743
Abstract:

Embodiments of the present invention provide mechanisms that overcome limitations of existing indexes by creating two-dimensional (2D) spatial indexes to quickly locate data containers that match two or more predicates. This is accomplished by representing metadata attributes describing a data container as dimensions in a 2D space so that a data container can be expressed as a point or a cell in a 2D space with coordinates being a pair of values of the selected attributes. A space filling curve is used to traverse the 2D space and convert each pair of the 2D coordinates to a single space filling curve value. A 2D spatial index is then created based on the computed space filling curve values so that one value can be associated with one or more points (data containers) in the index. Advantageously, the created spatial index provides for searching and processing fewer metadata entries, thereby decreasing the time typically used to search for data.

Proxying Search Requests For Files To A Search Engine
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US Patent:

8386446, Feb 26, 2013
Filed:

Oct 26, 2009
Appl. No.:

12/606076
Inventors:

Shankar Pasupathy - Milpitas CA, US
Timothy C. Bisson - San Jose CA, US
Nam M. Le - Los Gatos CA, US
Assignee:

NetApp, Inc. - Sunnyvale CA
International Classification:

G06F 7/00
US Classification:

707696, 707711
Abstract:

A method and apparatus for proxying search requests for a storage system and maintaining a central index for performing the search requests is described herein. An index manager on the storage system may initially produce the central index by examining each file in a file system and update the central index thereafter by examining only those files that have changed since the central index was initially produced or last updated. The index manager may receive a changed file list from a differencing layer configured for comparing snapshots of the file system at different time points to produce changed file lists. A search proxy module may receive search requests in a search protocol and proxy the search requests to a search engine by converting the search requests to another search protocol compatible with the search engine. The search engine may then use the central index for performing the search request.

Method And Apparatus For Generating And Describing Block-Level Difference Information About Two Snapshots
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US Patent:

20060218135, Sep 28, 2006
Filed:

Mar 28, 2005
Appl. No.:

11/093074
Inventors:

Timothy Bisson - Fremont CA, US
Stephen Manley - Pleasanton CA, US
Ling Zheng - Sunnyvale CA, US
Assignee:

Network Appliance, Inc. - Sunnyvale CA
International Classification:

G06F 17/30
US Classification:

707004000
Abstract:

An apparatus to compare two datasets, each of which includes multiple data blocks, includes a comparison unit and a report generator. The comparison unit identifies block-level differences therebetween, by comparing block-level metadata between the first and second datasets, without comparing the contents of the data blocks. The report generator generates a human-readable report of the differences between the first and second version of the dataset, including the differences in individual data blocks between the first and second version of the dataset.

Seamless Takeover Of A Stateful Protocol Session In A Virtual Machine Environment
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US Patent:

20120102135, Apr 26, 2012
Filed:

Oct 22, 2010
Appl. No.:

12/910535
Inventors:

Kiran Srinivasan - Sunnyvale CA, US
Timothy C. Bisson - Fremont CA, US
Assignee:

NetApp, Inc. - Sunnyvale CA
International Classification:

G06F 9/455
G06F 15/167
US Classification:

709213, 718 1
Abstract:

The disclosed technique uses virtual machines in solving a problem of persistent state for storage protocols. The technique provides for seamless, persistent, storage protocol session state management on a server, for higher availability. A first virtual server is operated in an active role in a host system to serve a client, by using a stateful protocol between the first virtual server and the client. A second, substantially identical virtual server is maintained in a passive role. In response to a predetermined event, the second virtual server takes over for the first virtual server, while preserving state for a pending client request sent to the first virtual server in the stateful protocol. The method can further include causing the second virtual server to respond to the request before a timeout which is specific to the stateful protocol can occur.