DETAILED ACTION
1. This Office Action is taken in response to Applicants’ Amendments and Remarks filed on 4/27/2026 regarding application 18/617,356 filed on 3/26/2024.
Claims 1-20 are pending for consideration.
2. Response to Amendments and Remarks
Applicants’ amendments and remarks have been fully and carefully considered, with the Examiner’s response set forth below.
(1) In response to the amendments and remarks, an updated claim analysis has been made, with newly identified references. Refer to the corresponding sections of the following Office Action for details.
3. Examiner’s Note
(1) In the case of amending the Claimed invention, Applicant is respectfully requested to indicate the portion(s) of the specification which dictate(s) the structure relied on for proper interpretation and also to verify and ascertain the metes and bounds of the claimed invention. This will assist in expediting compact prosecution. MPEP 714.02 recites: “Applicant should also specifically point out the support for any amendments made to the disclosure. See MPEP § 2163.06. An amendment which does not comply with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.121(b), (c), (d), and (h) may be held not fully responsive. See MPEP § 714.” Amendments not pointing to specific support in the disclosure may be deemed as not complying with provisions of 37 C.F.R. 1.131(b), (c), (d), and (h) and therefore held not fully responsive. Generic statements such as “Applicants believe no new matter has been introduced” may be deemed insufficient.
(2) Examiner has cited particular columns/paragraph and line numbers in the references applied to the claims above for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings of the art and are applied to specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested from the applicant in preparing responses, to fully consider the references in entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the Examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
4. Claims 1-5, 7-11, 13-18, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Long et al. (US Patent 9,176,902, hereinafter Long), and in view of Suryanarayan et al. (US Patent Application Publication 2014/0074785, hereinafter Suryanarayan).
As to claim 1, Long teaches A method comprising:
after determining an online migration is to be performed from an original disk of a first disk type within an aggregate of a storage appliance to a new disk of a second disk type, adding the new disk to the aggregate [the corresponding “original disk” is the “source disk,” and the corresponding “new disk” is the “target disk” – “an aggregate of a storage appliance” as shown in figures 1-3; data migration from an original/source disk to a new/target disk as shown in figures 13-14;
Long teaches data migration from a source/original disk to a new/target disk -- Described are techniques for migrating data. A source data storage system includes a source device and a target data storage system includes a target device ... Migrating is controlled by a migration module executing on the target data storage system that copies data from the source device to the target device (abstract); ... The source data storage system may be replaced with a new data storage system after migration of data from the source device to the target device has completed, and wherein data may be migrated from the target device to another device of the new data storage system ... (c2 L66 to c3 L3); In one embodiment, the data storage systems 12 may include one or more data storage systems such as one or more of the data storage systems, such as data storage arrays, offered by EMC Corporation of Hopkinton, Mass. Each of the data storage systems may include one or more data storage devices 13a-13n, such as disks. One or more data storage systems may be manufactured by one or more different vendors ... Each of the data storage systems may include a plurality of disk devices or volumes 13a-13n ... (c5 L41-67); Each of the data storage systems, such as 20a, may include a plurality of storage devices such as disk devices or volumes included in an arrangement 24 consisting of n rows of disks or more generally, data storage devices, 24a-24n ... (c6 L36-48);
Long teaches “online” being “active” -- Consistent with description above and elsewhere herein, it should be noted that use of the term “online” to describe a state may also be characterized as “active” ... In an embodiment which does not utilize techniques herein, when there is an attempt to combine multiple data storage systems into a single federation, add data storage systems to an existing federation, add or remove a target from a TPG ... (c9 L27-50);
Long teaches adding a new disk to the storage federation/system as the target disk to replace the source/original disk -- ... The source data storage system may be replaced with a new data storage system after migration of data from the source device to the target device has completed, and wherein data may be migrated from the target device to another device of the new data storage system ... (c2 L66 to c3 L3); ... for example, as data storage systems may be added or removed from the federation or otherwise have components thereof modified (e.g., adding or removing nodes thereof), as ports may be added or removed, and as target port groups may be added or removed or otherwise modified (e.g., to add or remove target ports therefrom) ... (c8 L53-58); Referring to FIG. 10, shown is a flowchart of processing steps that may be performed in connection with creating a federation that may include one or more data storage systems, such as data storage arrays. In step 702, a data storage domain may be creating for the federation and the new data storage system may be added to this domain and the federation ... (c19 L21-50); The migration techniques described herein may be used in connection with any suitable application. For example, the migration techniques herein may be used in connection with replacing the source system with the target system that may be a newer data storage system. After the migration completes, the source data storage system may be re-provisioned or decommissioned ... (c27 L65 to c28 L12);
Long teaches the source/original disk and the new/target disk are of different technologies -- As another advantage of the migration techniques herein, the physical devices or drives of the target data storage system may have physical attributes or characteristics which are very different from those of the source data storage system thereby providing for decoupling attributes of the source and target system such as, for example, those of the physical drives (e.g., source and target physical drives may have different performance characteristics), and those related to LUN attributes (e.g., whether the LUN stores data for a thin or virtually provisioned logical device, the particular RAID protection level and configuration). As another example, an embodiment may move data from one source physical drive of a first technology to another target physical drive of a different technology such as in connection with “upgrading” an existing drive with a new drive of a higher performance classification, or more generally moving data between drives having different technologies (e.g., move data from a rotating ATA disk drive to a rotating fibre channel (FC) disk drive, or move data from an FC disk drive to a flash memory-based drive). Thus, if the target system is replacing the source system, the migration techniques herein used in connection with migrating data of one or more LUNs to a target system without requiring use of complex algorithms for data and metadata conversion (c27 L41-64);
Suryanarayan also teaches online migration of a file from a source/original disk to a destination/new disk -- “an aggregate of a storage appliance” as shown in figures 1-2; as shown in figure 1, where a source file (171) in a source/original disk (170) is migrated to a destination/new disk (180) and becomes a destination file (181); Described herein are a method and apparatus for migrating an open file and an open file descriptor, according to various implementations. After expanding a volume in a file system, the files in the file system can be rebalanced among the sub-volumes (e.g., existing sub-volumes, newly added sub-volumes) ... A file that is to be migrated may be open, for example, for access for a client application ... to access the open file that is associated with the migration, for example, during the migration and when the migration is complete. For example, the client distribution module may receive a request for access to a source file that is stored in an initial location in a file system. The request may be from a client application. The client distribution module may determine that the source file is associated with a migration to a new location. The client distribution module may read the source file from the initial location if the request is a read request. The client distribution module may write to both the source file at the initial location and to a destination file at the new location if the request is a write request (¶ 0012)];
causing writes received by a file system of the storage appliance from one or more storage clients of the storage appliance during the online migration to be sent to both the original disk and the new disk by establishing a mirror relationship between the original disk and the new disk [Long teaches write data to both the source/original disk and the new/target disk during migration, and establish a mirror relationship -- ... In connection with migration processing, the migration driver 1020a is performing processing to establish target PD 1015b as a mirror of source PD 1015a thereby providing for data synchronization between 1015a, 1015b. During the migration, I/Os directed to LUN A such as from host 1002 are also being serviced. Such processing of I/O servicing may also include processing performed by the migration driver 1020a. For example, the migration driver 1020a may decide whether to use data from source PD 1015a or target PD 1015b to service an I/O operation ... the migration driver 1012a may write the data to both the target PD 1015b and the source PD 1015a and also note this newly written data as having been migrated since the newly written data is the most up to date. The data may be written to the source PD 1015a and the target PD 1015b using the data paths as described above (c23 L5-55);
Suryanarayan specifically teaches migrating a file in a file system and write data to both source/original volume and new/target volume -- as shown in figure 1, where a source file (171) in a source/original disk (170) is migrated to a destination/new disk (180) and becomes a destination file (181); Described herein are a method and apparatus for migrating an open file and an open file descriptor, according to various implementations. After expanding a volume in a file system, the files in the file system can be rebalanced among the sub-volumes (e.g., existing sub-volumes, newly added sub-volumes) ... A file that is to be migrated may be open, for example, for access for a client application ... to access the open file that is associated with the migration, for example, during the migration and when the migration is complete. For example, the client distribution module may receive a request for access to a source file that is stored in an initial location in a file system. The request may be from a client application. The client distribution module may determine that the source file is associated with a migration to a new location. The client distribution module may read the source file from the initial location if the request is a read request. The client distribution module may write to both the source file at the initial location and to a destination file at the new location if the request is a write request (¶ 0012)];
serving reads received by the file system from the one or more storage clients during the online migration from the original disk [Long teaches read data from the source/original disk -- as shown in figure 14, where the source/original device is PD 1015a; ... While the first processing is ongoing, second processing may be performed by the migration driver 1020a to service incoming I/O requests for LUN A data such as a read request. In connection with servicing this read request, a determination may be made by using the tracking table whether the requested read data is on PD 1015b ... the requested read data is serviced by first accessing the data from PD 1015a and transmitting the requested data to migration driver 1020a over the path between 1004b and 1004a as described above. The requested read data is then used to both service the read I/O and also facilitate data migration in that the requested read data is also copied to the target PD 1015b and then marked as having been copied or migrated (c23 L31-45);
Suryanarayan specifically teaches migrating a file in a file system and read data from the source file in the source/original disk -- as shown in figure 1, where a source file (171) in a source/original disk (170) is migrated to a destination/new disk (180) and becomes a destination file (181); Described herein are a method and apparatus for migrating an open file and an open file descriptor, according to various implementations. After expanding a volume in a file system, the files in the file system can be rebalanced among the sub-volumes (e.g., existing sub-volumes, newly added sub-volumes) ... A file that is to be migrated may be open, for example, for access for a client application ... to access the open file that is associated with the migration, for example, during the migration and when the migration is complete. For example, the client distribution module may receive a request for access to a source file that is stored in an initial location in a file system. The request may be from a client application. The client distribution module may determine that the source file is associated with a migration to a new location. The client distribution module may read the source file from the initial location if the request is a read request. The client distribution module may write to both the source file at the initial location and to a destination file at the new location if the request is a write request (¶ 0012)];
during performance of a scan of the original disk by the file system, copying valid data from the original disk to the new disk [Long teaches maintaining a table which includes an entry for each data portion to be copied, and traversing this table to copy data from the source/original disk to the new/target disk, the corresponding “valid data” is “data to be copied” maintained on the table -- … In some embodiments, the migration process may include performing first processing to copy the data from 1015a to 1015b. For example, the first processing may perform such copying in a sequential order as part of a background task. As such data is copied, the background task may track (such as in a tracking table or other structure) which portions of LUN A's data are migrated and which have yet to be migrated to PD 1015b. While the first processing is ongoing, second processing may be performed by the migration driver 1020a to service incoming I/O requests for LUN A data such as a read request … Referring to FIG. 14A, shown is a flowchart of processing steps as may be performed by migration processing to migrate data from the source PD 1015a to the target PD 1015b. The flowchart 1230 summarizes the first processing described above as may be performed by a background task. The processing may operate on data portions of any suitable size and may be copied in any suitable order. For example, processing of 1230 may copy data and metadata for LUN A in a sequential order. In this manner, a table may be maintained which includes an entry for each data portion of LUN A to be copied. Processing may traverse this table, such as in a linear manner from top to bottom, and may maintain a pointer or counter as to the current entry and data portion being migrated. At step 1232, the current portion of data may be copied from the source to the target PD. At step 1234, the data portion copied in step 1234 is denoted or marked in the table as having been migrate ... (c23 L23 to c24 L10)]; and
after the scan is complete, breaking the mirror relationship and removing the original disk from the aggregate [Long teaches decommissioning the source/original disk upon the completion of the migration -- ... The target data storage system may replace the source data storage system and the method may include disconnecting the source data storage system from the target data storage system. The method may include performing any of: decommissioning the source data storage system and reprovisioning storage of the source data storage system ... (c2 L54-60); What will now be described are techniques that may be used in connection with performing migration such as using a data storage system included in a federation as described herein. The migration techniques may be used in connection with any suitable use or application such as, for example, in connection with performing an upgrade or update to a data storage system whereby the data storage system (serving as the migration source) includes data that is migrated to another target data storage system (serving as the migration target) prior to performing the upgrade ... Once the migration has completed, the original data storage system may be taken offline, decommissioned, have its physical storage devices re-provisioned, and the like (c19 L51 to c20 L11); The migration techniques described herein may be used in connection with any suitable application. For example, the migration techniques herein may be used in connection with replacing the source system with the target system that may be a newer data storage system. After the migration completes, the source data storage system may be re-provisioned or decommissioned ... (c27 L65 to c28 L12)].
Regarding claim 1, Long does not expressively teach a file system in the storage appliance.
However, a file system is well known and widely used in the art for providing file service and management.
For example, Suryanarayan specifically teaches migrating a file of a file system from a source/original disk to a destination/new disk [as shown in figure 1, where a source file (171) in a source/original disk (170) is migrated to a destination/new disk (180) and becomes a destination file (181); Described herein are a method and apparatus for migrating an open file and an open file descriptor, according to various implementations. After expanding a volume in a file system, the files in the file system can be rebalanced among the sub-volumes (e.g., existing sub-volumes, newly added sub-volumes) ... A file that is to be migrated may be open, for example, for access for a client application ... to access the open file that is associated with the migration, for example, during the migration and when the migration is complete. For example, the client distribution module may receive a request for access to a source file that is stored in an initial location in a file system. The request may be from a client application. The client distribution module may determine that the source file is associated with a migration to a new location. The client distribution module may read the source file from the initial location if the request is a read request. The client distribution module may write to both the source file at the initial location and to a destination file at the new location if the request is a write request (¶ 0012)].
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skills in the art prior to Applicant’s invention to also implement a file system in the storage appliance, as specifically demonstrated by Suryanarayan, and to incorporate it into the existing scheme disclosed by Long, in order to support file service and management, which are commonly and widely used functions.
As to claim 2, Long in view of Suryanarayan teaches The method of claim 1, wherein the scan comprises a background scan [Long -- … In some embodiments, the migration process may include performing first processing to copy the data from 1015a to 1015b. For example, the first processing may perform such copying in a sequential order as part of a background task. As such data is copied, the background task may track (such as in a tracking table or other structure) which portions of LUN A's data are migrated and which have yet to be migrated to PD 1015b. While the first processing is ongoing, second processing may be performed by the migration driver 1020a to service incoming I/O requests for LUN A data such as a read request … Referring to FIG. 14A, shown is a flowchart of processing steps as may be performed by migration processing to migrate data from the source PD 1015a to the target PD 1015b. The flowchart 1230 summarizes the first processing described above as may be performed by a background task. The processing may operate on data portions of any suitable size and may be copied in any suitable order. For example, processing of 1230 may copy data and metadata for LUN A in a sequential order. In this manner, a table may be maintained which includes an entry for each data portion of LUN A to be copied. Processing may traverse this table, such as in a linear manner from top to bottom, and may maintain a pointer or counter as to the current entry and data portion being migrated. At step 1232, the current portion of data may be copied from the source to the target PD. At step 1234, the data portion copied in step 1234 is denoted or marked in the table as having been migrate ... (c23 L23 to c24 L10)].
As to claim 3, Long in view of Suryanarayan teaches The method of claim 1, wherein the online migration is performed from a plurality of original disks of the first type, including the original disk, to a corresponding plurality of new disks of the second type, including the new disk [Long – a plurality of disks as shown in figures 1-3, and 13-14; As another advantage of the migration techniques herein, the physical devices or drives of the target data storage system may have physical attributes or characteristics which are very different from those of the source data storage system thereby providing for decoupling attributes of the source and target system such as, for example, those of the physical drives (e.g., source and target physical drives may have different performance characteristics), and those related to LUN attributes (e.g., whether the LUN stores data for a thin or virtually provisioned logical device, the particular RAID protection level and configuration). As another example, an embodiment may move data from one source physical drive of a first technology to another target physical drive of a different technology such as in connection with “upgrading” an existing drive with a new drive of a higher performance classification, or more generally moving data between drives having different technologies (e.g., move data from a rotating ATA disk drive to a rotating fibre channel (FC) disk drive, or move data from an FC disk drive to a flash memory-based drive). Thus, if the target system is replacing the source system, the migration techniques herein used in connection with migrating data of one or more LUNs to a target system without requiring use of complex algorithms for data and metadata conversion (c27 L41-64)].
As to claim 4, Long in view of Suryanarayan teaches The method of claim 3, wherein a number of the corresponding plurality of new disks added to the aggregate and a size a given new disk of the corresponding plurality of new disks is equal to a number of the plurality of original disks and a size of a given original disk of the plurality of original disks, respectively [Long – as shown in figures 13 and 14, where the source/original device (1015a) and the new/target device (1015b) are symmetric in size and quantity].
As to claim 5, Long in view of Suryanarayan teaches The method of claim 1, wherein the first disk type and the second disk type differ in relation to one or more of storage volume, speed, efficiency, cost per unit of storage, cost per Input/Output Operations per Second (IOPS), storage technology, and flavor of a given storage technology [Long -- As another advantage of the migration techniques herein, the physical devices or drives of the target data storage system may have physical attributes or characteristics which are very different from those of the source data storage system thereby providing for decoupling attributes of the source and target system such as, for example, those of the physical drives (e.g., source and target physical drives may have different performance characteristics), and those related to LUN attributes (e.g., whether the LUN stores data for a thin or virtually provisioned logical device, the particular RAID protection level and configuration). As another example, an embodiment may move data from one source physical drive of a first technology to another target physical drive of a different technology such as in connection with “upgrading” an existing drive with a new drive of a higher performance classification, or more generally moving data between drives having different technologies (e.g., move data from a rotating ATA disk drive to a rotating fibre channel (FC) disk drive, or move data from an FC disk drive to a flash memory-based drive). Thus, if the target system is replacing the source system, the migration techniques herein used in connection with migrating data of one or more LUNs to a target system without requiring use of complex algorithms for data and metadata conversion (c27 L41-64)].
As to claim 7, it recites substantially the same limitations as in claim 1, and is rejected for the same reasons set forth in the analysis of claim 1. Refer to “As to claim 1” presented earlier in this Office Action for details.
As to claim 8, it recites substantially the same limitations as in claim 2, and is rejected for the same reasons set forth in the analysis of claim 2. Refer to “As to claim 2” presented earlier in this Office Action for details.
As to claim 9, it recites substantially the same limitations as in claim 3, and is rejected for the same reasons set forth in the analysis of claim 3. Refer to “As to claim 3” presented earlier in this Office Action for details.
As to claim 10, it recites substantially the same limitations as in claim 4, and is rejected for the same reasons set forth in the analysis of claim 4. Refer to “As to claim 4” presented earlier in this Office Action for details.
As to claim 11, it recites substantially the same limitations as in claim 5, and is rejected for the same reasons set forth in the analysis of claim 5. Refer to “As to claim 5” presented earlier in this Office Action for details.
As to claim 13, Long in view of Suryanarayan teaches The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 7, wherein the storage appliance comprises a physical storage system and the original disk and the new disk comprise hard disk drives (HDDs) or solid-state drives (SSDs) [Suryanarayan -- The distributed file system 101 can be a network attached storage file system that includes one or more storage server machines 140A-B and any number of mass storage devices, such as magnetic or optical storage based disks 170A-B, solid-state drives (SSDs) or hard drives, coupled to the storage server machines 140A-B via the network 108 … (¶ 0014)].
As to claim 14, it recites substantially the same limitations as in claim 1, and is rejected for the same reasons set forth in the analysis of claim 1. Refer to “As to claim 1” presented earlier in this Office Action for details.
As to claim 15, it recites substantially the same limitations as in claim 2, and is rejected for the same reasons set forth in the analysis of claim 2. Refer to “As to claim 2” presented earlier in this Office Action for details.
As to claim 16, it recites substantially the same limitations as in claim 3, and is rejected for the same reasons set forth in the analysis of claim 3. Refer to “As to claim 3” presented earlier in this Office Action for details.
As to claim 17, it recites substantially the same limitations as in claim 4, and is rejected for the same reasons set forth in the analysis of claim 4. Refer to “As to claim 4” presented earlier in this Office Action for details.
As to claim 18, it recites substantially the same limitations as in claim 5, and is rejected for the same reasons set forth in the analysis of claim 5. Refer to “As to claim 5” presented earlier in this Office Action for details.
As to claim 20, it recites substantially the same limitations as in claim 13, and is rejected for the same reasons set forth in the analysis of claim 13. Refer to “As to claim 13” presented earlier in this Office Action for details.
5. Claims 6, 12, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Long in view of Suryanarayan, and further in view of Brown et al. (US Patent Application Publication 2022/0404980, hereinafter Brown).
Regarding claim 6, Long in view of Suryanarayan does not teach the storage appliance comprises a virtual storage system, the first disk type comprises a first type of hyperscale disk, and the second disk type comprises a second type of hyperscale disk.
However, hyperscale disks are well known and widely used in a cloud environment.
For example, Brown teaches the cited limitation. Specifically, Brown teaches the storage appliance comprises a virtual storage system, the first disk type comprises a first type of hyperscale disk, and the second disk type comprises a second type of hyperscale disk [FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating a cloud environment in which various embodiments may be implemented. In various examples described herein, a virtual storage system 1400 may be run (e.g., on a VM or as a containerized instance, as the case may be) within a public cloud provider (e.g., hyperscaler 1402, 1404). In the context of the present example, the virtual storage system 1400 includes virtual storage nodes 1410 and 1420 and makes use of cloud disks (e.g., hyperscale disks 1415, 1425) provided by the hyperscaler ... The storage device driver may include storage device drivers for interacting with the various types of hyperscale disks 1415, 1425 supported by the hyperscalers (¶ 0110-0112)].
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skills in the art prior to Applicant’s invention to use hyperscale disks in the storage appliance, as specifically demonstrated by Brown, and to incorporate it into the existing scheme disclosed by Long in view of Suryanarayan, because Brown teaches doing this allows providing storage service to a wide range of clients [The virtual storage system 1400 may present storage over a network to clients 1405 using various protocols (e.g., small computer system interface (SCSI), Internet small computer system interface (ISCSI), fibre channel (FC), common Internet file system (CIFS), network file system (NFS), hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), web-based distributed authoring and versioning (WebDAV), or a custom protocol ... (¶ 0111)].
As to claim 12, it recites substantially the same limitations as in claim 6, and is rejected for the same reasons set forth in the analysis of claim 6. Refer to “As to claim 6” presented earlier in this Office Action for details.
As to claim 19, it recites substantially the same limitations as in claim 6, and is rejected for the same reasons set forth in the analysis of claim 6. Refer to “As to claim 6” presented earlier in this Office Action for details.
Conclusion
6. Claims 1-20 are rejected as explained above.
7. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHENG JEN TSAI whose telephone number is 571-272-4244. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday, 9-6.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Reginald Bragdon can be reached on 571-272-4204. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SHENG JEN TSAI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2136
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