DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on April 2, 2026 has been entered.
Double Patenting
The double patenting rejection has been withdrawn in view of the terminal disclaimer.
Response to Arguments
Although the amendments include subject matter previously indicated allowable in the parent application, other amendments to the claim have broadened the scope of the claims so that the Kubo reference still teaches the limitations. In particular, the limitations of the independent claims no longer require that the retrieved portions of the data set be “unreplicated portions.” Accordingly, the claim reads on the target storage retrieving portions of the dataset that have already been replicated from itself, the target storage itself being a storage system other than a source storage system.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US PGPub 2005/0138312 to Kubo et al. (“Kubo”).
Regarding claim 1, Kubo discloses a method comprising:
exposing, by a target storage system, one or more portions of the dataset for dataset during replication of a dataset for user operations during replication of the dataset (see paragraphs 44-45 and fig. 5, a read request is issued by the reference host for snapshot before the copying is complete);
retrieving, by the target storage system, a portion of the one or more portions of the dataset from a storage system other than a source storage system (see paragraph 45, if the requested data is already copied, the data can be read from the target storage system).
Regarding claim 8, Kubo discloses an apparatus that includes a computer memory and a computer processor, the computer memory including computer program instructions that, when executed by the computer processor, cause the apparatus to carry out the steps of the method of claim 1.
Regarding claim 15, Kubo discloses a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing program instructions, wherein the program instructions are executable by a processor for the function of claim 1.
Regarding claim 2, 9, and 16, Kubo discloses the method, wherein a request for the portion of the one or more portions of the dataset is received from a host computing device (see paragraph 45, a read is requested), and wherein the method further comprises:
transmitting, from the target storage system, the portion of the one or more portions of the dataset to the host computing device (see paragraph 45, if the request is for a block that is already copied, the data read operation is immediately conducted).
Regarding claim 3, 10, and 17, Kubo discloses the method, wherein the portion of the one or more portions of the dataset is transmitted from the target storage system to the host computing device during replication of the dataset (see paragraphs 44-45, the read request for a block occurs during a copy operation wherein some blocks are already copied and some blocks have not been copied).
Regarding claims 4, 11, and 18, Kubo discloses the method, apparatus, and non-transitory computer readable storage medium wherein retrieving the portion of the one or more portions of the dataset further comprises retrieving, by the target storage system, the portion of the one or more portions of the dataset from the source storage system (see paragraph 45, if the block is not yet copied, the read operation is conducted using the source volume; see also paragraph 48, the data is retrieved from the source volume to the snapshot volume).
Regarding claims 5, 12, and 19, Kubo discloses the method, apparatus, and non-transitory computer readable storage medium further comprising storing, within storage resources of the target storage system, the portion of the one or more portions of the dataset retrieved from the source storage system (see paragraph 48, the data is retrieved from the source volume to the snapshot volume and stored in the snapshot volume).
Regarding claims 6, 13, and 20, Kubo discloses the method, apparatus, and non-transitory computer readable storage medium further comprising updating metadata associated with the dataset to indicate that the target storage system contains the portion of the one or more portions of the dataset (see paragraphs 41 and 44, when a data block is copied, it is recorded in the copy completion map; see also fig. 6 and paragraph 48, the snapshot side can also maintain a copy of the copy completion map).
Regarding claims 7 and 14, Kubo discloses the method and apparatus, further comprising initiating, by the target storage system, a replication of the dataset from the storage system (source volume 102, see figs. 1-4), wherein the dataset is referenced by one or more identifiers (see paragraph 40, a basic operation for copying data into a volume at a remote position).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANIEL D TSUI whose telephone number is (571)270-3253. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8am-4pm.
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/DANIEL D TSUI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2132
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