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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1-3 and 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Graetz 8285869 herein Graetz in view of Komikado 20060031637 herein Komikado.
Per claim 1, Graetz discloses: a data storage that stores information from a device; (fig. 1, comp 40) a primary backup storage that stores a backup of the information recoded in the data storage; (fig. 1 comp 30) an information recording unit that records the information in the data storage in response to a writing request; (col. 8 lines 31-43; The backup software 100 may cause the data transfer to resume so that the source device 20 transfers the next portion of data 55 to the backup storage device 40, as indicated by the arrow 3.) a primary backup creation unit that when receiving an instruction for starting backup of the information recorded in the data storage, stops the information recording unit or puts the writing request on hold, while stopping the information recording unit or putting the writing request on hold, backs up the information recorded in the data storage to the primary backup storage, (col. 8 lines 31-43; The backup software 100 may cause the data transfer to resume so that the source device 20 transfers the next portion of data 55 to the backup storage device 40, as indicated by the arrow 3. The data transfer may then be paused while the checkpoint 101C is created. The actual data transfer rate may be adjusted, and the size of the transfer frame may also be adjusted accordingly) and when completing the backup, restarts the information recording unit or resumes writing to the data storage; (col. 8 lines 31-43; The data transfer may then be resumed so that the source device 20 transfers the final portion of data 55 to the backup storage device 40, as indicated by the arrow 4.) and a backup copy unit that backs up the information recorded in the primary backup storage to the backup storage, wherein the backup copy unit further deletes the information recoded in the primary backup storage after completion of the backup of the information recorded in the primary backup storage to the backup storage (col. 8 lines 31-43; At this point, the backup operation is complete. In some embodiments the backup software 100 may delete the checkpoints 101 after the backup operation is complete.).
Graetz discloses a backup server that stores checkpoint copies from a source storage to be stored to the target storage but does not specifically disclose: a primary backup storage that stores a backup of the information recorded in the data storage, wherein the primary backup storage has a higher access speed than the backup storage.
However, Komikado discloses: a primary backup storage (sub-volume) that stores a backup of the information recorded in the data storage, wherein the primary backup storage has a higher access speed than the backup storage (fig. 3, ¶0063; the disk array device 1a of the local site has the CPU 101 which controls the read and write of data to the primary volume 201, controls the past data stored in the primary volume 201 so as to be written into the pool volume as the differential data of each generation, and executes the control program 103 for controlling the differential data by providing the snapshot control table, which is used to control the relationships of the differential data of each generation stored in the pool volumes, into the area of the memory 102.; the examiner notes that the sub volumes are locally maintained whereas the primary volumes are remote thus the speed of access will be faster on the sub volumes).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the invention to combine the teaching of Graetz and Komikado’s local backups to improve efficiency of access. Komikado maintains efficient data consistency (¶0008; the process wherein a multigenerational differential data group controlled by a local side storage is remote copied to a remote side storage and controlled therein while maintaining the data consistency between the multigenerational differential data groups).
Per claim 2, Graetz discloses: wherein the data storage is set such that a plurality of storage areas is separately managed, (col. 4 lines 10-40; the source device 20 is a Network-Attached Storage (NAS) device. A NAS device is a computer specialized for providing file storage services to other computers on a network. … NAS systems include one or more hard disks, often arranged into logical, redundant storage containers or RAID arrays (redundant arrays of inexpensive/independent disks). The data 55 may be stored on one or more of the hard disks of the NAS device; the examiner notes that separately managed is interpreted as raid volumes) the information recording unit records the information in each of the plurality of storage areas in response to the writing request, and the primary backup creation unit backs up the information recorded in each of the plurality of storage areas of the data storage (col. 8 lines 31-43; The backup software 100 may cause the data transfer to resume so that the source device 20 transfers the next portion of data 55 to the backup storage device 40, as indicated by the arrow 3. The data transfer may then be paused while the checkpoint 101C is created…. The data transfer may then be resumed so that the source device 20 transfers the final portion of data 55 to the backup storage device 40, as indicated by the arrow 4.)
Per claim 3, Graetz discloses: wherein the device is an industrial device (fig. 1)
Claim 6 is the method claim corresponding to the device claim 1 and is rejected under the same reasons set forth in connection with the rejection of claim 1.
Claim(s) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Graetz 8285869 herein Graetz and Komikado 20060031637 herein Komikado in view of Bloomstein 8359491 herein Bloomstein.
Per claim 5, Graetz disclose recording of information in the primary storage but does not specifically disclose: wherein the primary backup creation unit records, in the primary backup storage, the information recorded in primary backup creation based on a copy-on-write function.
However, Bloomstein discloses: wherein the primary backup creation unit records, in the primary backup storage, the information recorded in primary backup creation based on a copy-on-write function (col. 8 lines 22-29; While FIGS. 2a and 2b describe embodiments where COW snapshots are created and managed for logical volumes, similar techniques may be employed to implement COW snapshots for any desired types of storage objects, such as file systems, collections of file systems or volumes, disk partitions, physical storage devices such as disks, disk arrays, or collections of disks or disk arrays, etc).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the invention to combine the teaching of Graetz, Komikado and Bloomsteain to synchronize the backups. Bloomstein increases the speed of the back synchronization (col. 8 lines 38-45).
Claim(s) 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Graetz 8285869 herein Graetz and Komikado 20060031637 herein Komikado in view of Tam 20120151257 herein Tam.
Per claim 4, Graetz disclose recording of information in the primary storage but does not specifically disclose: wherein the information recording unit associates a manufacturing step using the industrial device with each of the plurality of storage areas of the data storage, and records the information in the storage area corresponding to each manufacturing step in response to a request for writing information related to the manufacturing step, and the primary backup creation unit backs up the information recorded in the storage area corresponding to each manufacturing step to the primary backup storage in between manufacturing step cycles in which the information recording unit records the information in response to the writing request.
However, Tam discloses: wherein the information recording unit associates a manufacturing step using the industrial device with each of the plurality of storage areas of the data storage, and records the information in the storage area corresponding to each manufacturing step in response to a request for writing information related to the manufacturing step, and the primary backup creation unit backs up the information recorded in the storage area corresponding to each manufacturing step to the primary backup storage in between manufacturing step cycles in which the information recording unit records the information in response to the writing request (fig. 4 ¶0063-64; The hardware systems are considered to be manufacturer supported hardware that has previously been tested and/or is considered to be compatible with the manufacturer's software. In this example the systems are referred to as System A, on which the current system software is operating, and System B, which is a new hardware platform to which System A will be migrated. The process of hardware migration typically involves making a data backup of the data on System A. The system software is then installed on System B, typically including an operating system and application software. The software installed on System B is typically the same software running on System A or an updated version of the software. However, a migration from virtual hardware to physical hardware is typically not supported; the examiner interprets the manufacturing steps as drivers/images at the time of manufacture and backing up the factory image).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the invention to combine the teaching of Graetz, Komikado and Tam to improve the speed at which an image can be created. Tam improves throughput of the primary storage (¶0021).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, filed 11/28/15, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1 and 6 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Komikado. Komikado discloses: In this system, control is performed so that data of plural sub-volumes of the disk array device on the local site side are remote-copied to a primary volume of the disk array device on the remote site side, and a pair state and pair cancellation between a primary volume and each of the sub-volumes can be controlled even during the remote copy. Further, when creating sub-volumes, differential data from previous data of the sub-volumes are created and stored into the sub-volumes.
Remark
Examiner respectfully requests, in response to this Office action, support be shown for language added to any original claims on amendment and any new claims. That is, indicate support for newly added claim language by specifically pointing to page(s) and line number(s) in the specification and/or drawing figure(s). This will assist Examiner in prosecuting the application.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BABOUCARR FAAL whose telephone number is (571)270-5073. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30-5:30 EST.
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BABOUCARR . FAAL
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2138
/BABOUCARR FAAL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2138
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