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 Objections
Claims 23, 33 and 35 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Each claim recites “an indicator that that up-to-date data is stored ….” The second occurrence of “that” should be deleted. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 29 is objected to because of an informal and grammatically unclear recitation. Claim 29 recites “instructions for performing a method, which when executed by a machine, causes the machine to ….” It is unclear whether “which” refers to the recited method or the instructions; further, the plural noun “instructions” does not agree with “causes.” Appropriate correction is required. For example, Applicant may amend the claim to recite: “A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to: …”
Claim 34 is objected to because of an informal recitation. In the final limitation, claim 34 states, “wherein the executing includes: execute an operation ….” The recitation lacks grammatical consistency with the preceding “wherein the executing includes” language. Appropriate correction is required, for example, by replacing “execute” with “executing.”
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 25-26, 30, 37 and 38 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Each of claims 25, 26, 30, 37, and 38 recites accessing “a location within the persistent memory of an inofile” for a respective volume or volume snapshot. The term “inofile” does not have an established meaning in the art, and the claims do not identify what an “inofile” is or otherwise provide a sufficiently definite relationship between the recited “inofile,” the persistent memory, and the inodes. Thus, it is unclear what structure or data object is being claimed and, consequently, the metes and bounds of the claims cannot be determined.
Applicant may amend the claims to clarify the term “inofile,” for example, by reciting the intended data structure or file and its relationship to the volume, persistent memory, and inodes.
Allowable Subject Matter
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: Independent claim 21 recites the following allowable subject matter: “determining that the data is stored across a file system tier and a persistent memory tier of the node; and executing the cross-tier operation upon a storage file system managed by the file system tier and a persistent memory file system managed by the persistent memory tier, wherein the executing includes: executing an operation directed to a block of the storage file system by retrieving up-to-date data of the block from the persistent memory file system for creating a snapshot capturing data stored across the storage file system and the persistent memory file system.”
Closest prior arts Kanno [US 2016/0364142 A1] and Golander al. [US 2017/0371889 A1] alone or in combination, fail to teach or suggest determining that data is stored across both a file-system tier and a persistent-memory tier of a node, and, when creating a snapshot spanning the respective storage file system and persistent-memory file system, retrieving up-to-date data for a block from the persistent-memory file system to execute an operation directed to that block of the storage file system. In particular, the cited references do not disclose coordinating a cross-tier snapshot operation in which the persistent-memory file system supplies the current version of block data for the storage file system, thereby capturing consistent data across both tiers. Accordingly, the claimed subject matter is allowable over Kanno and Golander.
Similarly Claims 29 and 34 recite same allowable subject matter as claim 21. Under the same rationale of allowable subject matter as of claim 21, Claims 29 and 34 are also considered to contain allowable subject matter.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MASUD K KHAN whose telephone number is (571)270-0606. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday (8am-5pm).
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Hosain Alam can be reached at (571) 272-3978. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MASUD K KHAN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2132
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