Netapp, Inc.

Network Appliance, Inc.

Marconi Communications Gmbh

Avere Systems, Inc.

Spinnaker Networks, Inc.

Daniel S Nydick

Michael Kazar

Richard N Sanzi, Jr

Fred Gohh

Ronald P Bianchini, Jr

Benjamin Speiser

Michael Robin Eisler

Andrew G Reynolds

Tom Hicks

Peter Frank Corbett

J Christopher Wagner

Benjamin T H Cox

David Jeffrey Graham

Daniel Clash

Richard Parvin Jernigan, Iv

John E Drake

Robert Wyckoff Hyer, Jr

John Russell Boyles

Joseph C Kantz

Jeffrey Eric Semke

James Andrew Ignatuk

Joseph Nevi Hosteny, Iv

Jeffrey Butler

Dimitris Varotsis

James A Meacham, Ii

Michael L Kazar

A system for storing file data and directory data received over a network includes a network interface in communication with the network which receives NAS requests containing data to be written to files from the network. The system includes a first type of storage. The system includes a second type of storage different from the first type of storage. The system includes a policy specification n which specifies a first portion of one or more files' data which is less than all of the files' data is stored in the first type of storage and a second portion of the data which is less than all of the data of the files is stored in the second type of store. The system comprises a processing unit which executes the policy and causes the first portion to be stored in the first type of storage and a second portion to be stored in the second type of storage. A method for storing file data and directory data received over a network.

Method and apparatus for tiered storage

The present invention provides a system and a method for utilizing a parity protection module to back up data on striped aggregates. Specifically, the system computes parity data for data stored at a particular location of each of a plurality of constituent aggregates, and stores the parity on one of the constituent aggregates that is a parity owner for that particular location of data. In the event one of the constituent aggregates fails, new data may still be accessed by the system (the striped aggregates), both to write new data, and to read data stored on the failed aggregate. In particular, the parity protection module allows clients to read data from a failed aggregate by running a reverse parity computation, which may also be used to restore the data to the failed aggregate.

System and method for redundancy-protected aggregates

A system and method for responding to file system requests having file IDs comprising V, a volume identifier specifying the file system being accessed, and R, an integer, specifying the file within the file system being accessed. The system and method also include D disk elements, where D is greater than or equal to 1 and is an integer, a switching fabric connected to the D disk elements to route requests to a corresponding disk element, and N network elements connected to the switching fabric. Each network element has a mapping function that for every value of V, specifies one or more elements from the set D that store the data specified by volume V, where N is greater than or equal to 1 and is an integer and N+D is greater than or equal to 3.

Method and system for responding to file system requests

A technique provides an administrative path for accessing a writeable master storage volume in a mirrored storage environment. Illustratively, a writeable master storage volume stores a master set of data addressable by a corresponding pathname, and zero or more read-only (e.g., load-balancing) mirrored storage volumes are configured to store a mirrored set of the master set of data, the mirrored set also addressable by the corresponding pathname. Clients may read data from either the master storage volume or one of the mirrored storage volumes (e.g., according to a configured access location, such as a local mirrored volume if one exists) by issuing read requests having the corresponding pathnames. Also, each client may specifically access the master set of data from the master storage volume by issuing an access (e.g., read/write) request having a specified master storage volume pathname prefix prepended to the corresponding pathname.

Providing an administrative path for accessing a writeable master storage volume in a mirrored storage environment

A system and method to allow a volume to appear in multiple locations in a super-namespace. A super-namespace is a hierarchy of namespaces within a storage system environment, such as a storage system cluster. The volume can appear in multiple locations in the super-namespace and/or in multiple namespaces within the super-namespace.

System and method for enabling a data container to appear in a plurality of locations in a super-namespace

A system for responding to file system requests having file IDs comprising V, a volume identifier specifying the file system being accessed, and R, an integer, specifying the file within the file system being accessed includes D disk elements in which files are stored, where D is greater than or equal to 2 and is an integer. The system includes a switching fabric having a first switching element and a second switching element, each of which are connected to each of the D disk elements. The system includes N network elements, each of which is connected to each of the switching elements of the switching fabric, where N is greater than or equal to 2 and is an integer and N+D is greater than or equal to 4.

A system and method for offloading network processes from main processors of a storage system and performing them on parallel processing modules. Embodiments of the present invention improve performance of a clustered storage system by performing certain network processes in an accelerator module of a storage system node. The accelerator module receives multi-protocol protocol data units (PDUs) from a network interface, performs protocol operations on the PDUs to form file system requests and passes the file system requests to a local D-module. If a file system request is directed to a non-local D-module in the cluster, the accelerator module repackages the request for transmission to the appropriate D-module and passes it back to the network without using local D-module processing resources or passing data over the system bus.

Method and apparatus for offloading network processes in a computer storage system

A system and method for offloading network processes from main processors of a storage system and performing them on parallel processing modules. Embodiments of the present invention allocate resources such as memory and/or buffers to particular connections between various storage operating system processes or between storage operating system processes and a network interface. Connections are identified by a connection identifier (CID) and are assigned particular buffers according to parameters such as buffer availability, connection priority, and/or maximum allocation thresholds. A connection associated with a CID is guaranteed access to a certain number of dedicated buffers. Deadlock is avoided even when an operating system process associated with a different CID attempts to exhaust available memory and/or buffers because such processes will only have access to their own allocated resources.

Method and apparatus for allocating network protocol operation resources

A system for responding to file system requests having file IDs comprising V, a volume identifier specifying the file system being accessed, and R, an integer, specifying the file within the file system being accessed. The system includes D disk elements in which files are stored, where D is greater than or equal to 1 and is an integer. The system includes a switching fabric connected to the D disk elements to route requests to a corresponding disk element. The system includes N network elements connected to the switching fabric. Each network element has a mapping function that for every value of V, specifies one or more elements from the set D that store the data specified by volume V, where N is greater than or equal to 1 and is an integer and N+D is greater than or equal to 3, which receives the requests and causes the switching fabric to route the requests by their file ID according to the mapping function.

A system for responding to file system requests including a plurality of network elements with at least a network element of the plurality of network elements receiving the requests. The system includes a plurality of switching elements in communication with the network elements which route the requests. The system includes a plurality of disk elements in which files are stored and which respond to the requests in communication with the switching elements, the network element insures each request from the network element is only executed once, the network element retransmits each request for which the network element does not receive an acknowledgment from the switching elements. A method for responding to file system requests.

A system and method for limiting access using file-level protocol rule sets. A rule set, comprising of an ordered set of rules, is associated with a virtual file system (VFS). When a data access request is received, the network address of the client originating the data access request is utilized to select a matching rule from the rule set for use in determining access to the VFS. The selected rule is then processed to determine if the data access request is permitted.

System and method for implementing access controls using file protocol rule sets

A system for responding to file system requests having file IDs comprising V, a volume identifier specifying the file system being accessed, and R, an integer, specifying the file within the file system being accessed. The system includes D disk elements in which files are stored, where D is greater than or equal to 1 and is an integer. The system includes a switching fabric connected to the D disk elements to route requests to a corresponding disk element. The system includes N network elements connected to the switching fabric. Each network element has a mapping function that for every value of V, specifies one or more elements from the set D that store the data specified by volume V, where N is greater than or equal to 1 and is an integer and N+D is greater than or equal to 3, which receives the requests and causes the switching fabric to route the requests by their file ID according to the mapping function. A method for responding to file system requests. The method includes the steps of receiving file system requests having file IDs comprising V, a volume identifier specifying the file system being accessed, and R, an integer, specifying the file within the file system being accessed at network elements. Each network element has a mapping function that for every value of V, specifies one or more elements from the set D that store the data specified by volume V. Then there is the step of routing the requests to a switching fabric connected to the network elements based on the file system request's ID according to the mapping function to disk elements connected to the switching fabric.

A system and method for authenticating an unauthenticated file level protocol using a sidecar authentication mechanism. A client transmits an authentication ticket, UID and list of network addresses to an authentication daemon of a storage system. The authentication daemon verifies the user identity and generates a file system credential that is stored in a cache indexed by an authentication tuple. Received data access operations from a client are compared to authentication tuples by UID and network address and the file system utilizes the stored credential for processing the data access operation.

System and method for a sidecar authentication mechanism

A switching system. The switching system includes a first switch having a primary receive port and a secondary receive port. The switching system includes a second switch connected to the first switch. The second switch has n receive ports, where n is greater than or equal to 2 and is an integer. The second switch has m transmit ports, where m is greater than or equal to 2 and is an integer. The transmit ports are decoupled from the receive ports. The second switch has a connecting mechanism that includes a multicast mechanism which sends data out a primary transmit port of the m transmit ports to the primary receive port of the first switch to define a primary path, and out a secondary transmit port of the m transmit ports to a secondary receive port of the first switch to define a redundant path to the primary path so that if there is a failure of the primary path to provide the data to the first switch, the data is received by the first switch through the redundant path. The first switch has a mechanism for only accepting the data from the primary path unless the primary path has failed, in which case the data is received by the first switch through the redundant path. A switch. A method of switching data.

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Wexford, PA, United States of America

Daniel S Nydick