Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Microsoft Corporation

Raxco Software, Inc.

David Allen Goebel

Ravisankar V Pudipeddi

Vishal Vikram Ghotge

Ravinder S Thind

Sarosh Cyrus Havewala

Mark Joseph Zbikowski

Adrian Mihail Marinescu

Andrew James Edwards

Mihai Costea

James M Lyon

Anil Francis Thomas

Mark Vayman

Ishai Ben Aroya

Robert S Kleinschmidt

Ozan Demir

Bulat Y Shelepov

Bradley Gene Calder

Jiesheng Wu

Shuvabrata Ganguly

Matthew Douglas Hendel

Jaidev Haridas

Revinder S Thind

Jean Ghanem

Nathan P Myhrvold

John R Douceur

Cenk Ergan

William J Bolosky

Richard F Rashid

Michael Richard Fortin

Ioan Oltean

Scott M Cutshall

George Cristian Chicioreanu

Marius Gheorghe Gheorghescu

Adrian Bivol

Jaiden Haridas

In various embodiments, methods and systems for providing access to file systems are provided. An SFA-based operation having an operation modifier for a file in a file system is received. The SFA-based operation is defined based on a file-representational state transfer (REST) interface. The SFA-REST interface comprises integrated functionality of an SFA protocol and REST protocol. The SFA-based operation is executed using the operation modifier. A REST-based operation for the file in the distributed file storage is received. The REST-based operation is defined based on the SFA-REST interface. The operation modifier is referenced in order to execute the REST-based operation. The REST-based operation based on the SFA-REST interface. A schema can be implemented for accessing the file system. The schema includes tables to store files, the table comprises fields corresponding to elements of a SFA-REST interface. A snapshot component can be implemented to backup file shares in the file system.

File service using a shared file access-rest interface

A distributed file system that includes multiple computing node tiers. Each of at least some of the multiple computing node tiers has multiple computing nodes having like characteristics. The distributed file system also has an executable component in the form of a distribution component that comprises logic that distributes state of file system entities amongst the computing node tiers. The distribution is performed so that latency of file system requests are reduced due to state responsive to many requests being much closer latency wise to the file system requestor(s). Furthermore, the distribution considers durability guarantees of the state, thereby meeting durability guarantees.

File system with distributed entity state

Various methods and systems for in-place unformatting of disks are provided. The system includes a preparation component configured for creating a backup file on the disk and a preformatting component for using the backup file to occupy a predetermined location that defines a backup zone on the disk. The backup file is a space-holder such that the preformatting component copies primal data and file table data to the backup zone. The system further includes a formatting component for formatting the disk storing the primal data and the file table and an unformatting component that copies the primal data and file table data from the backup zone back to their original locations to unformat the disk to a preformat configuration. A safeguard component may also be implemented to ensure that the preformat component is invoked before the format component if the preparation component was executed on a volume.

In-place disk unformatting

An extensible file system format for portable storage media is provided. The extensible file system format includes the specification of primary and secondary directory entry types that may be custom defined. The primary and secondary directory entry types can be further classified as critical and benign directory entries. The directory entry types can define whether a cluster chain corresponding to a file can be contiguously allocated.

Extending cluster allocations in an extensible file system

Disclosed is a method for creating and reading a contiguous file in an extensible file system. During the creation of a file on the storage media, the file system format check the bitmap to determine if there are areas of free space on the media that would permit the storage of the file in a contiguous manner. By storing the file in a contiguous manner the file may later be read without resorting to the file allocation table, because the file itself would not be fragmented on the storage media. Once an area of free space has been identified, the file is written to the media in a contiguous manner. Further, an associated entry for the file in the directory entry is updated or created to indicate that the file is a contiguous file and also provides basic parameters necessary to read the file without resorting to accessing the file allocation table.

Contiguous file allocation in an extensible file system

A data storage array may be made up of several storage devices, each of which may contain array metadata that may allow portions of the storage array to be used. A system may have a file system manager that may receive and respond to file system commands and a storage device manager that may store data on the several storage devices. Array metadata defining where data is stored within the storage array is stored on each device within the array. A policy engine may identify data to be stored on the array and determine if the data contains array metadata or other types of data and may store the data on every device, devices having specific characteristics, two or more devices, or one device.

Metadata for data storage array

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David Allen Goebel