Emc IP Holding Company LLC

Netapp, Inc.

Dipankar Roy

Akhil Kaushik

Pranab Patnaik

Devang Kundanlal Shah

Kai Tan

Krishnaveni Budati

Robert Wyckoff Hyer, Jr

Andrew Narver

One or more techniques and/or computing devices are provided for managing an arbitrary set of storage items using a granset. For example, a storage controller may host a plurality of storage items and/or logical unit numbers (LUNs). A subset of the storage items are grouped into a consistency group. A granset is created for tracking, managing, and/or providing access to the storage items within the consistency group. For example, the granset comprises application programming interfaces (APIs) and/or properties used to provide certain levels of access to the storage items (e.g., read access, write access, no access), redirect operations to access either data of an active file system or to a snapshot, fence certain operations (e.g., rename and delete operations), and/or other properties that apply to each storage item within the consistency group. Thus, the granset provides a persistent on-disk layout used to manage an arbitrary set of storage items.

Gransets for managing consistency groups of dispersed storage items

Techniques are provided for auditing individual object operations as multiple file system operations. In an example, a client computer sends an object storage operation to a server that is configured to store data in a file system. The server receives the object storage operation, and converts it to one or more corresponding file system operations. The server opens an audit file context that identifies the object storage operation. As a file system driver reports that it has completed various file system operations corresponding to the object storage operation, the server appends an identification of the object storage operation, as determined from the audit file context, to an audit log entry for that file system operation.

Auditing individual object operations as multiple file system operations

Change notify responses can be utilized to inform a remote computer that a file or directory that is being monitored has changed. A change notify response can include a path name to the file or directory being referenced. In some examples, a cache of path names can be maintained in a user space of a server implementing change notify responses. When a module that generates a change notify response does generate such a response, the module can first access the cache to determine if the relevant path name is located in the cache. Where the relevant path name is not located in the cache, the module can obtain the path name from kernel space and store it in the cache.

Path name cache for notifications of file changes

Storing an entity as an object or a file in a hybrid storage system based on an accessing protocol is presented herein. In response to determining that a request to modify a data entity is based on an object storage protocol, and in response to determining that the data entity is a first object that is represented as a first file in a file storage device, the hybrid storage system creates the first object in an object storage device and deletes the first file. Further, in response to determining that the request is based on a file storage protocol, and that the data entity is a second file that is represented as a second object in the object storage device, the hybrid storage system creates the second file in the file storage device and deletes the second object.

Storing an entity as an object or a file in a hybrid storage system based on an accessing protocol

Implementations are provided herein for using relative generation numbers for deduplicating kernel events modification events. The process can identify multiple modification events that take place on the same inode within a configurable relative amount of time and deduplicate the events against one another. A hash table can be used to store a global list of events associated with inodes, and thus only the hash table need be deduplicated. Filter buffer(s) setup when an Server Message Block ('SMB') client requests a change notifications on a file and/or directory can then use the data from the hash table(s) to notify clients of change notify events.

Using relative generation numbers to deduplicate file system events

Embodiments described herein enable a storage system configured with a cache, i.e., a caching storage system, to obtain soft locks on a plurality of files, including non-regular file types, supported by a plurality of file access protocols. The cache is illustratively embodied as a flexible volume configured to temporarily store information, such as contents of the files, through replication of attributes and data of the files from an origin storage system. The soft locks are illustratively implemented as delegations; a delegation on a file enables the caching storage system to serve the attributes and the data for the file without verifying validity of the data with the origin storage system.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Dipankar Roy