Overland Storage, Inc.

F5 Networks, Inc.

Peaxy, Inc.

Hitachi Data Systems Engineering UK Limited

Bluearc UK Limited

Francesco Lacapra

I Chung Joseph Lin

Samuel Sui-Lun Li

Nathanael John Diller

Peter Wallace Steele

Thomas Reynold Ramsdell

Don Nguyen

Bruno Sartirana

Kyle Dinh Tran

Ernest Ying Sue Hua

Christopher J Aston

Trevor Edward Willis

Fiorenzo Cattaneo

Simon L Benham

Srinivas Duvvuri

Peter A Nickolov

Vladimir I Miloushev

Krasimira Nikolova, Legal Representative

Trevor Willis

Peer-to-peer redundant file server system and methods include clients that determine a target storage provider to contact for a particular storage transaction based on a pathname provided by the filesystem and a predetermined scheme such as a hash function applied to a portion of the pathname. Servers use the same scheme to determine where to store relevant file information so that the clients can locate the file information. The target storage provider may store the file itself and/or may store metadata that identifies one or more other storage providers where the file is stored. A file may be replicated in multiple storage providers, and the metadata may include a list of storage providers from which the clients can select (e.g., randomly) in order to access the file.

Peer-to-peer redundant file server system and methods

A non-transitory computer storage medium stores a set of instructions that, when loaded into and running in a plurality of logical computer systems, establishes a software-defined network attachable storage system. The storage system includes first and second sets of logical computer systems (which may be virtual computer systems) as namespace servers and dataspace servers respectively. Each namespace server is configured: (a) to store, in its memory, filesystem metadata, the metadata including file and directory names and information on where user data associated with the file and directory names resides, and to store in its storage system a dynamically updated copy of the filesystem metadata; and (b) to process storage system pathname requests, for a predetermined subset of the namespace, from at least one requesting client computer and to return in response to each request a handle for use by the requesting client computer; and (ii) each dataspace server is configured to store and retrieve user data in its storage system based on handles determined by the namespace servers.

Software-defined network attachable storage system and method

A method for establishing a software-defined network attachable storage system includes establishing first and second sets of logical computer systems (which may be virtual computer systems) as namespace servers and dataspace servers respectively. Each namespace server is configured: (a) to store, in its memory, filesystem metadata, the metadata including file and directory names and information on where user data associated with the file and directory names resides, and to store in its storage system a dynamically updated copy of the filesystem metadata; and (b) to process storage system pathname requests, for a predetermined subset of the namespace, from at least one requesting client computer and to return in response to each request a handle for use by the requesting client computer; and (ii) each dataspace server is configured to store and retrieve user data in its storage system based on handles determined by the namespace servers.

A distributed file system and method distributes file system objects across multiple self-contained volumes, where each volume is owned by a unique file system node. Logical links are used to reference a file system object between volumes. Each file system node includes a relocation directory in which is maintained hard links to locally-stored file system objects that are referenced from another file system node using logical links. Various file system operations that involve multiple volumes are performed without having to place a write lock on more than one volume at a time. Various caching schemes allow the various file system nodes to cache file system object data and metadata.

Distributed file system and method

In an aggregated file system, metadata is partitioned into multiple metadata volumes. On receipt of a file processing request, a file switch examines its mount entry cache to identify a target metadata volume that hosts the metadata of the requested file. The identification begins with mount entries at a root volume and continues recursively by examining a portion of the absolute pathname of the file until the target metadata volume is identified. Finally, the file switch forwards the request to a metadata server managing the target metadata volume. Since the identification process is carried out completely within the file switch, there is no need for multiple expensive network accesses to different metadata servers.

Scalable system for partitioning and accessing metadata over multiple servers

In an aggregated file system, a method of processing a user file retrieves user file metadata and user data from a metadata server and applies operations to the user data in accordance with a file open request from a client. At the end of the process, the method stores the processed user data at a location in accordance with a predefined rule and updates the metadata in the metadata server to reference the processed user data at the location. In some embodiments, the predefined rule is to choose a location between the metadata server and a separate storage server in accordance with the size of the processed user data. If the size is still smaller than a predetermined threshold, the user data is stored in the metadata server. Otherwise, the user data is stored in the storage server.

System and method for managing small-size files in an aggregated file system

Growing community of inventors

Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Francesco Lacapra