Nasuni Corporation

Matthew M McDonald

David M Shaw

Christopher S Lacasse

Russell Andrew Neufeld

Kevin William Baughman

Akshay K Saxena

Robert F Mason

Jon Vincent

Robert M Mason, Jr

Robert S Mason, Jr

A versioned file system comprising network accessible storage is provided. Aspects of the system include globally locking files or groups of files so as to better control the stored files in the file system and to avoid problems associated with simultaneous remote access or conflicting multiple access requests for the same files. A method for operating, creating and using the global locks is also disclosed. A multiprotocol global lock can be provided for filing nodes that have multiple network protocols for generating local lock requests.

Versioned file system with global lock

A cloud-based write-once object store is configured to store inode-based data exported to the store from an enterprise file system. For each version of data (e.g., a file) exported to the store, there is a version of the inode corresponding to that data. As versions of the data are exported to the cloud, the system creates multiple versions of the inode. The set of inode versions corresponding to the versions of the file have a pointer associated therewith that specifies the latest version of the data associated with the inode. The inode versions in the set share the same pointer. The inode versions represent a revision history for the inode. For each inode version corresponding to a version of the data, information is received and stored in a new portion of the object store. The inode version for a file version comprises a list of data chunks for the file.

Network accessible file server

A versioned file storage system (VFS) and method for operating and using the same is disclosed. In an aspect, a mechanism is provided wherein a first VFS interface unit coupling the VFS to a local data storage system is replaced with a second VFS interface unit in a coordinated procedure for taking the first unit offline, making a reliable snapshot of its data and cache structure in the VFS, and loading the same data and cache structure into the second VFS interface brought online. The first and second VFS interfaces transfer the necessary data to achieve the switch through respective side-loading daemons running in each interface. Clients in the local data storage system experience minimal interruption of services in the VFS.

Systems and methods for restoring an interface to a global file system

An operations server synchronizes updates to a cloud-based shared versioned file system. The shared versioned file system includes directories and sub-directories that are divided into shards. The operations server coordinates requests from local filer servers, each running a respective local version of the shared versioned file system, to update a shard in the cloud-based shared versioned file system. The operations server can provide a global lock on the shard to a local filer server before it updates the shard in the cloud-based shared versioned file system.

Growing community of inventors

Burlington, MA, United States of America

Matthew M McDonald