Red Hat, Inc.

Michael J Declerck

Kenneth William Preslan

Matthew O'Keefe

Jonathan E Brassow

Andrew Lewis

Adam Manthei

David Teigland

A cluster file system is disclosed. A plurality of disk servers, operating as a single distributed disk server layer, are connected to the one or more physical disks. Each disk server stores metadata for each of the files. A plurality of lock servers, having one or more locks for each file and associated file system metadata operates as a single centralized distributed lock server to coordinate access to the files stored by the disk server layer. A plurality of asynchronous file servers, operating as a single distributed file server layer in response to a request for a file from a user program: (i) retrieves the requested file from the disk server layer and at least one lock, associated with the retrieved file, from the lock server, and (ii) retrieves metadata for at least one file that is related to the requested files, and at least one lock, for each file that has had its metadata retrieved.

Metadata structures and related locking techniques to improve performance and scalability in a cluster file system

A distributed file system is disclosed. A plurality of disk servers, operating as a single distributed disk server layer, are connected to the one or more physical disks. Each disk server stores meta-data for each of the files. A plurality of lock servers, having one or more locks for each file operates as a single distributed lock server to coordinate access to the files stored by the disk server layer. A plurality of asynchronous file servers, operating as a single distributed file server layer in response to a request for a file from a user program: (i) retrieves the requested file from the disk server layer and at least one lock, associated with the retrieved file, from the lock server, and (ii) retrieves meta-data for at least one file that is related to the requested files, and at least one lock, for each file that has had its meta-data retrieved.

Distributed file system using disk servers, lock servers and file servers

Growing community of inventors

El Cerrito, CA, United States of America

Michael J Declerck