Netapp, Inc.

Network Appliance, Inc.

Saadia Khan

Peter Frank Corbett

Vijay Singh

John R Corbin

Sloan Johnson

Vadim Finkelstein

Mukesh Kacker

In one embodiment, a data migration technique enables a source storage system to efficiently and reliably migrate data to a destination storage system. The source storage system includes a copy engine that is configured to migrate or copy a set of data, e.g., one or more files, to the destination storage system using a file-based protocol over a network. The copy engine is also configured to ensure that any locks associated with the migrated data set are reclaimed at the destination storage system using a lock-based protocol. The source storage system further includes a proxy service that is configured to translate client requests to access the migrated data set to access requests executable (i.e., discernable) by the destination storage system. The proxy service then forwards or proxies the translated requests over the network to the destination storage system for processing. In essence, the proxy service interacts with the copy engine to proxy protocol specific requests and replies between a client and the destination storage system after copying of the migrated data set has completed, thus rendering data migration transparent to the client.

Transparent data migration in a storage system environment

A storage server maintains a number of datasets (e.g., exported file systems or other resources). For each dataset, certain clients are allowed to have access (e.g., read access, write access, root access, etc.) and certain other clients are not allowed to have access. Access permission information is maintained to specify which clients are allowed to have access and what kind of access. A method and system are introduced to use a radix tree to store access permission information in a cache, therefore allowing the storage server to quickly retrieve access information relevant to a particular client. One advantage of using radix tree to maintain access permission information is that radix tree is very efficient at storing hierarchical information, such as IP addresses. Radix tree is also very efficient at representing subnets in particular.

Method and system for storing clients' access permissions in a cache

Growing community of inventors

Milpitas, CA, United States of America

Saadia Khan