Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Saher B Ahwal

Shane Kumar Mainali

Maneesh Sah

Jun Tse Chen

Zichen Sun

Georgi M Chalakov

Thomas Leo Marquardt

Shaoyu Zhang

Saurabh Pant

Dana Yulian Kaban

Da Zhou

Amit Pratap Singh

Junhua Gu

Esfandiar Manii

Quan Zhang

Jingchao Zhang

Wei Zhu Chen

Wei Ting Chen

Arild Einar Skjoldsvold

Jun Chen

Wei Chen

A service enables a command that refers to a file system object using a hierarchical namespace identifier to be executed against the file system object in a flat namespace. The service selectively distributes the command to one of a plurality of name resolution nodes based on a directory name included in the hierarchical namespace identifier. The identified node resolves the directory name to a flat namespace identifier that is used to execute the command against the flat namespace. After communicating with at least one storage node to resolve a directory name, each name resolution node stores a mapping of the directory name to the corresponding flat namespace identifier in a cache, so that subsequent resolutions of that directory name may be performed more efficiently. Cache entries may be invalidated when an operation occurs that impacts the relevant mapping and/or based on system considerations such as cache expiry.

Hierarchical namespace service with distributed name resolution caching and synchronization

Methods, systems, and computer programs are presented for providing file system functions on a cloud storage system based on blob storage. A cloud storage system comprises storage clusters, and each storage cluster comprises a plurality of storage nodes (each including a partition layer that stores data in blobs organized within containers, and a stream layer for streaming blob data), a hierarchical namespace service for implementing file system functions on the data stored in the blobs and, a front end layer for processing user requests to access and manage data stored on the blobs. The file system functions include flat namespace functions and hierarchical namespace functions. Further, the front end layer accesses the partition layer to access the blobs based on addresses of blobs and accesses the hierarchical namespace service to identify the blobs.

Cloud storage distributed file system

Methods, systems, and programs provide for executing distributed transactions in a cloud storage system with a hierarchical namespace. One method includes receiving a request with operations to be executed atomically. Further, nodes are identified for executing the operations, each node having a respective clock and having at least part of a transactions table for controlling updates to entities. Each clock is one of a loosely-synchronized, a strictly-synchronized clock, a logical, or a physical clock. Additionally, the nodes process the operations, which includes setting a commit timestamp (CS) to a value of the clock in the node if the node is a first node in the processing. One node coordinates the transactions, and may be one of the nodes executing transactions. If the clock in the node is less than a current value of the CS, the node waits for the clock to reach the current value of the CS and the CS is updated. The transactions table is updated based on the value of the CS, the atomic execution is committed utilizing the final value of the CS, and a status is returned.

Distributed transactions in cloud storage with hierarchical namespace

Methods, systems, and apparatuses are provided for a storage system that implements a hierarchical namespace service. A storage system includes a plurality of physical nodes and a plurality of sets of virtual nodes. Each set of virtual nodes is managed by a corresponding physical node. Each virtual node is configured to manage a respective set of directory blocks. Each directory block is a respective partition of a storage namespace and is managed by a corresponding single virtual node. Each virtual node maintains a directory block map. The directory block map maps file system object names in a hierarchical namespace to entity block identifiers in the flat namespace for entity blocks (files and folders) stored in directories corresponding to the managed set of directory blocks. Load balancing may be performed by moving virtual nodes between physical nodes, and by splitting directory blocks.

Hierarchical namespace with strong consistency and horizontal scalability

Growing community of inventors

Redmond, WA, United States of America

Saher B Ahwal