Netapp, Inc.

Network Appliance, Inc.

Toby Smith

Michael Kazar

Peter Frank Corbett

Alan Stuart Driscoll

Devang Kundanlal Shah

Srishylam Simharajan

Bruce Leverett

Richard Parvin Jernigan, Iv

Robert Wyckoff Hyer, Jr

David Noveck

Peter Griess

Keith Allen Arner

Joe Warren Dukes, Jr

A method and apparatus for replicating a data container of a source storage server at the logical level in an unordered stream of individual data units are described. In certain embodiments, the replication operations can be performed without regard to the differences in geometry of physical persistent storage of the source and destination storage servers and without regard to the differences in data container format of the source and destination storage servers. An initial replication operation of the source data container is performed by transferring the data objects within the source data container to a replica data container in the destination storage server as an unordered stream of individual data units while preserving data object identifiers of the source data objects. Afterwards, incremental replication operations can be performed to capture modifications to the source data container over time after the initial replication operation.

Unordered idempotent logical replication operations

A replication operation service migrates data from a source volume having a source file system type to a destination volume having a destination file system type, where the source file system type may be different from the destination file system type. The replication operation is completed without interrupting the operations of a client device in the system. A stable copy of the source file system is generated on the source volume. A file system agnostic representation of a portion of the data in the source volume is generated from the stable copy. The representation is transmitted to the destination volume where it is converted to conform to the destination file system type.

File system agnostic replication

Apparatus and method are disclosed for managing lock state information in a distributed file system. A set of data containers storing data is maintained. The data containers are striped across a plurality of volumes, where each volume includes one or more data storage devices. A metadata volume is maintained with the plurality of volumes, the metadata volume configured to include a lock state database that stores lock state information for the plurality of volumes. The lock state information is communicated between the metadata volume and the plurality of volumes.

System and method for managing hard lock state information in a distributed storage system environment

A system and method manages lock state information in a storage system. A meta-data volume node includes a lock state database which is a comprehensive source for lock state information about data containers in the system. A plurality of data volume nodes include local lock caches, which contain information about locks. Lock state messaging between the meta-data volume node and the data volume nodes is used to assign locks and to update local lock caches. The meta-data volume node is configured to determine whether input/output requests should be allowed or denied and to instruct the data volume nodes of this input/output operation result. Lock information is also sent to the data volume nodes for storage in local lock state caches to the extent the data volume nodes have the network capacity locally.

System and method for managing hard and soft lock state information in a distributed storage system environment

A system and method manages lock state information in a distributed file system. A meta-data volume includes a lock state database which is a comprehensive source for lock state information about a striped volume set in the system. A plurality of data volumes includes local lock caches which contain information about locks. Lock state messaging between the meta-data volume and the data volumes is used to assign locks and to update local lock caches. The meta-data volume is configured to assigned permissive areas in the data containers accessed by clients in order to efficiently manage the lock state information.

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Pittsburgh, PA, United States of America

Toby Smith