The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 06, 2026
Filed:
Apr. 24, 2024
Netapp, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Mrinal K. Bhattacharjee, Bangalore, IN;
Arindam Banerjee, Pleasanton, CA (US);
Arjun Singh Kharai, Uttarakhand, IN;
Dnyaneshwar Pawar, Bangalore, IN;
NetApp, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
Systems and methods for using object storage as a primary storage tier for a file system of a virtual storage system are provided. According to one embodiment, ephemeral storage of a host on which a virtual storage system is running in the cloud is used as an external cache in which all or some subset of file system metadata may be stored, for example, to boost read IOPS and reduce latency of the read path. In various examples, external cache policies may be defined to trigger adding to, updating, and/or re-warming the external cache to accelerate access to file system metadata, thereby making a virtual storage solution that maintains all file system data and file system metadata within object storage a suitable and cost-effective platform for certain types of workloads. In some example, the working set of a workload may also be kept in the external cache to further accelerate read performance of the virtual storage system.