System and method for distribution of network file accesses over network storage devices

Abstract

The present invention is a system and method supporting efficient distribution of file access requests across one or more storage device systems. A typical system according to the present invention includes a gateway system, one or more indexing system and one or more storage device systems. File access requests are initially received by the gateway system. The gateway system forwards a received file access request to a selected indexing system; the gateway system maintains information concerning the connection between the originator of the request and the selected indexing system. The selected indexing system determines the locations at which the requested file is stored among the storage device systems and selects one of these locations. The selected indexing system forwards the file access request to the storage device system indicated by the selected location, which responds by breaking the requested file into data packets and transmitting the data packets to the request originator. When the first of the data packets passes through the gateway, the gateway updates its information concerning the connection by replacing the information regarding the selected indexing system with information regarding the storage device system indicated by the selected location.