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:
Apr. 04, 2006
Filed:
Dec. 19, 2001
Jared E. Bobbitt, Manhattan Beach, CA (US);
Stephan A. Doll, Seattle, WA (US);
Marc T. Friedman, Seattle, WA (US);
Patrick Wing Sang Lau, Issaquah, WA (US);
Joseph P. Mullally, Seattle, WA (US);
Jared E. Bobbitt, Manhattan Beach, CA (US);
Stephan A. Doll, Seattle, WA (US);
Marc T. Friedman, Seattle, WA (US);
Patrick Wing Sang Lau, Issaquah, WA (US);
Joseph P. Mullally, Seattle, WA (US);
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA (US);
Abstract
A virtual file system and method. The system architecture enables a plurality of underlying file systems running on various file servers to be 'virtualized' into one or more 'virtual volumes' that appear as a local file system to clients that access the virtual volumes. The system also enables the storage spaces of the underlying file systems to be aggregated into a single virtual storage space, which can be dynamically scaled by adding or removing file servers without taking any of the file systems offline and in a manner transparent to the clients. This functionality is enabled through a software “virtualization” filter on the client that intercepts file system requests and a virtual file system driver on each file server. The system also provides for load balancing file accesses by distributing files across the various file servers in the system, through migration of data files between servers.