Synchronization protocol for multi-premises hosting of digital content items

• US 10,691,718 B2
• Filed: 12/22/2015
• Issued: 06/23/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Inventors: Koorapati, Nipunn, Rude, Christopher, von Muhlen, Marcio, Bunger, Nils
• Primary Examiner(s): Willis, Amanda L
• Application Number:
  US14/979,252
• Publication Number:
  US 20170124170A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,645 Days
• Field of Search: 707620
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/172 Caching, prefetching or hoarding of files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/178 Techniques for file synchronisation in file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes

Abstract

A synchronization protocol for multi-premises hosting of digital content items. In one embodiment, for example, a method comprises the operations of: detecting creation or modification of a content item; determining a content item namespace to which the content item belongs; obtaining a plurality of identifiers of a plurality of block servers to which the content item namespace is assigned; making a selection of one of the plurality of block servers as a target block server; and uploading any content item blocks of the content item to the target block server that are not already stored at the target block server.

Claims

1. A method for uploading a new content item to a target content item block server, the method comprising:

at a computing device comprising one or more processors and storage media storing one or more computer programs executed by the one or more processors to perform the method, performing operations comprising;

detecting creation or modification of a content item, the creation or modification of the content item performed using the computing device;

determining a content item namespace to which the content item belongs, the content item namespace under management of a content management service;

sending, to a server operated by the content management service, a request to commit the creation or modification of the content item to the content management service, the request to commit the creation or modification of the content item identifying the content item namespace to which the content item belongs and identifying one or more content item blocks of which the created or modified content item is composed;

in response to sending the request to commit the creation or modification of the content item to the content management service, receiving, from the server operated by the content management service, (a) a plurality of identifiers of a plurality of candidate block servers to which the content item namespace is assigned and (b) additional information that indicates, for each candidate block server of the plurality of candidate block servers, a corresponding number of one or more content item blocks, of the one or more content item blocks of which the created or modified content item is composed, not already stored at the candidate block server;

selecting, by the computing device from among the plurality of candidate block servers, a particular candidate block server as a target block server for the commit request based on the corresponding number of one or more content item blocks of the content item not already stored at the particular candidate block server; and

uploading, to the particular candidate block server, the corresponding number of one or more content item blocks not already stored at the particular candidate block server.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

after making the selection, sending, to the server, a notification representing the selection made, wherein the notification comprises an identifier of the target block server.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the operation of detecting the content item comprises an operation of receiving a notification from an operating system of the computing device when a file in a file system corresponding to the content item is added or modified.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the operation of determining the content item namespace to which the content item belongs is based on a file system path to the content item in a file system of the computing device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the operation of selecting the particular candidate block server as the target block server is based, at least in part, on a number of content items blocks of the content item that are missing from the particular candidate block server being less than a number of content item blocks of the content item that are missing from another block server of the plurality of candidate block servers.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the operation of selecting the particular candidate block server as the target block server is further based, at least in part, on network performance information reflecting historical content item block upload times to the particular candidate block server.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprising:

determining a first list of one or more content item block hashes of one or more content item blocks that constitute the content item;

providing the first list to the server;

obtaining a second list from the server, the second list identifying one or more content item block hashes in the first list corresponding to one or more content item blocks that are not already stored at each candidate block server.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein each candidate block server is operated by the content management service.

9. The method of claim 1, the operations further comprising resolving an identifier of the target block server to a network address of the target block server.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing device is communicatively coupled to the particular candidate block server by a local area network and is communicatively coupled to a second candidate block server, of the plurality of candidate block servers, by a wide-area network.

11. A computing device, comprising:

one or more processors; and

storage media storing one or more computer programs comprising instructions configured for;

detecting creation or modification of a content item, the creation or modification of the content item performed using the computing device;

determining a content item namespace to which the content item belongs, the content item namespace under management of a content management service;

sending, to a server operated by the content management service, a request to commit the creation or modification of the content item to the content management service, the request to commit the creation or modification of the content item identifying the content item namespace to which the content item belongs and identifying one or more content item blocks of which the created or modified content item is composed;

in response to sending the request to commit the creation or modification of the content item to the content management service, receiving, from the server operated by the content management service, (a) a plurality of identifiers of a plurality of candidate block servers to which the content item namespace is assigned and (b) additional information that indicates, for each candidate block server of the plurality of candidate block servers, a corresponding number of one or more content item blocks, of the one or more content item blocks of which the created or modified content item is composed, not already stored at the candidate block server;

selecting, by the computing device from among the plurality of candidate block servers, a particular candidate block server as a target block server for the commit request based on the corresponding number of one or more content item blocks of the content item not already stored at the particular candidate block server; and

uploading, to the particular candidate block server, the corresponding number of one or more content item blocks not already stored at the particular candidate block server.

12. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the instructions are further configured for:

after making the selection, sending, to the server, a notification representing the selection made, wherein the notification comprises an identifier of the target block server.

13. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the instructions configured for detecting the content item comprise instructions configured for receiving a notification from an operating system of the computing device when a file in a file system corresponding to the content item is added or modified.

14. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the instructions configured for determining the content item namespace to which the content item belongs comprise instructions configured for determining the content item namespace to which the content item belongs based on a file system path to the content item in a file system of the computing device.

15. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the instructions configured for selecting the particular candidate block server as the target block server comprise instructions configured for selecting the particular candidate block server as the target block server based, at least in part, on a number of content items blocks of the content item that are missing from the particular candidate block server being less than a number of content item blocks of the content item that are missing from another block server of the plurality of candidate block servers.

16. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the instructions configured for selecting the particular candidate block server as the target block server comprise instructions configured for selecting the particular candidate block server as the target block server further based, at least in part, on network performance information reflecting historical content item block upload times to the particular candidate block server.

17. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the instructions are further configured for:

determining a first list of one or more content item block hashes of one or more content item blocks that constitute the content item;

providing the first list to the server;

obtaining a second list from the server, the second list identifying one or more content item block hashes in the first list corresponding to one or more content item blocks that are not already stored at each candidate block server.

18. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the target block server is operated by the content management service.

19. The computing device of claim 11, the instructions further configured for resolving an identifier of the target block server to a network address of the target block server.