Apparatus and method for processing data in a network

• US 20040054748A1
• Filed: 09/16/2002
• Published: 03/18/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Original Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Inventors: Grunwald, David, Ayyar, Kartik, Prakash, Ashish, Ackaouy, Emmanuel, Quirion, Brian, Amdur, Matthew
• Granted Patent: US 7,284,030 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/214
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0815 Cache consistency protocols
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/10 File systems; File servers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/6026 Prefetching based on access pattern detection, e.g. stride based prefetch
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5682 Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99957 Garbage collection

Abstract

In one embodiment, the invention provides a method of transforming a request from a client to a proxy cache, the method comprising: receiving a request from a client, where the request is based upon a first open standard protocol; and translating the request from the first open standard protocol into a second open standard protocol at a file system level; and transmitting the request in the second open standard protocol to a server.

Claims

1. A method of providing consistency in cached data, the method comprising:

determining a last recorded change value for a first data file and a last recorded change value for a second data file;

comparing a time difference between the last recorded change value for the first data and a request time for the second data file; and

if the time difference is greater than a pre-selected time value, then verifying the attributes of the second data file from a server.

2. A method of verifying attributes of an object stored in a proxy cache, the method comprising:

performing a verification of attributes by use of access patterns to fetch the attributes from the server.

3. A method of transforming a request from a client to a proxy cache, the method comprising:

receiving a request from a client, where the request is based upon a first open standard protocol; and

translating the request from the first open standard protocol into a second open standard protocol at a file system level; and

transmitting the request in the second open standard protocol to a server.

4. An article of manufacture, comprising:

a machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions to;

receive a request from a client, where the request is based upon a first open standard protocol; and

translate the request from the first open standard protocol into a second open standard protocol at a file system level; and

transmit the request in the second open standard protocol to a server.