File management method in a distributed storage system

• US 20050216523A1
• Filed: 08/02/2004
• Published: 09/29/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Sakaguchi, Akihiko, Takahashi, Toru
• Application Number:
  US10/903,006
• Publication Number:
  US 20050216523A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/184 implemented as replicated file system

Abstract

Provided is a technique that effectively utilizes a replication to reduce inquiries to a location database, and thus allow data access at a high speed. According to this technique, a plurality of storage systems arranged in a distributed fashion are allocated to a plurality of groups, a file management database indicating locations of all the files in the storage systems belonging to the groups is synchronized between storage systems of the same group, and when file access is made to the group, a storage system storing the file is determined based on the file management database, thus being accessed. When an access request is for an update, the writing to the file is performed, and a replica of the file that has been written is transferred to a storage system in a different group.

Claims

1. A file management method for distributed storage systems, for managing files stored in a plurality of storage systems arranged in a distributed manner, the file management method comprising the processes of:

allocating the storage systems to a plurality of groups;

synchronizing file management information indicating locations of all the files in the storage systems belonging to the groups, between storage systems of the same group; and

determining a storage system to access based on the file management information when the group has received an access request for a file.

2. The file management method for distributed storage systems according to claim 1, wherein the file management information includes locations of all the files stored in the storage systems in the same group, the method comprising the processes of:

when the group has received the access request for the file, searching for the storage system based on the file management information of the same group; and

when the file to be accessed does not exist in the same group, inquiring about the file in another group.

3. The file management method for distributed storage systems according to claim 1, wherein:

the process of allocating the storage systems to the plurality of groups comprises;

a group where the file management information is synchronized; and

a replication group for transferring a replica between storage systems of different groups; and

the storage systems of different groups are allocated to the replication group.

4. The file management method for distributed storage systems according to claim 1, further comprising the processes of:

transferring a replica from the storage system to another group;

storing the transferred replica into a storage system; and

adding the stored replica to the file management information of the other group.

5. The file management method for distributed storage systems according to claim 4, wherein:

the file management information has an identifier indicating the location of the file, and information indicating whether the file stored in the storage system is an original file or a replica file; and

when the group has received the access request for the file and the access is a read request, the location of one of the original file and the replica file is notified, and when the access is an update request, the location of the original file is notified.

6. The file management method for distributed storage systems according to claim 1, further comprising the processes of:

when modifying the group to which the storage systems belong, deleting information relating to old group file location from the file management information, and adding information relating to new group file location to the file management information; and

notifying all groups that the modification has occurred.

7. The file management method for distributed storage systems according to claim 3, further comprising the processes of:

when recovering the storage system from a failure, obtaining the file management information of another storage system in the same group; and

obtaining the file stored in the other group.

8. A distributed storage system, comprising:

a plurality of storage systems which are constituted by a server that receives an access request for a file and a disk drive that stores a file and arranged in a distributed manner;

a group identification module that identifies a group set for each storage system;

a file management information storing module that shares locations of files stored in storage systems within the same group;

an information updating module that, when the access request for the file is an update request, writes the file being requested into the disk drive, and updates information about the file in the file management information storing module; and

a replication module that transfers a replica of the file to the storage system belonging to another group.

9. The distributed storage system according to claim 8, wherein:

the replication module performs copies between disk drives in units of volumes; and

the server notifies the server belonging to another group to which the copy is created that the copy has occurred between disk drives.

10. The distributed storage system according to claim 8, wherein:

the replication module performs copies between disk drives in units of volumes; and

the disk drive to which the copy is created is provided with an interface that provides notification to the server at a copy destination.

11. A distributed storage system, comprising:

a plurality of NAS which are constituted by a control module that receives an access request for a file and a disk drive that stores a file and arranged in a distributed manner;

a group identification module that identifies a group set for each NAS;

a file management information storing module that shares locations of files stored in NAS within the same group;

an information updating module that, when the access request for the file is an update request, writes the file being requested into the disk drive, and updates information about the file in the file management information storing module; and

a replication module that transfers a replica of the file to the NAS belonging to another group.

12. The distributed storage system according to claim 11, wherein:

the replication module performs copies between disk drives in units of volumes; and

the control module notifies the control module belonging to another group to which the copy is created that the copy has occurred between disk drives.

13. A storage system, comprising:

a disk drive that receives a file access request and performs one of reading and updating a requested file;

a group information storing module that stores group information that is set in advance;

a file management information storing module that stores locations of files stored in storage systems within the same group;

an information updating module that, when writing the file to the disk drive, updates file information in the file management information storing module;

a synchronization module that synchronizes file management information storing modules with storage systems in the same group; and

a replication module that transfers a replica of the file to a storage system in another group that is set in advance.

14. A program for managing files stored in storage systems, the program causing a computer to execute the procedures of:

allocating the storage systems to a plurality of groups;

synchronizing, between other storage systems in the same group, file management information indicating locations of all files in the storage systems belonging to the allocated groups; and

when there is an access request for the file, determining a storage system to access based on the file management information.

15. The program according to claim 14, further causing the computer to execute the procedures of:

when the access request is for an update, writing the file; and

transferring a replica of the file that has been written to a storage system in a different group.

16. The program according to claim 14, further causing the computer to execute the procedures of:

writing a replica of the file transferred from the storage system in the different group; and

adding information about the file to the file management information.