Scalable distributed storage and delivery

• US 20070198710A1
• Filed: 12/23/2005
• Published: 08/23/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: XStor Systems, Inc.
• Original Assignee: XStor Systems, Inc.
• Inventors: Gopalakrishnan, Shivakumar
• Granted Patent: US 7,844,691 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/225
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1029 using data related to the state of servers by a load balancer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1034 Reaction to server failures by a load balancer

Abstract

Embodiments describe scalable distributed storage delivery method that can utilize commodity storage devices, thus there is little, if any, modification of the existing storage hardware or storage clients. According to an aspect is a system that can include a plurality of primary servers and application servers to deliver data to the storage client. The client can request information from the primary server, which can in some embodiments, authenticate the client. The primary server can determine a set of application servers that can deliver the information. The information data can be served to the client transparently from the application servers. The application servers can read the information content from a local cache or directly from storage devices.

Claims

1. A scalable distributed delivery system, comprising:

a first management component that receives a user information request and optimizes the request for efficient delivery; and

at least one application component that retrieves the requested information and delivery the information to the user.

2. The system of claim 1, the management component relinquishes control of the information request to the at least one application component during information retrieval.

3. The system of claim 1, the at least one application component is selectively distributed to eliminate data congestion.

4. The system of claim 1, the at least one application component is installed on a data center machine that utilized unused server resources.

5. The system of claim 1, the at least one application component is installed near the network edge.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a second application component that retrieves a portion of the requested information.

7. The system of claim 1, the at least one application component retrieves the requested information from a storage server.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a second management component wherein the first management component and the second management component have a single virtual IP address.

9. The system of claim 1, the delivery of information to the user is sent through a spoofing technique.

10. A method for scalable data delivery, comprising:

receiving a client request;

identifying a plurality of application servers to process the request;

sending a control message to the plurality of application servers;

relinquishing control of the request to the plurality of application servers at substantially the same time as sending the control message.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving a packet received acknowledgement from the client; and

resuming control of the request from the plurality of application servers.

12. The method of claim 10, identifying a plurality of application servers to process the request is performed autonomously based upon a determination of the application servers that can provide the best performance.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining if a file transfer is complete; and

resuming control of the request from the plurality of application servers if the file transfer is complete.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining if a file transfer is complete; and

sending a subsequent control message to the plurality of application servers if the file transfer is not complete.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

retrieving at least a portion of the client request; and

sending the at least a portion of the client request utilizing a spoofing technique.

16. The method of claim 10, receiving a client request is at one or a plurality of application servers that have the same IP address.

17. A scalable distributed storage system, comprising:

means for receiving a client request;

means for identifying at least one application server to process the request;

means for processing a portion of the request; and

means for returning the portion of the request to the client.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising:

means for relinquishing control of the request; and

means for sending a control message to the at least one application server.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

means for utilizing a spoofing technique to disguise the actual sender of the request.

20. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

means for determining if the client receives the request; and

means for resending the request if the client did not receive the request.