System and method for an immutable identification scheme in a large-scale computer system

• US 20070260621A1
• Filed: 04/26/2007
• Published: 11/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Business Performance Systems, Lockheed Martin Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Business Performance Systems, Lockheed Martin Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Inventors: Ripley, Rodney, Isaac, David, Smolen, Richard, Earman, Daniel
• Granted Patent: US 7,783,596 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2308 Concurrency control transaction processing G06F9/466
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/948 Product or catalog
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

Systems and/or methods for storing and/or retrieving assets in connection with an extremely large scale computer storage system are provided. An asset catalog may comprise a plurality of asset catalog entries stored according to at least one schema and corresponding to a plurality of assets. A storage architecture may be capable of storing the plurality of assets, with the storage architecture comprising a storage locator and a federator. An item identification scheme may be capable of providing identifiers to reference, locate, and/or access said assets and/or said asset catalog entries stored in the asset catalog in the storage architecture. The computer storage system may be scalable essentially without limitation while maintaining asset storage and retrieval flexibility and substantially obsolescence-proof survivability of assets.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented immutable identification scheme tangibly stored on a computer-readable storage medium for use with an asset catalog and an extremely large scale computer system having an associated storage architecture, the identification scheme comprising:

a plurality of identifiers to reference, locate, and/or access a plurality of assets and/or a plurality of asset catalog entries stored in the asset catalog,

wherein the identification scheme enables the asset catalog and/or the large scale computer system to be scalable essentially without limitation while maintaining asset storage and retrieval flexibility and substantially obsolescence-proof survivability of assets.

2. The identification scheme of claim 1, wherein the identifiers are structured to support partitioning and/or federation of stored elements.

3. The identification scheme of claim 2, wherein the stored elements include the asset catalog and/or one or more asset repositories of the storage architecture.

4. The identification scheme of claim 1, wherein the identifiers are structured to map identifiers to physical storage locations of the asset catalog and/or storage architecture.

5. The identification scheme of claim 2, wherein the identifiers are universally unique such that relations among and/or between the asset catalog entries and/or relations to one or more components comprising a particular asset optionally can span multiple storage partitions and/or instances of a federation.

6. The identification scheme of claim 1, wherein the plurality of identifiers include two types of identifiers to reference, locate, and/or access said assets and/or said asset catalog entries, the first identifier type being an asset identifier (AID) type and the second identifier type being a Universal Resource Identifier (URI) type.

7. The identification scheme of claim 6, wherein each said AID is a multipart identifier.

8. The identification scheme of claim 7, wherein each said AID is indicative of a registry, package, part, and item associated with the corresponding asset.

9. The identification scheme of claim 8, wherein the large scale computer system comprises one or more instances, each said instance including one or more registries;

wherein a package within a registry corresponds to a collection of assets ingested together;

wherein a part of a package corresponds to an automatically created subdivision of the package to optimize physical storage of assets within the package based at least in part on package size and number of assets in the package; and

wherein an item of a part has a generated globally unique name of at least one asset.

10. The identification scheme of claim 9, wherein the package corresponds to a transfer group and/or transfer shipment.

11. The identification scheme of claim 9, wherein the part is a unique identifier generated as the assets in the package are ingested.

12. The identification scheme of claim 9, wherein the item is named according to a naming convention complying with RFC 4122.

13. The identification scheme of claim 9, wherein the item name is unrelated to an original filename of the item, and wherein the original filename and corresponding directory structure is stored as metadata within a corresponding asset catalog entry.

14. The identification scheme of claim 6, wherein each said AID is defined during asset ingest and before a final storage allocation of the storage architecture.

15. The identification scheme of claim 6, wherein each said URI is a standards-based identifier useful for referencing and/or accessing the asset and/or asset catalog entry.

16. The identification scheme of claim 6, wherein each said URI is changeable over time.

17. The identification scheme of claim 6, wherein each said URI is assigned independent of storage of the corresponding asset and/or asset catalog entry.

18. The identification scheme of claim 6, wherein each said URI is structured as:

<

scheme>

;

//<

authority>

/<

path>

?<

query>

#<

fragment>

.

19. The identification scheme of claim 18, wherein the structure of each said URI includes standardized path elements.

20. The identification scheme of claim 19, wherein at least some of the standardized path elements are derived from the corresponding AID.

21. A computer-implemented method of managing an immutable identification scheme for use with an asset catalog and an extremely large scale computer system having an associated storage architecture, the method comprising providing a plurality of identifiers to reference, locate, and/or access a plurality of assets and/or a plurality of asset catalog entries stored or to be stored in the asset catalog and/or large scale computer system to enable the asset catalog and/or the large scale computer system to be scalable essentially without limitation while maintaining asset storage and retrieval flexibility and substantially obsolescence-proof survivability of assets.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising structuring the identifiers to support partitioning and/or federation of stored elements.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the stored elements include the asset catalog and/or one or more asset repositories of the storage architecture.

24. The method of claim 21, further comprising structuring the identifiers to map identifiers to physical storage locations of the asset catalog and/or storage architecture.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein the identifiers are universally unique such that relations among and/or between the asset catalog entries and/or relations to one or more components comprising a particular asset optionally can span multiple storage partitions and/or instances of a federation.

26. The method of claim 21, further comprising including in each of the plurality of identifiers two types of identifiers to reference, locate, and/or access said assets and/or said asset catalog entries, the first identifier type being an asset identifier (AID) type and the second identifier type being a Universal Resource Identifier (URI) type.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein each said AID is a multipart identifier.

28. The method of claim 26, further comprising defining each said AID during asset ingest and before a final storage allocation of the storage architecture.

29. The method of claim 27, further comprising indicating in each said AID a registry, package, part, and item associated with the corresponding asset.

30. The method of claim 29, further comprising:

providing one or more instances of the large scale computer system, each said instance including one or more registries;

providing a package within a registry to correspond to a collection of assets ingested together;

providing a part of a package to correspond to an automatically created subdivision of the package to optimize physical storage of assets within the package based at least in part on package size and number of assets in the package; and

providing an item of a part to have a generated globally unique name of at least one asset.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the package corresponds to a transfer group and/or transfer shipment.

32. The method of claim 30, further comprising, when the assets in the package are ingested, generating the part as a unique identifier.

33. The method of claim 30, further comprising naming the item according to a naming convention complying with RFC 4122.

34. The method of claim 30, wherein the item name is unrelated to an original filename of the item, and further comprising storing the original filename and corresponding directory structure as metadata within a corresponding asset catalog entry.

35. The method of claim 26, wherein each said URI is a standards-based identifier useful for referencing and/or accessing the asset and/or asset catalog entry.

36. The method of claim 26, wherein each said URI is changeable over time.

37. The method of claim 26, further comprising assigning each said URI independent of the corresponding asset and/or asset catalog entry storage.

38. The method of claim 26, further comprising structuring each said URI as:

<

scheme>

;

//<

authority>

/<

path>

?<

query>

#<

fragment>

.

39. The method of claim 38, further comprising including standardized path elements in each said URI.

40. The method of claim 39, further comprising deriving at least some of the standardized path elements from the corresponding AID.