Method and apparatus for managing file systems and file-based data storage

• US 20080091739A1
• Filed: 10/10/2007
• Published: 04/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: Storediq Incorporated (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Arbilla, Laura, Jimenez, A. Paul, Bone, Jeff, Funderburg, Brett
• Granted Patent: US 8,086,553 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/10 File systems; File servers
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention can comprise systems and methods for managing filesystems and can provide a programmable filesystem with active rules and policies, an n-tier network filesystem, stack mounting, a union filesystem with write-through semantics, a filesystem middleware with selective delegation, a filesystem with a statistical warehouse and/or other management functionality.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising a set of computer instructions stored on a computer readable medium and executable by a computer processor to:

receive a filesystem request indicating a requested filesystem operation;

compare the filesystem request to a programmable rulesbase to determine whether the filesystem request matches a pattern; and

if the filesystem request matches a pattern, execute an action associated with the pattern.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the set of computer instructions are further executable to:

perform the requested filesystem operation; and

execute the action out-of-band with the requested filesystem operation.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the set of computer instructions are further executable to:

execute the action in-band;

determine whether to proceed with the requested filesystem operation; and

perform the requested filesystem operation if it is determined that the requested operation should proceed.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the determination of whether to perform the requested filesystem operation is based on a result of the action.

5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein a result of the performance of the requested filesystem operation is affected by the result of the action.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the computer readable instructions are further executable to compare a set of data affected by the requested file system operation to the pattern to determine if the filesystem request matches the pattern.

14. The method of claim 3, wherein the determination of whether to perform the requested filesystem operation is based on a result of the action.

15. The method of claim 3, wherein a result of the performance of the requested filesystem operation is affected by the result of the action.

7. An apparatus comprising a set of computer executable instructions stored on a computer readable medium, the set of computer instructions comprising:

a filesystem manager operable to;

maintain a filesystem for an underlying storage medium;

receive a filesystem request from a filesystem client that includes a requested filesystem operation;

pass the filesystem request to a rules engine; and

determine whether to proceed with the requested filesystem operation;

a programmable rules base comprising a set of rules, wherein each rule further comprises a pattern and an associated action; and

a rules engine operable to;

receive the filesystem request;

compare the filesystem request to the one more rules in the programmable rules base to determine if the filesystem request matches one or more rules from the set of rules based on the pattern for each rule;

if there are one or more matching patterns, execute the action associated with each matching pattern;

return a rules engine response to the filesystem manager.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the filesystem manager determines to perform the requested operation based on the rules engine response.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the rules engine executes at least one action associated with the one or more matching patterns in-band.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the rules engine executes at least one action associated with the one or more matching patterns out-of-band.

11. A method for applying rules to filesystem operations comprising:

receiving a filesystem request indicating a requested filesystem operation;

comparing the filesystem request to a programmable rulesbase to determine the filesystem request matches a pattern; and

if the filesystem request matches a pattern, executing an action associated with the pattern.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

performing the requested filesystem operation; and

execute the action out-of-band with the requested filesystem operation.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

executing the action in-band;

determining whether to proceed with the requested filesystem operation; and

performing the requested filesystem operation if it determined that the requested operation should proceed.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising comparing a set of data affected by the requested file system operation to the pattern to determine if the filesystem request matches the pattern.

17. A method for applying rules to filesystem operations, comprising:

receiving a filesystem request from a filesystem client that includes a requested filesystem operation;

determining whether to proceed with the requested filesystem operation;

comparing the filesystem request to one more rules in a to determine if the filesystem request matches one or more rules from the set of rules based on a pattern for each rule;

if there are one or more matching patterns, executing an action associated with each matching pattern; and

return a rules engine response.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein determining whether to proceed with the requested operation is based on the rules engine response.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising executing at least one action associated with the one or more matching patterns in-band.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising executing at least one action associated with the one or more matching patterns out-of-band.