MINIMIZING CLIENT-SIDE INCONSISTENCIES IN A DISTRIBUTED VIRTUAL FILE SYSTEM

• US 20080271130A1
• Filed: 04/30/2007
• Published: 10/30/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Ramamoorthy, Shankar
• Application Number:
  US11/742,483
• Publication Number:
  US 20080271130A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1774 Locking methods, e.g. locking methods for file systems allowing shared and concurrent access to files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1824 implemented using Network-attached Storage [NAS] architecture distributed or networked storage systems G06F3/067; protocols for distributed storage of data in a network H04L67/1097

Abstract

A method of minimizing inconsistencies seen by a client in a distributed virtual file system having multiple clients and a plurality of servers, by creating a token that identifies one of the plurality of servers for creating or modifying a file in the distributed virtual file system. The token has an expiry greater than a propagation time between the identified server and the plurality of servers.

Claims

1. A method of minimizing inconsistencies seen by a client in a distributed virtual file system having multiple clients and a plurality of servers, comprising creating a token that identifies one of the plurality of servers for either creating or modifying a file in the distributed virtual file system wherein the token has an expiry greater than a propagation time between the identified server and the plurality of servers.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising configuring the distributed virtual file system to be accessible over the internet and distributed over the internet.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

assigning ownership of the token to one of the multiple clients that requests either creation or modification of the file to identify a token-owning client; and

storing the token in a location accessible by the multiple clients.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

blocking clients other than the token-owning client from writing to the file until the token has expired; and

updating the token expiry when the token-owning client persists in modifying the file.

5. The method of claim 3 further comprising the client saving the token in client'"'"'s memory store.

6. The method of claim 4 further comprising sending the token and a file modify request from the token-owning client directly to the storage server identified in the token.

7. The method of claim 4 further comprising sending the token and a file modify request from the token-owning client to a load-balancer, wherein the load-balancer is configured to act as a proxy for the token-owning client in sending the request to the server identified in the token and transferring a response back to the token-owning client.

8. The method of claim 4 further comprising configuring the load-balancer to act as a proxy for the token-owning client in the event the token has expired, sending the client request to the storage server based on load-balancing criteria and transferring a response back to the token-owning client.

9. A system for minimizing inconsistencies seen by a client in a distributed virtual file system having multiple clients and a plurality of servers, comprising:

a token that identifies one of the plurality of servers for enacting either creation or modification to a file in the distributed virtual file system wherein the token has an expiry greater than a propagation time between the identified server and the plurality of servers.

10. The system of claim 9 further comprising:

a token-owning client chosen from one of the multiple clients that requests one of creation and modification of the file; and

a store for the token in a location accessible by the multiple clients.

11. The system of claim 10 further comprising:

a component for blocking other clients from reading or writing to the file until the token has expired; and

a component for updating the token expiry when the token-owning client persists in modifying the file.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the distributed virtual file system is accessible over the internet and distributed over the internet.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein the token also resides with the client.

14. The system of claim 11 wherein the token location is a persistent store.

15. An article of manufacture comprising:

a computer readable medium having computer readable program code means implementing a system for minimizing client-side inconsistencies in a distributed virtual file system having multiple clients and a plurality of servers, wherein the program means further comprises;

computer readable code means for creating a token that identifies one of the plurality of servers for creating or modifying a file in the distributed virtual file system wherein the token has an expiry greater than a propagation time between the identified server and the plurality of servers.

16. The article of manufacture of claim 15 wherein the computer readable medium is accessible over the internet and distributed over the internet.