Storage Area Network File System
First Claim
1. A computer related article of manufacture, comprising:
- a computer readable medium having computer program code embodied therein, said computer program code adapted to be executed to implement a file system method for handling file requests by a file system, the implemented file system method comprising;
i) receiving the file requests on a client computer,ii) categorizing each file request into either file-level requests or a block-level requests, the categorization being determined in part by whether the file request modifies data residing on a storage device,iii) submitting file-level requests to a server, andiv) submitting block-level requests from the client computer to the storage device.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A shared storage distributed file system is presented that provides clients with access to a storage area network (SAN) attached storage device. The access is provided either via block-level requests over the SAN or via file-level requests made to a server over a local area network (LAN). File requests are categorized between SAN requests and LAN requests. This categorization can be based on dividing the requests between write and read requests, or between requests that alter data stored on the storage device and requests that do not alter data on the storage device. In other embodiments, the categorization can be made on the size of the file or the data involved in the file request. In one embodiment, the client is able to access and interpret metadata stored on the storage device.
37 Citations
57 Claims
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1. A computer related article of manufacture, comprising:
a computer readable medium having computer program code embodied therein, said computer program code adapted to be executed to implement a file system method for handling file requests by a file system, the implemented file system method comprising; i) receiving the file requests on a client computer, ii) categorizing each file request into either file-level requests or a block-level requests, the categorization being determined in part by whether the file request modifies data residing on a storage device, iii) submitting file-level requests to a server, and iv) submitting block-level requests from the client computer to the storage device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A file system for a client computer communicating with a SAN-attached storage device over a SAN and communicating with a server computer over a LAN, the file system comprising:
- a file system layer that categorizes file requests that are received at the client computer into either SAN file requests to be sent to the SAN-attached storage device or LAN file requests to be sent to the server, wherein the categorization is determined in part by determining whether the file requests alter the SAN-attached storage device.
- View Dependent Claims (21)
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22. A file system for a client computer communicating with a storage device over a SAN and communicating with a server computer over a LAN, the file system comprising:
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a file system layer that categorizes a plurality of file requests that are received at the client computer as either SAN file requests to be sent to the storage device or LAN file requests to be sent to the server, wherein the categorization is determined in part by at least one of; a) examining the data size of the file request, and b) examining the size of a file referenced in the file request. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A file system for a client computer communicating with a SAN-attached storage device over a SAN using block-level requests, the client computer also communicating with a server computer using file-level requests, the file system comprising:
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a) a first file system component that categorizes file requests that are received at the client computer into either block-level requests to be sent to the SAN-attached storage device or file-level requests to be sent to the server; and b) a second file system component that services the block-level requests by i) retrieving metadata relating to the file request directly from the SAN-attached storage device, ii) interpreting at the client computer the metadata retrieved from the SAN-attached storage device, and iii) initiating real-data transfer between the client computer and the SAN-attached storage device. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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38. A method for handling file requests within a file system of a computer comprising:
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a) receiving read and write file requests made to the computer file system, b) categorizing each file request in the computer file system into either a file-level request or a block-level request, the categorization being determined in part by at least one of; i) examining the data size of the file request, and ii) examining the size of a file referenced in the file request. c) submitting file-level requests to a server for the server to submit the request to a storage device, and d) submitting block-level requests directly to the storage device. - View Dependent Claims (39, 40, 41, 42, 43)
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44. A method for maintaining data stored on a storage device that is accessed by a client computer over a storage area network, the method comprising:
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a) receiving data requests concerning data stored on the storage device, b) categorizing each request into either a SAN request or a server request, the categorization being determined in part by whether the request modifies data residing on the storage device; c) submitting server requests from the client computer to a server for the server to submit the request to the storage device; and d) submitting SAN requests from the client computer to the storage device over the storage area network. - View Dependent Claims (45, 46, 47, 48, 49)
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50. A method for maintaining data on a data storage device comprising:
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a) storing metadata and real-data on the data storage device; b) serving metadata stored on the data storage device to a client computer for interpretation by the client computer; c) serving metadata stored on the data storage device to a server for interpretation by the server computer; d) serving real-data stored on the data storage device to the client computer; e) receiving real-data from the server computer that originated at the client computer. - View Dependent Claims (51, 52, 53, 54, 55)
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56. A method for handling file requests within a file system of a computer comprising:
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a) receiving a file request concerning a file stored on a SAN-attached storage device; b) categorizing the file request into either a block-level request or a file-level request, the categorization being determined in part by comparing a file attribute concerning the file received from the SAN-attached storage device via a storage area network with a second file attribute concerning the file received from a server via a local area network, c) submitting file-level requests to the server over the local area network for the server to submit the request to the SAN-attached storage device, and d) submitting block-level requests from the client computer to the SAN-attached storage device over the storage area network.
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57. An article of manufacture in the form of a computer readable medium having a computer program embodied therein adapted to be executed to implement a file system method comprising:
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a) receiving a file request concerning a file stored on a SAN-attached storage device; b) categorizing the file request into either a SAN file request or a LAN file request, the categorization being determined in part by comparing a file attribute concerning the file received from the SAN-attached storage device via a storage area network with a second file attribute concerning the file received from a server via a local area network, c) submitting LAN file requests to the server over the local area network for the server to submit the request to the SAN-attached storage device, and d) submitting SAN file requests from the client computer to the SAN-attached storage device over the storage area network.
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Specification