CLIENT APPLICATION PROGRAM INTERFACE FOR NETWORK-ATTACHED STORAGE SYSTEM

• US 20100198889A1
• Filed: 09/29/2009
• Published: 08/05/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Byers, Brandon Patrick, Pistek, Peter Jan, Phan, Thanh Trac, Chatley, Scott Philip, Gallagher, J. Gabriel
• Granted Patent: US 9,390,102 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/827
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1827 Management specifically adapted to NAS management of storage area networks [SAN] G06F3/067
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for providing a network attached storage system which does not require specialized hardware to operate. In one embodiment, a downloadable software package is provided via a web interface. After a user has downloaded and installed the software package, a sharable volume is created upon a host system. In one embodiment, the sharable volume is adapted to present the contents of one or more remote systems to the host system as a local file, drive, or directory. One or more processes resident in the host system are adapted to intercept a command interpretable by the host system and translate the command into one or more commands interpretable by at least one remote system. The one or more commands are then serviced by at least one remote system and a result set is generated. The result set may then be converted into a format interpretable by the host system and output accordingly.

Claims

1. A method of performing file operations on a network-attached storage system, comprising:

receiving at an interface module disposed within a local file system a command interpretable by the local file system;

converting the command into a translated command at the interface module, wherein the translated command is interpretable by a remote file system;

transmitting the translated command from the interface module to the remote file system;

receiving at the interface module a set of results from the remote file system; and

translating the set of results into a format interpretable by an operating system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the command comprises a download request that is cached locally within a reserved mount cache space and expired using a first-in, first-out cycle.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said transmitting the translated command from the interface module to the remote file system comprises simultaneously streaming a file to a second system if the translated command comprises an upload request.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said transmitting the translated command from the interface module to the remote file system comprises applying one or more compression processes to a file designated for upload if the translated command comprises an upload request.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said transmitting the translated command from the interface module to the remote file system comprises applying one or more layers of encryption to the translated command.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said transmitting the translated command from the interface module to the remote file system comprises creating multiple threads adapted to service a single upload request.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the translated command comprises security credentials associated with one or more users of the interface module.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the interface module is adapted to service the command on a local version of a file that is disposed within the local file system, and wherein the interface module is further adapted to asynchronously transmit the translated command to the remote file system.

9. An apparatus for performing file operations on a network-attached storage system, the apparatus comprising:

a memory device adapted to store data;

a first set of instructions contained within the memory device and adapted for execution by a processor, wherein the first set of instructions comprise instructions for receiving a command in a first format and for translating the command into a second format recognizable by a remote system; and

a communications module connected to the memory device and adapted to transmit the translated command to a remote system.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the memory device comprises a second set of instructions adapted to determine if a local system is available to service the command.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 further comprising a traffic control module adapted to regulate the amount of data being sent from the communications module to the remote system.

12. The apparatus of claim 9 further comprising a write throttling module adapted to delay one or more write operations to the memory device in order to prevent a buffer overflow.

13. The apparatus of claim 9 further comprising an upload acceleration module adapted to enhance transmission speeds between the communications module and the remote system.

14. The apparatus of claim 9 further comprising a load balancing module adapted to distribute a set of transfer operations associated with the translated command over a set of transmission media available to the communications module.

15. The apparatus of claim 9 further comprising a file system level trash folder disposed within the memory device and adapted to enable one or more deleted files on the memory device to be restored upon instructions from the remote device.

16. A computer-readable medium for use in a client device of a remote storage system, the computer-readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by the client device, perform a process comprising:

intercepting an input sequence, wherein the input sequence comprises a file operation that references a target file stored within the remote storage system;

creating a set of commands based at least in part upon the file operation, wherein the set of commands are interpretable by at least one device disposed within the remote storage system;

transmitting the set of commands to the remote storage system;

receiving a result set from the remote storage system; and

performing the file operation based at least in part upon the result set.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the input sequence further comprises a second file operation that references a second target file, wherein the second target file is stored within the client device, and wherein the process further comprises performing the second file operation on the second target file.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the process further comprises transmitting modified blocks of the second target file to the remote storage system.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the process further comprises storing a set of transfer operations within a local database, and wherein the transfer operations are based at least in part upon the second file operation.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein the set of transfer operations are adapted to be asynchronously transmitted to the remote storage system.

21. The computer readable medium of claim 20, wherein the process further comprises periodically transmitting a snapshot of the local database to the remote storage system.

22. The computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the process further comprises:

detecting whether one or more errors have occurred; and

transmitting a record of the one or more errors to the remote storage system.

23. The computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the first input sequence comprises a plurality of file operations, and wherein the process further comprises pre-processing the plurality of file operations in order to generate a smaller set of file operations that are functionally equivalent to the plurality of file operations.

24. A method of performing file operations on a network-attached storage system, comprising:

translating a file system operation serviceable by a local device into a set of file system operations serviceable by a remote device at an interface module contained within the local device;

transmitting the set of file system operations to the remote device;

receiving a result from the remote device at the interface module; and

generating an output at the local device based at least in part upon the result.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein at least a portion of the result generated by the remote device is determined by concurrent processing.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein transmitting the set of file system operations to the remote device comprises transmitting one or more data streams from the local device to the remote device.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the method further comprises assigning a unique file identifier to each of said one or more data streams.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein said transmitting one or more data streams from the local device to the remote device comprises progressively hashing values associated with the data streams in order to verify that the one or more data streams have been successfully transmitted.