Access To Data Stored In A File System

• US 20100241661A1
• Filed: 05/02/2009
• Published: 09/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: KURICHIYATH, Sudheer, DUGASANI, Madhusudhana Reddy
• Granted Patent: US 8,180,793 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/770
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/183 Provision of network file services by network file servers, e.g. by using NFS, CIFS network file access protocols H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1865 Transactional file systems

Abstract

Presented is a method of operating a server to enable a client to access data stored by a file system. The method comprises: receiving from the client a request to perform an operation on the data; instructing the file system to perform a preliminary metadata operation and, before the metadata-operation has completed, instructing the file system to perform the operation on the data; waiting for the file system to complete both the metadata-operation and the operation on the data; and responding to the client.

Claims

1. A method of operating a server (100) to enable a client to access data stored by a file system (200), the method comprising:

receiving from the client a request to perform an operation on the data;

instructing (20) the file system (200) to perform a preliminary metadata operation and, before the metadata-operation has completed, instructing the file system to perform the operation on the data;

waiting for the file system to complete both the metadata-operation and the operation on the data; and

responding to the client.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, after the step of receiving the request from the client and before the step (20) of instructing the file system to perform the preliminary metadata operation:

converting (110) a first identifier, used by the client to identify the data, into a second identifier, used by the file system to identify the data,

wherein the step of instructing the file system to perform the operation on the data is performed concurrently with the step (110) of converting the identifier.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of instructing the file system to perform the operation on the data comprises providing a hint to the file system together with an instruction (110) to convert the first identifier, the hint comprising information about the operation to be performed on the data.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the hint information is provided in a portion of memory accessible to both the server and the file system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the client is remote from the server (100) and accesses the data via a network (340).

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the server (100) and the client use one of the following protocols to enable the client to access the data via the network:

Network File System;

Andrew File System;

or

File Transfer Protocol.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the operation on the data is a COMMIT operation.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the file system (200) is one of:

Unix File System;

or

VERITAS File System.

10. A computer program comprising computer program code means adapted to perform all of the steps of any of claim 1 when said program is run on a computer.

11. A computer program as claimed in claim 10 embodied on a computer readable medium.

7. A method of operating a file system (200) storing data, to enable a client to access the data, the method comprising:

receiving a request (110) to convert a first identifier used by the client to identify the data into a second identifier used by the file system to identify the data, the request including a hint comprising information about an operation to be performed on the data; and

in response to the conversion request (110), initiating (230) the operation on the data.

12. A host computer system (320) operable to enable a remote client computer system (360) to access, via a network (340), data stored in a data-storage device (300), the host computer system (320) being adapted

to receive from the client a request to perform an operation on the data;

and, in response,

to perform a preliminary metadata operation and perform the requested operation on the data,

wherein the preliminary metadata operation and the operation on the data are performed in parallel.

13. The system of claim 12, comprising a network file server layer (100) and a file system layer (200), the network file server layer (100) being adapted to:

receive from the client a request to perform an operation on the data;

instruct (20) the file system (200) to perform a preliminary metadata-operation and, before the metadata-operation has completed, instruct the file system to perform the operation on the data;

wait for the file system to complete both the metadata-operation and the operation on the data; and

respond to the client.

14. The system of claim 12, comprising a file system layer (200) adapted to:

receive a request (110) to convert a first identifier used by the client to identify the data into a second identifier used by the file system (200) to identify the data, the request including a hint comprising information about an operation to be performed on the data; and

in response to the conversion request, initiate (230) the operation on the data.