DISPERSED STORAGE NETWORK VIRTUAL ADDRESS FIELDS

• US 20120317122A1
• Filed: 08/17/2012
• Published: 12/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pure Storage, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Cleversafe Incorporated (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: BAPTIST, ANDREW, DHUSE, GREG
• Granted Patent: US 9,201,805 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/741
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1076 Parity data used in redundant arrays of independent storages, e.g. in RAID systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0246 in block erasable memory, e.g. flash memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/1009 using page tables, e.g. page table structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/113 Details of archiving lifecycle management in storage systems G06F3/0649; backup systems G06F11/1446
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2211/1028 Distributed, i.e. distributed RAID systems with parity

Abstract

A dispersed storage network includes a dispersed storage device to store data. The dispersed storage device includes a processing module operable to slice a data segment of a data object into data slices. The processing module further creates a slice name for each of the data slices. The slice name includes routing information containing a vault identifier that identifies a vault associated with the data object, in which the vault identifies at least one user. The slice name further includes a source data name containing an identifier of the data object.

Claims

1. A dispersed storage device for use within a dispersed storage network, comprising:

a processing module operable to;

slice a data segment of a data object into data slices; and

create a slice name for each of the data slices, the slice name including;

routing information containing a vault identifier that identifies a vault associated with the data object, the vault being associated with at least one user; and

a source data name containing an identifier of the data object.

2. The dispersed storage device of claim 1, wherein a number of the data slices corresponds to a number of pillars for storing the data object, each of the pillars corresponding to a particular data slice of each data segment of each data object written to the vault.

3. The dispersed storage device of claim 2, wherein the routing information further comprises a slice index based on the vault identifier and a pillar identifier that identifies a pillar associated with the data slice.

4. The dispersed storage device of claim 3, wherein the routing information further comprises a vault generation identifier that identifies a generation of the vault, the generation indicating a virtual address range assigned to the pillar.

5. The dispersed storage device of claim 4, wherein the routing information comprises a reserved field, and wherein the slice index comprises two bytes, the vault identifier comprises sixteen bytes, the vault generation identifier comprises two bytes and the reserved field comprises four bytes.

6. The dispersed storage device of claim 4, wherein the processing module comprises a gateway module operable to:

receive a user identity (ID) and object name associated with the data object;

determine the vault identifier and user information associated with the user from the user ID; and

determine the source data name from the object name.

7. The dispersed storage device of claim 6, wherein the source data name comprises the vault identifier, the vault generation identifier and a data name associated with the object name.

8. The dispersed storage device of claim 6, wherein the user information comprises user attributes of the user and operational parameters, the operational parameters including one or more of an error coding algorithm, a read threshold of the error coding algorithm, the number of pillars for the vault, an encryption algorithm, a slicing parameter, a compression algorithm, an integrity check method, caching settings and parallelism settings.

9. The dispersed storage device of claim 6, wherein the processing module further comprises an access module operable to:

receive the data object, the source data name and the user information from the gateway module; and

segment the data object into data segments based on the user information; and

a grid module operable to;

receive the data segments, the source data name and the user information from the access module;

slice each of the data segments into respective error coded data slices;

create the respective slice name for each of the error coded data slices; and

determine a corresponding storage unit for storing each of the error coded data slices.

10. The dispersed storage device of claim 9, wherein the grid module further comprises:

a slice index generator for receiving the pillar identifier, reversing the pillar identifier to create a reversed pillar identifier and performing an XOR on the reversed pillar identifier and least significant bits of the vault identifier to generate the slice index.

11. The dispersed storage device of claim 6, wherein the source data name comprises, in a first format, a type field indicating a file format of the data object, a file identifier that is linked to the object name and a segment identifier that identifies the data segment, and in a second format, a type field indicating a block format of the data object, a filler field and a block identifier that is linked to the object name.

12. A method for preparing a data object to be stored, comprising:

slicing a data segment of the data object into data slices; and

creating a slice name for each of the data slices, the slice name including

routing information containing a vault identifier that identifies a vault associated with the data object, the vault being associated with at least one user; and

a source data name containing an identifier of the data object.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein a number of the data slices corresponds to a number of pillars for storing the data object, each of the pillars corresponding to a particular data slice of each data segment of each data object written to the vault.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the routing information further comprises a slice index based on the vault identifier and a pillar identifier that identifies a pillar associated with the data slice.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the routing information further comprises a vault generation identifier that identifies a generation of the vault, the generation indicating a virtual address range assigned to the pillar.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

receiving a user identity (ID) and object name associated with the data object;

determining the vault identifier and user information associated with the user from the user ID; and

determining the source data name from the object name.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the source data name comprises the vault identifier, the vault generation identifier and a data name associated with the object name.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the slicing further comprises:

receiving the data object and the user information;

segmenting the data object into data segments based on the user information; and

slicing each of the data segments into respective error coded data slices.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the creating the slice name further comprises:

receiving the pillar identifier;

reversing the pillar identifier to create a reversed pillar identifier; and

performing an XOR on the reversed pillar identifier and least significant bits of the vault identifier to generate the slice index.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the source data name comprises, in a first format, a type field indicating a file format of the data object, a file identifier that is linked to the object name and a segment identifier that identifies the data segment, and in a second format, a type field indicating a block format of the data object, a filler field and a block identifier that is linked to the object name.