Indirection Objects in a Cloud Storage System

• US 20130311612A1
• Filed: 05/16/2012
• Published: 11/21/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rackspace US Incorporated (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rackspace US Incorporated (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Dickinson, John A.
• Granted Patent: US 9,183,213 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/14 Details of searching files based on file metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• 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]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context

Abstract

Several embodiments using indirection objects to organize data in a cloud storage system are disclosed. An indirection object stores associations to different variants or segments of an object. The indirection object receives requests for the objects and responds with the appropriate variant, segment, or segments of the object. The variant, segment, or segments returned may vary from request to request.

Claims

1. A method for providing object data from a cloud storage system, the method comprising:

storing a first representation of an object;

assigning a first attribute to the first representation of the object;

storing a second representation of an object;

assigning a second attribute to the second representation of the object;

receiving a request to access the object;

determining if the request includes a requested attributed;

if the request includes a requested attribute;

returning a response including the first representation of the object if the requested attribute matches the first attribute; and

returning a response including the second representation of the object if the requested attribute matches the second attribute.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

if the request does not include a requested attribute, returning a response including a preferred representation of the object.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of assigning the first attribute further comprises assigning a first file type to the first representation of the object;

and wherein the step of assigning the second attribute further comprises assigning a second file type to second representation of the object.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of assigning the first attribute further comprises assigning a first version identifier to the first representation of the object;

and wherein the step of assigning the second attribute further comprises assigning a second version identifier to second representation of the object.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of assigning the first attribute further comprises examining the first representation of the object to generate the first attribute;

and wherein the step of assigning the second attribute further comprises examining the second representation of the object to generate the second attribute.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request to delete the object;

determining if the request to delete includes a second requested attributed;

if the request to delete includes a second requested attribute;

deleting the first representation of the object if the second requested attribute matches the first attribute; and

deleting the second representation of the object if the second requested attribute matches the second attribute.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

if the request does not include a second requested attribute, deleting the first representation of the object and the second representation of the object.

8. A system for storing multiple representations of an object, comprising:

an indirection object storing a plurality of associations; and

a plurality of representations of the object, each representation referred to by one of the plurality of associations, and each representation including an attribute;

wherein the indirection object is operable to receive a request for the object and return one of the plurality of representations of the object based on the attributes included in each representation.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the indirection object is a representation of the object including an extended attribute.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the plurality of associations include a plurality of URLs, and wherein the plurality of representations of the object are stored on a plurality of servers accessible via a network and identified by the plurality of URLs.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the attribute included with each representation of the object is selected from the group consisting of:

version, format, size, resolution, dimensions, quality, bit rate and aspect ratio.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the indirection object is further operable to receive a request to delete the object and delete the plurality of representations of the object.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the indirection object is further operable to receive a request to delete the object and delete itself to render the plurality of representation of the object inaccessible.

14. The system of claim 8, further comprising a storage management server operable to manage the indirection object.

15. The system of claim 8, wherein the indirection object is further operable to receive a request to store a new representation of the object and store the new representation.

16. A method for providing object data from a cloud storage system, the method comprising:

storing each of a plurality of object variants individually;

receiving a request to download object data corresponding to one or more of the object variants; and

responding to the request with object data from one of the object variants;

wherein if the requested object data corresponds to one of the object variants, the step of responding to the request with object data further includes retrieving the object variant corresponding only to the requested object data.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

selecting a preferred object variant from the plurality of object variants;

wherein if the requested object data does not correspond to one of the object variants, the step of responding to the request with object data further includes returning the preferred object variant.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the step of storing the plurality of object variants includes storing a plurality of object including attributes selected from the group consisting of:

version, format, size, resolution, dimensions, quality, and aspect ratio.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

examining each object variant to determine an attribute to be used for differentiation from the other object variants;

storing the attribute with the object variant.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the step of retrieving the object variant corresponding only to the requested object data further includes examining the stored attribute for each object variant to determine whether the object variant corresponds to the request object data.