MAKING USE OF A FILE PATH TO DETERMINE FILE LOCALITY FOR APPLICATIONS

• US 20140059094A1
• Filed: 08/23/2012
• Published: 02/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Shankar, Venky, Bellur, Vijay
• Granted Patent: US 10,169,348 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/827
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/13 File access structures, e.g. distributed indices arrangements of input from, or output to, record carriers G06F3/06

Abstract

A processing device identifies a path name of a file that is stored in a file system and sends an extended attribute request comprising the path name to a server computer system to identify a physical location of the file in the file system. The file system includes a virtual extended attributes that identify the physical location of the file that corresponds to the path name in the request. The processing device receives a response from the server computer system indicating the physical location of the file in the file system

Claims

1. A method comprising:

identifying a path name of a file that is stored in a file system;

sending, by a client computer system, an extended attribute request comprising the path name to a server computer system to identify a physical location of the file in the file system, wherein the file system comprises a virtual extended attribute that identifies the physical location of the file based on the path name in the request; and

receiving a response from the server computer system indicating the physical location of the file in the file system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the path name comprises:

receiving the path name from a map/reduced-based application.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the response comprises at least one of a host identifier or a directory identifier.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the extended attribute request comprises:

mounting via a mount-point the file system;

sending an extended attribute system call on the mount-point to identify the physical location of the file in the file system, wherein the extended attribute system call comprises the path name.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

creating a job request using data in the response indicating the physical location of the file in the file system; and

sending the job request to a master storage server.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the response comprises at least one of a host identifier or a directory identifier.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the file system comprises a plurality of virtual extended attributes indicating a physical location of a plurality of files in the file system.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein file comprises an extended attribute indicating the physical location of the file in the file system.

6. A method comprising:

receiving an extended attribute request from a client computer device, wherein the extended attribute request indicates a path name of a file in a file system;

determining a key using the path name;

generating a value of a virtual extended attribute using the key, wherein the value of the virtual extended attribute indicates a physical location of the file in the file system; and

sending a response indicating the physical location of the file to the client computer device.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform a set of operations comprising:

identifying a path name of a file that is stored in a file system;

sending, by the processing device, an extended attribute request comprising the path name to a server computer system to identify a physical location of the file in the file system, wherein the file system comprises a virtual extended attribute that identifies the physical location of the file based on the path name in the request; and

receiving a response from the server computer system indicating the physical location of the file in the file system.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein identifying the path name comprises:

receiving the path name from a map/reduced-based application.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the response comprises at least one of a host identifier or a directory identifier.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein sending the extended attribute request comprises:

mounting via a mount-point the file system;

sending an extended attribute system call on the mount-point to identify the physical location of the file in the file system, wherein the extended attribute system call comprises the path name.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising:

creating a job request using data in the response indicating the physical location of the file in the file system; and

sending the job request to a master storage server.

14. A system comprising:

a memory; and

a processing device coupled to the memory and is configured to

identify a path name of a file that is stored in a file system;

send an extended attribute request comprising the path name to a second processing device to identify a physical location of the file in the file system, wherein the file system comprises a virtual extended attribute that identifies the physical location of the file based on the path name in the request; and

receiving a response from the second processing device indicating the physical location of the file in the file system.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein identifying the path name comprises:

receiving the path name from a map/reduced-based application.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the response comprises at least one of a host identifier or a directory identifier.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein sending the extended attribute request comprises:

mounting via a mount-point the file system;

sending an extended attribute system call on the mount-point to identify the physical location of the file in the file system, wherein the extended attribute system call comprises the path name.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the processing device is further configured to:

create a job request using data in the response indicating the physical location of the file in the file system; and

send the job request to a master storage server.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the second processing device is configured to:

receive the extended attribute request from the processing device, wherein the extended attribute request indicates the path name of the file;

read a value of an extended attribute of the file that corresponds to the path name, wherein the value of the extended attribute indicates the physical location of the file; and

send the response indicating the physical location of the file to the processing device.