DISPERSED STORAGE SYSTEM WITH SUB-VAULTS AND METHODS FOR USE THEREWITH

• US 20150100601A1
• Filed: 08/05/2014
• Published: 04/09/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/03/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pure Storage, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Cleversafe Incorporated (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Leggette, Wesley, Cilfone, Bart
• Granted Patent: US 9,841,899 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/781
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1076 Parity data used in redundant arrays of independent storages, e.g. in RAID systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/1458 by checking the subject access rights
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/10 File systems; File servers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/182 Distributed file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6272 by registering files or documents with a third party
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2211/1028 Distributed, i.e. distributed RAID systems with parity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/1052 Security improvement
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/154 Networked environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2149 Restricted operating environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0604 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0611 in relation to response time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0622 in relation to access
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0635 by changing the path, e.g. traffic rerouting, path reconfiguration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0637 Permissions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/064 Management of blocks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0647 Migration mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0655 Vertical data movement, i.e. input-output transfer; data movement between one or more hosts and one or more storage devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0665 : at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 : Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0682 : Tape device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 : Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4881 : Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 : for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 : Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• 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 67/145 : avoiding end of session, e.g. keep-alive, heartbeats, resumption message or wake-up for inactive or interrupted session

Abstract

A method for execution by one or more processing modules of a dispersed storage network (DSN) includes receiving a data access request for at least one data segment stored in the DSN. A vault associated with data access request is identified along with one of a plurality of sub-vaults associated with the vault. Access information corresponding to the one of the plurality of sub-vaults is retrieved to determine whether the access request is allowed. When the access request is allowed, a sub-vault directory associated with the one of the plurality of sub-vaults is retrieved to identify a DSN address corresponding to the data access request, and fulfilling the data access request based on the DSN address.

Claims

1. A method for execution by one or more processing modules of one or more computing devices of a dispersed storage network (DSN), the method comprises:

receiving a data access request for at least one data segment stored in the DSN;

identifying a vault associated with the data access request and one of a plurality of sub-vaults associated with the vault;

retrieving access information corresponding to the one of the plurality of sub-vaults to determine whether the data access request is allowed;

when the data access request is allowed, retrieving a sub-vault directory associated with the one of the plurality of sub-vaults to identify a DSN address corresponding to the data access request, and fulfilling the data access request based on the DSN address.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the data access request includes a requesting entity identifier (ID) and the vault is identified based on the requesting entity ID.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the one of the plurality of sub-vaults is identified based on an identification of the vault and based on a sub-vault ID included in the data access request.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein retrieving the access information corresponding to the one of the plurality of sub-vaults includes retrieving a vault directory corresponding to the vault associated with the data access request.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the vault directory indicates an address for each of the plurality of sub-vaults associated with the vault.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein determining whether the data access request is allowed includes determining a request type associated with the data access request and allowing the data access request when the access information indicates the request type is allowed.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the data access request indicates the request type as one of:

a read request, or a write request.

8. A dispersed storage and task (DST) processing unit comprises:

at least one module, when operable within a computing device, that causes the computing device to;

receive a data access request for at least one data segment stored in a dispersed storage network (DSN);

identify a vault associated with the data access request and one of a plurality of sub-vaults associated with the vault;

retrieve access information corresponding to the one of the plurality of sub-vaults to determine whether the data access request is allowed;

when the data access request is allowed, retrieve a sub-vault directory associated with the one of the plurality of sub-vaults to identify a DSN address corresponding to the data access request, and fulfilling the data access request based on the DSN address.

9. The DST processing unit of claim 8 wherein the data access request includes a requesting entity identifier (ID) and the vault is identified based on the requesting entity ID.

10. The DST processing unit of claim 9 wherein the one of the plurality of sub-vaults is identified based on an identification of the vault and based on a sub-vault ID included in the data access request.

11. The DST processing unit of claim 8 wherein retrieving the access information corresponding to the one of the plurality of sub-vaults includes retrieving a vault directory corresponding to the vault associated with the data access request.

12. The DST processing unit of claim 11 wherein the vault directory indicates an address for each of the plurality of sub-vaults associated with the vault.

13. The DST processing unit of claim 8 wherein determining whether the data access request is allowed includes determining a request type associated with the data access request and allowing the data access request when the access information indicates the request type is allowed.

14. The DST processing unit of claim 13 wherein the data access request indicates the request type as one of:

a read request, or a write request.

15. A computer readable storage medium comprises:

at least one memory section that stores operational instructions that, when executed by one or more processing modules of one or more computing devices of a dispersed storage network (DSN), causes the one or more computing devices to;

receive a data access request for at least one data segment stored in the DSN;

identify a vault associated with the data access request and one of a plurality of sub-vaults associated with the vault;

retrieve access information corresponding to the one of the plurality of sub-vaults to determine whether the data access request is allowed;

when the data access request is allowed, retrieve a sub-vault directory associated with the one of the plurality of sub-vaults to identify a DSN address corresponding to the data access request, and fulfilling the data access request based on the DSN address.

16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15 wherein the data access request includes a requesting entity identifier (ID) and the vault is identified based on the requesting entity ID.

17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16 wherein the one of the plurality of sub-vaults is identified based on an identification of the vault and based on a sub-vault ID included in the data access request.

18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15 wherein retrieving the access information corresponding to the one of the plurality of sub-vaults includes retrieving a vault directory corresponding to the vault associated with the data access request.

19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 18 wherein the vault directory indicates an address for each of the plurality of sub-vaults associated with the vault.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15 wherein determining whether the data access request is allowed includes determining a request type associated with the data access request and allowing the data access request when the access information indicates the request type is allowed.