SYSTEM, METHOD, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR PROVIDING A UNIFIED NAMESPACE

• US 20150242454A1
• Filed: 06/27/2014
• Published: 08/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Original Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Inventors: Bakre, Ajay, Talwadker, Rukma, Krishnamurthy, Dhruva, Muthyala, Kartheek, Sharma, Chhavi
• Granted Patent: US 10,812,313 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/166 File name conversion
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/196 Specific adaptations of the file system to access devices and non-file objects via standard file system access operations, e.g. pseudo file systems dedicated interfaces to storage systems G06F3/0601
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2291 User-Defined Types; Storage management thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9017 using directory or table look-up use of a directory or look-up table in file systems G06F16/13
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0644 Management of space entities, e.g. partitions, extents, pools
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0658 Controller construction arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4552 Lookup mechanisms between a plurality of directories; Synchronisation of directories, e.g. metadirectories
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion

Abstract

A system and computer-based method for performing a data transaction in a network storage system is provided. In an embodiment, the method includes receiving, from a client, a first data transaction request including a first data identifier associated with a first namespace protocol; determining a storage system associated with the first data identifier and associated with a second namespace protocol; determining a second data identifier associated with the first data identifier, wherein the second data identifier conforms to the second namespace protocol; and forwarding a second data transaction request including the second data identifier to the storage system based on determining an association between the second data identifier and the first data identifier, wherein the first namespace protocol and the second namespace protocol are different.

Claims

1. A computer-based method for performing a data transaction in a network storage system, the method comprising:

receiving, from a client, a first data transaction request including a first data identifier associated with a first namespace protocol;

determining a storage system associated with the first data identifier and associated with a second namespace protocol;

determining a second data identifier associated with the first data identifier, wherein the second data identifier conforms to the second namespace protocol; and

forwarding a second data transaction request including the second data identifier to the storage system based on determining an association between the second data identifier and the first data identifier,

wherein the first namespace protocol and the second namespace protocol are different

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the namespace protocol associated with the storage system from a plurality of namespace protocols associated with a plurality of storage systems.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining of the second data identifier includes querying a distributed database based on the first data identifier.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the querying of the distributed database includes:

sending a communication from a first gateway device to a second gateway device storing a portion of the distributed database, wherein the portion includes the second data identifier.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the distributed database stores data identifiers as key-value pairs distributed over a plurality of gateway devices.

6. The method of claim I further comprising adding an entry to a distributed database, wherein the entry expresses a relationship between the first data identifier and the second data identifier.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the adding of the entry to the distributed database comprises:

identifying at least one gateway device to store the entry of the distributed database from a plurality of gateway devices associated with the distributed database; and

providing the entry to the at least one gateway device.

8. The method of claim l further comprising:

receiving a response to the second data transaction from the storage system; and

providing the response to the client.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the received response conforms to the namespace protocol associated with the storage system, and wherein the providing of the response to the client includes modifying the response to conform to a namespace protocol associated with the data transaction.

10. A computer program product having a non-transitory computer readable medium tangibly recording computer program logic for performing a data transaction, the computer program product comprising:

code to receive, from a client, a first data identifier associated with a first namespace;

code to determine a second data identifier corresponding to the first data identifier, wherein the second data identifier is associated with a second namespace from a plurality of namespaces each associated with at least one storage system; and

code to provide the second data identifier for use in a data transaction directed to a storage system associated with the second namespace.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein a relationship between the first namespace and the plurality of namespaces is expressed in a database,

wherein the database is distributed over a plurality of node systems, and

wherein the code to determine the second data identifier includes code to query a node system of the plurality of node systems based on the node system storing a portion of the database associated with the first data identifier.

12. The computer program product of claim 11 further comprising code to add a key-value pair to the database by providing the first data identifier to the node system, wherein the key-value pair expresses a relationship between the first data identifier and the second data identifier.

13. The computer program product of claim 10 further comprising:

code to receive a response to the data transaction from the storage system wherein the response conforms to the second namespace;

code to modify the response to conform to the first namespace; and

code to provide the modified response to the client.

14. A namespace gateway computing system, the system comprising:

a first gateway of a plurality of gateways in a network storage system, wherein the first gateway stores a first portion of a namespace database, and other gateways of the plurality store other respective portions of the namespace database, and wherein the first gateway is operable to;

receive a first data identifier in accordance with a first namespace, the first data identifier being received from one of the other gateways of the plurality, the first namespace being incompatible with storage systems of the network storage system;

traverse the first portion of the namespace database using the first data identifier;

determine, using the first portion of the namespace database, a second data identifier associated with the first data identifier, wherein the second data identifier is in accordance with a second namespace compatible with at least one storage system of the network storage system.

15. The computing system of claim 14, wherein the namespace database includes at least one data identifier in accordance with each of a plurality of namespaces.

16. The computing system of claim 14, wherein the namespace database includes a plurality of key-value pairs associating data identifiers in accordance with the first namespace and data identifiers in accordance with a plurality of namespaces that are each different from the first namespace.

17. The computing system of claim 14, wherein the first gateway is further operable to perform a data transaction associated with the first data identifier on behalf of the one of the other gateways from which the first data identifier was received.

18. The computing system of claim 14, wherein the first gateway is further operable to add an entry to the namespace database.

19. The computing system of claim 14, where the first gateway is further operable to provide a data transaction including the second data identifier to a storage system associated with the second data identifier.

20. The computing system of claim 19, wherein the first gateway is further operable to receive a response to the provided data transaction from the storage system and to provide a corresponding response to a client.