MULTI-REGIME CACHING IN A VIRTUAL FILE SYSTEM FOR CLOUD-BASED SHARED CONTENT

• US 20160321288A1
• Filed: 04/27/2016
• Published: 11/03/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Box Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Box Incorporated
• Inventors: Malhotra, Ritik, Luthra, Tanooj, Tallamraju, Sri Sarat Ravikumar
• Granted Patent: US 10,409,781 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0891 using clearing, invalidating or resetting means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/1081 for peripheral access to main memory, e.g. direct memory access [DMA]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/122 of the least frequently used [LFU] type, e.g. with individual count value
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/113 Details of archiving lifecycle management in storage systems G06F3/0649; backup systems G06F11/1446
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/172 Caching, prefetching or hoarding of files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1727 Details of free space management performed by the file system saving storage space on storage systems G06F3/0608; management of blocks in storage devices G06F3/064
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1748 De-duplication implemented within the file system, e.g. based on file segments de-duplication techniques in storage systems for the management of data blocks G06F3/0641
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1774 Locking methods, e.g. locking methods for file systems allowing shared and concurrent access to files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/182 Distributed file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/183 Provision of network file services by network file servers, e.g. by using NFS, CIFS network file access protocols H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/185 Hierarchical storage management [HSM] systems, e.g. file migration or policies thereof details of archiving G06F16/11
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/188 Virtual file systems
• 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 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/23 Updating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2443 Stored procedures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/1016 Performance improvement
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/1044 Space efficiency improvement
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/154 Networked environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/463 : File
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/60 : Details of cache memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/657 : Virtual address space management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/46 : Multiprogramming arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 : wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 : Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/762 : at the source reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 : Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 : specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• 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 67/34 : involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/40 : using video transcoding, i.e. partial or full decoding of a coded input stream followed by re-encoding of the decoded output stream

Abstract

A cloud-based storage server is interfaced with one or more storage devices that store shared content accessible over a network by two or more users. A virtual file system module is delivered to a user device associated with the users. The virtual file system module provides file access facilities that are not available by either the file system on the user device or the file system on the storage server. A virtual file system cache system manager allocates multiple local memory areas on a user device. The multiple local memory areas are managed differently under multiple cache regimes. The management of the cache regime spaces depend from a set of cache access response directives that serve to direct cache management operations pertaining to the movement of data blocks to and/or from the multiple cache regimes. One cache regime space stores shared data that can be used in an offline mode.

Claims

1. A method for accessing one or more cloud-based storage devices that store shared content accessible over a network by two or more user devices via a virtual file system, the method comprising:

allocating a first cache to store read data items received from the cloud-based storage devices, wherein the first cache observes a first set of eviction rules; and

allocating a second cache to store modified instances of the read data items that were modified by operation of at least one aspect of the virtual file system, wherein the second cache observes a second set of eviction rules that comprise waiting to evict until after a commit confirmation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of eviction rules comprises a least recently used algorithm.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the second set of eviction rules comprises an evict only after commit rule that allows a data item to be evicted only after receiving a successful write operation confirmation.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising applying a first set of cache management rule parameters to the first set of eviction rules, and applying a second set of cache management rule parameters to the second set of eviction rules.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the cache management rule parameters comprise one or more attributes characterizing at least one of, an object identifier, or an offset, or an operation, or a range, or a set of data, or a data block identifier, or a timestamp, or a local cache regime space identifier, or an allocated cache regime space value, or a used cache regime space value, or one or more threshold values, or any combination thereof.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising allocating local cache regime space in a local memory wherein allocating the local cache regime space in the local memory of the user device, is responsive to at least one of, a file system request, or a timeout indicator, or a threshold breach, or a commit confirmation or any combination thereof.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining one or more cache eviction candidates comprising at least one data block from the first cache, the cache eviction candidates being determined based at least in part on one or more cache access response directives.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein at least one of, determining the cache eviction candidates is responsive to at least one of, a file system request, a timeout indicator, a threshold breach, or a commit confirmation, or any combination thereof.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the modified instances of the read data items comprises a set of pending data to be committed to the shared content of the cloud-based storage devices.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising allocating a third cache to store a set of offline data available on the user device when the user device is disconnected from the network.

11. A computer readable medium, embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium, the non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which, when stored in memory and executed by a processor causes the processor to perform a set of acts for accessing one or more cloud-based storage devices that store shared content accessible over a network by two or more user devices via a virtual file system, the acts comprising:

allocating a first cache to store read data items received from the cloud-based storage devices, wherein the first cache observes a first set of eviction rules; and

allocating a second cache to store modified instances of the read data items that were modified by operation of at least one aspect of the virtual file system, wherein the second cache observes a second set of eviction rules that comprise waiting to evict until after a commit confirmation.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the first set of eviction rules comprises a least recently used algorithm.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the second set of eviction rules comprises an evict only after commit rule that allows a data item to be evicted only after receiving a successful write operation confirmation.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 11, further comprising instructions which, when stored in memory and executed by the processor causes the processor to perform acts of applying a first set of cache management rule parameters to the first set of eviction rules, and applying a second set of cache management rule parameters to the second set of eviction rules.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein the cache management rule parameters comprise one or more attributes characterizing at least one of, an object identifier, or an offset, or an operation, or a range, or a set of data, or a data block identifier, or a timestamp, or a local cache regime space identifier, or an allocated cache regime space value, or a used cache regime space value, or one or more threshold values, or any combination thereof.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 11, further comprising instructions which, when stored in memory and executed by the processor causes the processor to perform acts of allocating local cache regime space in a local memory wherein allocating the local cache regime space in the local memory of the user device, is responsive to at least one of, a file system request, or a timeout indicator, or a threshold breach, or a commit confirmation or any combination thereof.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 11, further comprising instructions which, when stored in memory and executed by the processor causes the processor to perform acts of determining one or more cache eviction candidates comprising at least one data block from the first cache, the cache eviction candidates being determined based at least in part on one or more cache access response directives.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein at least one of, determining the cache eviction candidates is responsive to at least one of, a file system request, a timeout indicator, a threshold breach, or a commit confirmation, or any combination thereof.

19. A system for accessing one or more cloud-based storage devices that store shared content accessible over a network by two or more user devices via a virtual file system, the system comprising:

a storage medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions; and

a processor or processors that execute the instructions to cause the processor or processors to perform a set of acts, the acts comprising,

allocating a first cache to store read data items received from the cloud-based storage devices, wherein the first cache observes a first set of eviction rules; and

allocating a second cache to store modified instances of the read data items that were modified by operation of at least one aspect of the virtual file system, wherein the second cache observes a second set of eviction rules that comprise waiting to evict until after a commit confirmation.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the second set of eviction rules comprises an evict only after commit rule that allows a data item to be evicted only after receiving a successful write operation confirmation.