TRANSPARENT REFERRALS FOR DISTRIBUTED FILE SERVERS

• US 20180157752A1
• Filed: 12/01/2017
• Published: 06/07/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nutanix Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Nutanix Incorporated
• Inventors: Arikatla, Durga Mahesh, Thummala, Hemanth Kumar, Gupta, Manish, Naik, Manoj, Nair, Saji Kumar Vijaya Kumari Rajendran, Rathi, Shyamsunder Prayagchand, Sridharan, Sukruth
• Granted Patent: US 11,562,034 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/14 Details of searching files based on file metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/182 Distributed file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/188 Virtual file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

Examples of systems described herein include a virtualized file server including a first file server virtual machine and a second file server virtual machine configured to manage a distributed file share of storage items. The second file server virtual machine is configured to manage a particular storage item of the distributed file share of storage items. The first file server virtual machine is configured to, in response to receipt of a referral request for a file share path for the particular storage item from a client, look up a file share path for the particular storage item in a map of at least a portion of the distributed file share of storage items, and provide a referral with the file share path that identifies the second file server virtual machine.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a virtualized file server comprising a first file server virtual machine and a second file server virtual machine configured to manage a distributed file share of storage items, wherein the second file server virtual machine is configured to manage a particular storage item of the distributed file share of storage items, wherein the first file server virtual machine is configured to;

in response to receipt of a referral request for a file share path for the particular storage item from a client;

detect a referral type associated with the referral request;

look up a file share path for the particular storage item in a map of at least a portion of the distributed file share of storage items; and

provide a referral with the file share path that identifies the second file server virtual machine, wherein the file share path is constructed in accordance with the referral type.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the referral type is a host-based referral.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the referral type is an internet protocol (IP)-based referral.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein, in response to the referral type being a host-based referral, the first file server virtual machine is configured to construct the referral to include the file share path with a host name associated with the second file server virtual machine, and wherein, in response to the referral type being a host-based referral, the first file server virtual machine is configured to construct the referral to include the file share path with an IP address associated with the second file server virtual machine.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the first file server virtual machine and the second file server virtual machine are each hosted on different host machines.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the first file server virtual machine comprises a first distributed data access coordinator that is configured to communicate with a second distributed data access communicator of the second file server virtual machine to look up the file share path for the particular storage item.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the second file server virtual machine comprises the map from which the file share path is retrieved.

8. A system comprising:

a virtualized file server comprising a plurality of file server virtual machines configured to control access to a distributed file share of storage items, wherein a file server virtual machine of the plurality of file server virtual machines is configured to receive a request to enumerate contents of the distributed file share of storage items, wherein, in response to the request to enumerate the contents of the distributed file share of storage items, the file server virtual machine is configured to;

retrieve metadata associated with a plurality of directories of the distributed file share; and

update a metadata database with the metadata.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the file server virtual machine comprises a metadata database engine that is configured to allocate a buffer to store the metadata database.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the metadata comprises a directory name, directory statistics, access control lists, or combinations thereof.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the metadata database engine is configured to remove an entry associated with a file from the metadata database in response to determining that the file has been removed from the directory.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the metadata database engine is configured to add an entry associated with a file to the metadata database in response to determining that the file has been added to the directory.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the file server virtual machine is configured to retrieve the metadata associated with a first portion of the distributed file share, wherein a second file server virtual machine of the plurality of file server virtual machines is configured retrieve second metadata associated with a second portion of the distributed file share.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the file server virtual machine is configured to manage the first portion of the distributed file share, and wherein the second file server virtual machine is configured to manage the second portion of the distributed file share.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the file server virtual machine and the second file server virtual machine are each hosted on different host machines.

16. A method comprising:

in response to receipt of a referral request for a file share path for a particular storage item from a client at a first file server virtual machine of a virtualized file server;

detecting a referral type associated with the referral request;

looking up a file share path for the particular storage item in a map of at least a portion of a distributed file share of storage items managed by the virtualized file server;

providing a referral with the file share path that identifies a second file server virtual machine of the virtualized file server, wherein the referral is constructed in accordance with the referral type.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein detecting the referral type associated with the referral request comprises detecting whether the referral type is one of a host-based referral or an internet protocol (IP)-based referral.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

in response to the referral type being the host-based referral, constructing the referral to include the file share path with a host name associated with the second file server virtual machine; and

in response to the referral type being the host-based referral, constructing the referral to include the file share path with an IP address associated with the second file server virtual machine.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising, prior to receiving the referral request:

receiving a connection request for the particular storage item; and

in response to the connection request and to a determination that the particular storage item is managed by another file server virtual machine of the virtualized file manager, providing a not covered response.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein looking up the file share path for the particular storage item comprises retrieving the file share path from the second file manager virtual machine.