DISTRIBUTED OBJECT STORAGE

• US 20180203866A1
• Filed: 01/17/2017
• Published: 07/19/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/17/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Surcouf, Andre, Ruty, Guillaume, Townsley, William Mark
• Granted Patent: US 10,545,914 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/122 using management policies backup systems G06F11/1446; file migration policies for HSM systems G06F16/185
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/13 File access structures, e.g. distributed indices arrangements of input from, or output to, record carriers G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/164 File meta data generation
• 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]

Abstract

The disclosure provides a system, method and computer-readable storage device embodiments. Some embodiments can include an IPv6-centric distributed storage system. An example method includes receiving, at a computing device, a request to create metadata associated with an object from a client, creating the metadata based on the request and transmitting the metadata and an acknowledgment to the client, wherein the metadata contains an address in a storage system for each replica of the object and wherein the metadata can be used to write data to the storage system and read the data from the storage system. There is no file system layer between an application layer and a storage system layer.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a computing device, a request to create metadata associated with an object from a client;

creating the metadata based on the request; and

transmitting the metadata and an acknowledgment to the client, wherein the metadata contains an address in a storage system for each replica of the object and wherein the metadata can be used to write data to the storage system and read the data from the storage system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein writing and reading the data from the storage system is accomplished via an IPv6 address stored in the metadata.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the client computes a family of pseudorandom seeded hashes based on at least one of an object name and consecutive integers as seeds.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the client computes a family of pseudorandom seeded X-bit hashes based on an object name, wherein X is less than or equal to 128.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata, when used to write the data to the storage system, is utilized to write replica data to the storage system.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising, by the computing device, determining where to store the data on the storage system based on one or more of a placement policy, system-wide metrics, a client recommendation, and quality of service requirements.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein a metadata prefix is assigned to each tenant in a multi-tenant environment.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein no filesystem layer exists between an application layer and a storage system layer.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata comprises a prefix of an IPv6 address which is assigned to a node of the storage system.

10. A system comprising:

at least one storage node; and

at least one metadata server, wherein the system is configured to communicate with a client device and the at least one storage node for managing a storing of objects,

wherein the at least one metadata server is configured to;

receive a request to create metadata associated with an object to be stored, wherein the request comprises a computed metadata hash that is computed at the client device;

create the metadata in response to the request;

place the object for storage at the storage node based on at least one of system-wide metrics or a client recommendation; and

wherein the at least one storage node is configured to;

receive and store the object; and

assign a unique IPv6 identifier to each replica of the object.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the storage node is further configured to:

receive a read request from the client device for accessing the object.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the metadata server is further configured to:

answer requests addressed to a sub-prefix.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein placing the object for storage is further based on a dynamic placement policy.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the metadata comprises one or more of (1) an address of all replica objects of the object, (2) state information about each object replica, (3) an object name associated with the object, (4) a duration of the object, or (5) an access control list.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage device storing instructions which, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations comprising:

establishing a static rule to distribute a first flow to a first server and a second flow to a second server;

receiving a request to create metadata associated with an object from a client;

creating the metadata based on the request, wherein the metadata comprises an address for each replica of the object; and

transmitting the metadata and an acknowledgment to the client, wherein the metadata contains the address in a storage system for each replica of the object and wherein the metadata can be used to write data to the storage system and read the data from the storage system.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 15, wherein the address is an IPv6 address, and wherein writing and reading the data from the storage system is accomplished via the IPv6 address stored in the metadata.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 15, wherein the client computes a family of pseudorandom seeded hashes based on at least one of an object name and consecutive integers as seeds.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 15, wherein the client computes a family of pseudorandom seeded X-bit hashes based on an object name, wherein X is less than or equal to 128.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 15, wherein the non-transitory computer-readable storage device stores further instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform further operations comprising:

determining where to store the data on the storage system based on one or more of a placement policy, system-wide metrics, a client recommendation, and quality of service requirements.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 15, wherein the metadata comprises a prefix of an IPv6 address which is assigned to a node of the storage system.