Parallel file system and method for multiple node file access
First Claim
1. In a system employing a file system for storing file data and having a file structure that includes metadata with distributed communicating computer nodes which have access to the file system, the method comprising:
- providing a file system with a file structure residing on one or more disks accessible by multiple file systems running on separate computer nodes, said file system allowing a computation that uses the file structure to be broken up into multiple pieces that can be run in parallel on separate ones of said computer nodes, andproviding a metadata node for each file of the file structure with a mechanism to control metadata in a distributed file system wherein every node which accesses a file and needs to read or write metadata information to the metadata node is accommodated, and wherein the metadata node keeps the information about the file'"'"'s metadata and acts as a smart cache between the disk and all nodes that access the file.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A computer system having a shared disk file system running on on multiple computers each having their own instance of an operating system and being coupled for parallel data sharing access to files residing on network attached shared disks. Methods are provided for use as a parallel file system in a shared disk environment by use of a scalable directory service for the system with a stable cursor, a segmented allocation map. Dynamic prefetch and cached balance pools for multiple accesses improve the system. Extended file attributes are used for implementation of Access Control Lists in a parallel file system. Improvements to caching and cache performance developments balance pools for multiple accesses. A metadata node manages file metadata for parallel read and write actions. For our system, tokens are used for metadata node selection and identification, and we have enhanced token modes for controlling file size, as well as smart caching of byte range tokens using file access patterns and a byte range lock algorithm using a byte range token interface. Locking techniques reduce the overhead of a token manager which is also used in the file system recovery if a computer participating in the management of shared disks becomes unavailable or failed.
322 Citations
7 Claims
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1. In a system employing a file system for storing file data and having a file structure that includes metadata with distributed communicating computer nodes which have access to the file system, the method comprising:
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providing a file system with a file structure residing on one or more disks accessible by multiple file systems running on separate computer nodes, said file system allowing a computation that uses the file structure to be broken up into multiple pieces that can be run in parallel on separate ones of said computer nodes, and providing a metadata node for each file of the file structure with a mechanism to control metadata in a distributed file system wherein every node which accesses a file and needs to read or write metadata information to the metadata node is accommodated, and wherein the metadata node keeps the information about the file'"'"'s metadata and acts as a smart cache between the disk and all nodes that access the file. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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Specification