Loosely coupled mass storage computer cluster

• US 6,571,349 B1
• Filed: 10/05/1999
• Issued: 05/27/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: SeaChange International Incorporated
• Original Assignee: SeaChange Technology, Inc.
• Inventors: Mann, Bruce E., Ywoskus, John A., McGrath, Edward J., Carlozzi, Michael D., Trasatti, Philip J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Iqbal, Nadeem
• Application Number:
  US09/412,232
• Time in Patent Office: 1,330 Days
• Field of Search: 714/2, 714/4-8, 714/11, 714/13, 714/15, 714/25, 714/30, 714/31, 711/100, 711/114, 711/115, 711/133
• US Class Current: 714/6.22
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1076 Parity data used in redundant arrays of independent storages, e.g. in RAID systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2028 eliminating a faulty processor or activating a spare
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2038 with a single idle spare processing component
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2211/1028 Distributed, i.e. distributed RAID systems with parity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2211/1045 Nested RAID, i.e. implementing a RAID scheme in another RAID scheme
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17336 Handling of requests in head-ends

Abstract

A method and apparatus redundantly store data, in particular video data objects, in a distributed computer system having at least three processor systems, each processor system being connected in point to point two way channel interconnection with each other processor system. The data is stored in a redundant fashion both at the computer system level as well as the processor system level. Accordingly, the failure of a single processor does not adversely affect the integrity of the data. The computer system can also overlay a switching system connected in a ring fashion for providing a fault tolerance to the failure of a single connected processor system at the switch level. Accordingly, there results a fault tolerant data distribution system.

Claims

1. A clustered video system comprising:

a plurality of video processor systems, each video processor system comprising;

a local file manager to manage storage in that video processor system;

at least one central processing unit; and

at least one local mass storage sub-system;

said clustered video system configured to store under control of a local file manager portions of video information into one of the video processor systems, and in at least one other video processor system under control of the local file manager of the at least one other video processor system, in a redundant representation so that if any one video processor system fails, the remaining video processor systems can reconstruct the video information from video information and the redundant representation of the video information available in the clustered video processor system.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the distributed computer system stores video data according to a RAID process.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

storing the video information across the distributed computer system according to a RAID-5 process.

4. A method for operating a video cluster for processing video information comprises:

distributing the video information among local storage devices of a plurality of video processor systems, with each video processor system maintaining its own file structure; and

exporting access to the video information stored in the local storage devices of at least several of the video processor systems; and

maintaining video information stored on at least several video processor systems so that each cluster member can read, write, or delete its portion of the video information from its local file structure.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

storing a redundant representation of video information, and wherein if any one video processor system fails,

reconstructing the video information by the remaining video processor systems from that video information available in the system.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein exporting access to the video information by the cluster members exports access to the video information while keeping their file systems private.

7. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

storing the video information and a redundant representation of the video information in the video cluster system.

8. A video cluster for processing video information comprises:

a plurality of interconnected video processor systems the video cluster having video information distributed among local storage devices of the plurality of video processor systems, each video processor system comprising;

a central processor unit; and

a local mass storage device;

each video processor system maintaining its file structure and exporting access to the video information stored in the local storage devices of the video processor system, so that each cluster member can read, write, or delete files from its local file structure without disrupting the other members of the video cluster.

9. The video server system of claim 8 wherein if any one video processor system fails the remaining video processor systems can reconstruct the video information from that video information available in the system.

10. The video server system of claim 8 wherein the cluster members keeps their file system private and only exports access to the data objects.

11. The video server system of claim 8 wherein the video information and a redundant representation of the video information are stored in the video cluster system.