Method and system for responding to file system requests
First Claim
1. A system for responding to file system requests having file IDs comprising V, a volume identifier specifying the file system being accessed, and R, an integer, specifying the file within the file system being accessed comprising:
- D disk elements in which files are stored, where D is greater than or equal to 1 and is an integer;
a switching fabric connected to the D disk elements to route requests to a corresponding disk element; and
N network elements connected to the switching fabric, each network element having a mapping function that for every value of V, specifies one or more elements from the set D that store the data specified by volume V, where N is greater than or equal to 1 and is an integer and N+D is greater than or equal to 3, which receives the requests and causes the switching fabric to route the requests by their file ID according to the mapping function, each network element includes a translator which obtains file IDs from path names included in individual file system requests, each disk element and each network element has a file system location database which maintains a mapping from all file system identifiers V to disk element identifiers so each network element can translate each file system request ID into a corresponding disk element location, each disk element and each network element has a controller, and each disk element controller communicates with the network element controllers to identify which files are stored at the respective disk element, each network element can respond to any request for any disk element, each network element has a network port through which requests are received by the respective network element wherein all the network elements and disk elements together appear as a single system that can respond to any request at any network port of any network element, the disk elements form a cluster, with one of the disk elements being a cluster coordinator which communicates with each disk element in the cluster to collect from and distribute to the network elements which file systems are stored in each disk element of the cluster at predetermined times.
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Abstract
A system for responding to file system requests having file IDs comprising V, a volume identifier specifying the file system being accessed, and R, an integer, specifying the file within the file system being accessed. The system includes D disk elements in which files are stored, where D is greater than or equal to 1 and is an integer. The system includes a switching fabric connected to the D disk elements to route requests to a corresponding disk element. The system includes N network elements connected to the switching fabric. Each network element has a mapping function that for every value of V, specifies one or more elements from the set D that store the data specified by volume V, where N is greater than or equal to 1 and is an integer and N+D is greater than or equal to 3, which receives the requests and causes the switching fabric to route the requests by their file ID according to the mapping function. A method for responding to file system requests. The method includes the steps of receiving file system requests having file IDs comprising V, a volume identifier specifying the file system being accessed, and R, an integer, specifying the file within the file system being accessed at network elements. Each network element has a mapping function that for every value of V, specifies one or more elements from the set D that store the data specified by volume V. Then there is the step of routing the requests to a switching fabric connected to the network elements based on the file system request'"'"'s ID according to the mapping function to disk elements connected to the switching fabric.
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Citations
14 Claims
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1. A system for responding to file system requests having file IDs comprising V, a volume identifier specifying the file system being accessed, and R, an integer, specifying the file within the file system being accessed comprising:
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D disk elements in which files are stored, where D is greater than or equal to 1 and is an integer;
a switching fabric connected to the D disk elements to route requests to a corresponding disk element; and
N network elements connected to the switching fabric, each network element having a mapping function that for every value of V, specifies one or more elements from the set D that store the data specified by volume V, where N is greater than or equal to 1 and is an integer and N+D is greater than or equal to 3, which receives the requests and causes the switching fabric to route the requests by their file ID according to the mapping function, each network element includes a translator which obtains file IDs from path names included in individual file system requests, each disk element and each network element has a file system location database which maintains a mapping from all file system identifiers V to disk element identifiers so each network element can translate each file system request ID into a corresponding disk element location, each disk element and each network element has a controller, and each disk element controller communicates with the network element controllers to identify which files are stored at the respective disk element, each network element can respond to any request for any disk element, each network element has a network port through which requests are received by the respective network element wherein all the network elements and disk elements together appear as a single system that can respond to any request at any network port of any network element, the disk elements form a cluster, with one of the disk elements being a cluster coordinator which communicates with each disk element in the cluster to collect from and distribute to the network elements which file systems are stored in each disk element of the cluster at predetermined times. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method for responding to file system requests comprising the steps of:
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receiving file system requests having file IDs comprising V, a volume identifier specifying the file system being accessed, and R, an integer, specifying the file within the file system being accessed at a network port of network elements which can respond to any requests, each having a mapping function that for every value of V, specifies one or more elements from the set D that store the data specified by volume V, all the network elements and disk elements together appear as a single system;
obtaining the ID from path names included in the requests with a translator of the network element;
routing the requests to a switching fabric connected to the network elements based on the file system request'"'"'s ID according to the mapping function to disk elements connected to the switching fabric, maintaining all disk element locations at each file system location database of each disk element and each network element so each network element can translate each file system request ID into a corresponding disk element location; and
collecting from and distributing to the disk elements and the network elements, which form a cluster, which file systems are stored in each disk element by a cluster coordinator, which is one of the disk elements of the cluster, at predetermined times. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14)
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Specification