Technique to enable support for symbolic link access by windows clients
First Claim
1. A method for providing an enhanced level of indirection with respect to a resource attached to a destination, the method comprising the steps of:
- comparing a content of a widelink directive with first parts of widelink entries stored in a translation table of a first storage system, the widelink directive generated and sent by a client to the first storage system within a first request to access the resource;
substituting the content of the widelink directive with a second part of a matching widelink entry indicating a correct path to the destination; and
establishing a connection from the client to the destination over the correct path to thereby provide the enhanced level of direction that enables access by the client to the requested resource.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A widelink directive provides an enhanced level of indirection with respect to a resource, such as a unit of storage, attached to a destination, such as a storage system. The widelink has a scope of indirection that is “wider” than a conventional symbolic link (“symlink”). The novel widelink directive is similar to the distributed file system (DFS) facility that allows DFS-enabled common internet file system clients to resolve uniform naming convention paths to locations that may or may not be on an original storage system, such as a multi-protocol filer, or original protocol server of the filer. By taking advantage of clients that support the DFS facility, the widelink directive is quite flexible in that it can be used to resolve symlinks that “leave” a share.
112 Citations
25 Claims
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1. A method for providing an enhanced level of indirection with respect to a resource attached to a destination, the method comprising the steps of:
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comparing a content of a widelink directive with first parts of widelink entries stored in a translation table of a first storage system, the widelink directive generated and sent by a client to the first storage system within a first request to access the resource; substituting the content of the widelink directive with a second part of a matching widelink entry indicating a correct path to the destination; and establishing a connection from the client to the destination over the correct path to thereby provide the enhanced level of direction that enables access by the client to the requested resource. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A memory of a first storage system containing data structures comprising:
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a widelink directive generated by a first computer and sent to the first storage system for storage in the memory, the widelink directive having a content defined as an original path descriptor to a resource; and a widelink entry structure adapted for storage in a symlink.translation table of the memory, the widelink entry structure having a multiple-part format, wherein a first part of the widelink entry is compared with the content of the widelink directive and, if a match is found, the content of the directive is substituted with a second part of the widelink to enable access to the resource on a second storage system. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A filer adapted to provide an enhanced level of indirection with respect to a resource attached to a remotely configured destination, the filer comprising:
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a memory organized as storage locations to store data structures, including a translation table having a plurality of entries; an operating system resident in the memory, the operating system including special code configured to access the translation table in response to a widelink directive to compare a content of the widelink directive with the entries of the table, the special code further configured to provide a correct path to the resource attached to the remotely configured destination in response to the content of the widelink directive matching a widelink entry of the translation table. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19)
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20. Apparatus for providing an enhanced level of indirection with respect to a resource attached to a destination, the apparatus comprising:
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means for comparing a content of a widelink directive with first parts of widelink entries stored in a translation table of a storage system, the widelink directive generated and sent by a client to the storage system within a first request to access the resource; if a match is found, means for returning an error message to the client; in response to the error message, means for sending a second request from the client to the storage system for a referral to a correct location of the resource; in response to the second referral request, means for substituting the content of the widelink directive with a second part of the matching widelink entry indicating a correct path to the destination; and means for establishing a connection from the client to the destination over the correct path to thereby provide the enhanced level of direction that enables access by the client to the requested resource. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22)
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23. A computer readable medium containing executable program instructions for providing an enhanced level of indirection with respect to a resource attached to a destination, the executable program instructions comprising program instructions for:
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comparing a content of a widelink directive with first parts of widelink entries stored in a translation table of a storage system, the widelink directive generated and sent by a client to the storage system within a first request to access the resource; if a match is found, returning an error message to the client; in response to the error message, sending a second request from the client to the storage system for a referral to a correct location of the resource; in response to the second referral request, substituting the content of the widelink directive with a second part of the matching widelink entry indicating a correct path to the destination; and establishing a connection from the client to the destination over the correct path to thereby provide the enhanced level of direction that enables access by the client to the requested resource. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25)
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Specification