Server-independent object positioning for load balancing drives and servers

• US 6,990,667 B2
• Filed: 01/29/2002
• Issued: 01/24/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Overland Storage Incorporated (Silicon Valley Technology Partners LLC)
• Original Assignee: Adaptec Incorporated (Steel Partners Holdings LP)
• Inventors: Schweitzer, James R., Bolstad, Gregory D., Staub, John R., Randall, Jay G., Ulrich, Thomas R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Peikari, B. James
• Application Number:
  US10/060,918
• Publication Number:
  US 20020156891A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,456 Days
• Field of Search: 711/4, 711/5, 711/112, 711/114, 711/147, 711/148, 711/154, 711/165, 711/170, 711/171, 711/172, 711/173, 709/203, 709/220, 709/221, 709/226, 709/229, 709/234, 718/100, 718/102, 718/104, 718/105
• US Class Current: 718/105
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/10 File systems; File servers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5083 Techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1014 based on the content of a request

Abstract

A file system that balances the loading of filers and the capacity of drives that are associated with the filers is described. The file system includes a first disk drive that includes a first unused capacity and a second disk drive that includes a second unused capacity, wherein the second unused capacity is smaller than the first unused capacity. The file system further includes a first filer that is configured to fill requests from clients through access to at least the first disk drive. The file system further includes a second filer that is configured to fill requests from clients through access to at least the second disk drive. The second filer is configured to select an infrequently accessed file from the second disk drive and to push the infrequently accessed files to the first disk drive, thereby improving a balance of unused capacity between the first and second disk drives without substantially affecting a loading for each of the first and second filers.

Claims

1. A distributed file system to balance the loading of servers and the capacity of drives using server-independent object positioning, the file system comprising:

a first server including;

a first server profile comprising information about the first server, and

a first object positioner; and

a second server including;

a second server profile comprising information about the second server, and

a second object positioner configured to accept the first server profile and the second server profile and to generate a second object positioning plan,

wherein the first object positioner is configured to accept the first server profile and the second server profile and to generate a first object positioning plan.

2. The distributed file system of claim 1, wherein the first object positioning plan is substantially similar to the second object positioning plan.

3. The distributed file system of claim 1, wherein the first object positioning plan includes operations for only the first server.

4. The distributed file system of claim 1, wherein each of the first and second object positioners independently trigger the generation of their respective object positioning plans.

5. The distributed file system of claim 1, wherein the information about the first server comprises attributes of the first server.

6. The distributed file system of claim 1, wherein the information about the first server comprises performance data of resources connected to the first server.

7. The distributed file system of claim 1, wherein the information about the first server comprises performance data of the first server.

8. The distributed file system of claim 1, wherein the information about the first server comprises substantially static information.

9. The distributed file system of claim 1, wherein the information about the first server comprises dynamic information.