System of and method for transparent management of data objects in containers across distributed heterogenous resources
First Claim
1. A method for transparently managing containers in a network of distributed physical resources, a container comprising a plurality of data objects and an association of the plurality of data objects with a plurality of physical resources in the network assigned to the container at which the container may be stored or copied, comprising:
- issuing a request to write one or more data objects in or to a container in response to a user command;
accessing a meta-data catalog in response to the request, the meta-data catalog associating the data objects in the container with the plurality of physical resources assigned to the container, including querying meta-data about the container;
locating on or staging to a selected physical resource a copy of the container, including copying a container from one physical resource to another assigned to the container transparently to the user should a staging condition arise;
writing the data object to the copy of the container;
synchronizing the copy with any other copies that may be present in the system, or making the changed copy for synchronization, transparently to the user should an out-of-synchronization condition arise; and
updating the meta-data catalog to reflect changes incidental to the request, including updating the meta-data for the container to reflect the write operation.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system of and method for maintaining data objects in containers across a network of distributed heterogeneous resources in a manner which is transparent to a client. A client request pertaining to containers is resolved by querying meta data for the container, processing the request through one or more copies of the container maintained on the system, updating the meta data for the container to reflect any changes made to the container as a result processing the re quest, and, if a copy of the container has changed, changing the status of the copy to indicate dirty status or synchronizing the copy to one or more other copies that may be present on the system.
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Citations
17 Claims
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1. A method for transparently managing containers in a network of distributed physical resources, a container comprising a plurality of data objects and an association of the plurality of data objects with a plurality of physical resources in the network assigned to the container at which the container may be stored or copied, comprising:
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issuing a request to write one or more data objects in or to a container in response to a user command; accessing a meta-data catalog in response to the request, the meta-data catalog associating the data objects in the container with the plurality of physical resources assigned to the container, including querying meta-data about the container; locating on or staging to a selected physical resource a copy of the container, including copying a container from one physical resource to another assigned to the container transparently to the user should a staging condition arise; writing the data object to the copy of the container; synchronizing the copy with any other copies that may be present in the system, or making the changed copy for synchronization, transparently to the user should an out-of-synchronization condition arise; and updating the meta-data catalog to reflect changes incidental to the request, including updating the meta-data for the container to reflect the write operation. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification