Integrated storage appliance

• US 7,325,051 B2
• Filed: 09/26/2002
• Issued: 01/29/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/06/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hulu LLC (The Walt Disney Company)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Nguyen, Lu, Das, Sanjoy, Hacigumus, Vahit H., Iyer, Balakrishna R., Flynn, John T., Aubert, Dante A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wiley; David
• Assistant Examiner(s): Jean-Gilles; Jude J
• Application Number:
  US10/259,034
• Publication Number:
  US 20030105852A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,951 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/217, 709201-203, 709/242, 710/20, 710/52, 370/230, 370/235, 370/400, 370/902, 370/218, 711/112, 711/114
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1482 by means of middleware or OS functionality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2007 using redundant communication media
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2015 Redundant power supplies power supply failure G06F1/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2035 without idle spare hardware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2089 Redundant storage control functionality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/25 Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0617 in relation to availability
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0658 Controller construction arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10015 Access to distributed or replicated servers, e.g. using brokers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1023 based on a hash applied to IP addresses or costs
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1034 Reaction to server failures by a load balancer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/142 Managing session states for stateless protocols; Signalling session states; State transitions; Keeping-state mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5651 Reducing the amount or size of exchanged application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A system and method for providing an integrated storage appliance is disclosed. The storage appliance includes a storage subsystem, a process cluster coupled to the storage subsystem, and a customizable software stack that includes storage-access application so executed by the processor cluster, wherein subsystem, processor cluster and software stack are integrated such that the storage appliance exhibits greater combined reliability, higher availability, and higher serviceability characteristics than would be provided by a sum of the characteristics unintegrated components.

Claims

1. A network storage system comprising:

a client connected to a network and running at least one software application; and

an storage server coupled to the network, the storage server for providing storage for the client and for allowing the client to access data stored on the storage server using HTTP protocol as though the data was stored locally on the client, wherein when a file is being uploaded from the client software application to the storage server, the file is encoded prior to transmission and decoded by the storage server to eliminate interference by HTTP protocol, wherein the client software application is a presentation tool in a presentation layer, and wherein a client'"'"'s HTTP file download request triggers a corresponding servlet request, which in turn, issues a storage request to a storage layer, such that the storage layer reads the corresponding file and sends the file back to a application layer, which transforms it into servlet output stream and sends the stream to the client.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein a file upload function reads a file from the client, transforms the file into an encoded ServletInputStream file, transfers the ServeletInputStream across the network to a file server, which then accepts, decodes the ServerletInputStream, and stores the ServerletInputStream'"'"'s file contents in the storage server.