Method and apparatus to automatically commit files to WORM status

• US 7,752,401 B2
• Filed: 01/25/2006
• Issued: 07/06/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Original Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Inventors: Merrick, Jeffrey Dale, McGovern, William P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Peugh; Brian R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Otto; Alan
• Application Number:
  US11/339,979
• Publication Number:
  US 20070174565A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,623 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 711/161
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/125 characterised by the use of retention policies retention policies for HSM systems G06F16/185
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/181 providing write once read many [WORM] semantics
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1865 Transactional file systems

Abstract

A system is provided to commit data to persistent storage. The system comprises a configuration component to set an autocommit period, a scanner to detect that the autocommit period has expired for a file and a commit component to commit the file to write once read many (WORM) status In one embodiment, when an autocommit period is set, the system may be configured to automatically commit a file to WORM status if the file has not been changed for the autocommit period.

Claims

1. A storage server comprising:

a processor coupled to a memory through a bus;

a network adapter configured to provide access to data stored within the storage server to a remote client over a network and through which a notification is received from an application running on the remote client indicating the application has finished modifying a file and the file can be committed to a write-once-read-many (WORM) status;

a configuration component configured to set an autocommit period, the autocommit period being a period of time after which the file modified by the application on the remote client is considered closed and is to be committed to WORM status, wherein the file is considered to be closed when the application has completed modifying the file and sends a notification to the storage server that the file is closed or when the file has been unmodified for a period of time exceeding the autocommit period in the absence of notification that the file is closed;

a scanner to detect that the autocommit period has expired for a file of a plurality of files stored in a volume, wherein the scanner comprises;

logic to scan for the file in the plurality of files in the volume; and

logic to determine that the file from the plurality of files has remained unmodified for at least the autocommit period; and

a commit component to commit the file to WORM status in response to receiving the notification from the application on the remote client that the file is closed or detecting that the file has remained unmodified for at least the autocommit period;

wherein the remote client is configured to execute multiple applications having different associated autocommit periods.

2. The storage server of claim 1, wherein the configuration component is further to set a retention period.

3. The storage server of claim 2, wherein the commit component is to set a retention for the file based on the retention period.

4. The storage server of claim 2, wherein the retention period is a default retention period.

5. The storage server of claim 1, wherein metadata associated with the volume identifies the volume as a WORM volume.

6. The storage server of claim 1, wherein the commit component is to commit the file to WORM status by designating the file as read only.

12. The storage server of claim 3, further comprising:

a compliance clock, wherein commands that can be used to modify the compliance clock are disabled, wherein the scanner is configured to detect that the file has been unmodified for the autocommit period with respect to a current reading of the compliance clock.

13. The storage server of claim 12, wherein a commit component is to determine a retention for the file based on the current compliance clock reading and the retention period.

7. A method in a network storage system implemented at least partially as computer hardware comprising:

waiting to receive notification, from an application running on a remote client over a network, that the application has finished modifying a file and the file can be committed to a write-once-read-many (WORM) status;

setting an autocommit period for the file stored in the network storage system, the autocommit period being a period of time after which the file modified by the application on the remote client is considered closed and is to be committed to WORM status, wherein the file is considered to be closed when the application has completed modifying the file and sends notification to the network storage system that the file is closed or when the file has been unmodified for a period of time exceeding the autocommit period in the absence of notification that the file is closed;

detecting that the autocommit period has expired for the file of a plurality of files stored in a volume, the detecting comprising;

scanning for the file in the plurality of files in the volume; and

determining that the file has remained unmodified at least for the autocommit period; and

committing the file to WORM status in response to receiving the notification from the application on the remote client that the file is closed or detecting that the file has remained unmodified for at least the autocommit period in spite of failing to receive notification that the file is closed;

wherein the remote client is configured to execute multiple applications having different associated autocommit periods.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising setting a retention period.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein committing the file to WORM status comprises setting a retention for the file based on the retention period.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein committing the file to WORM status comprises designating the file as read only.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein determining that the file has remained unmodified is based on a predetermined definition of a modifying operation.

15. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

outputting a message to indicate that the file has been automatically committed to WORM status.

14. A machine-readable storage medium having stored thereon data representing sets of instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:

wait to receive notification over a network from an application running on a remote client that the application has finished modifying a file and the file can be committed to a write-once-read-many (WORM) status;

set an autocommit period, the autocommit period being a period of time after which the file modified by the application on the remote client is considered closed and is to be committed to WORM status, wherein the file is considered to be closed when the application has completed modifying the file and sends notification to the network storage system that the file is closed, or the file has been unmodified for a period of time exceeding the autocommit period in the absence of notification that the file is closed;

detect that the autocommit period has expired for the file, wherein the detecting is measured from a time of most recent modification of the file; and

commit the file to WORM status in response to receiving the notification from the application on the remote client that the file is closed or detecting the autocommit period has expired;

wherein the remote client is configured to execute multiple applications having different associated autocommit periods.