Inheritable file system properties

• US 7,761,432 B2
• Filed: 05/11/2006
• Issued: 07/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Ahrens, Matthew A., Maybee, Mark J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Cottingham; John R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Allen; Nicholas E
• Application Number:
  US11/432,268
• Publication Number:
  US 20070106678A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,531 Days
• Field of Search: 707/697, 707/693, 707/803
• US Class Current: 707/693
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/11 File system administration, e.g. details of archiving or snapshots file system backup G06F11/14

Abstract

A storage pool, that includes a hierarchical data structure, wherein the hierarchical data structure comprises a plurality of nodes, wherein one of the plurality of nodes corresponds to the file system, and the file system, wherein the file system is associated with a value corresponding to an attribute, wherein the value is determined using the hierarchical data structure.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a processor;

a memory comprising computer-readable instructions for execution by the processor to determine a value corresponding to an attribute, wherein the value is determined using a hierarchical data structure, and wherein the attribute is one selected from a group consisting of a type of compression to be applied to all data in a first file system and a type of data checksum to be applied to all data in the first file system; and

a storage pool, comprising;

a hierarchical data structure, wherein the hierarchical data structure comprises a plurality of nodes, wherein a first node of the plurality of nodes represents the first file system; and

the first file system associated with the value corresponding to the attribute.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a meta database, located in the storage pool, configured to store the hierarchical data structure.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the first file system is stored on a first disk and the meta database is stored on a second disk, wherein the first disk and the second disk are located in the storage pool.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the value of the attribute associated with the first file system may be inherited from a first parent node of the first node in the plurality of nodes, wherein the first parent node is one of the plurality of nodes.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the value of the attribute associated with the first file system may be inherited from a second parent node, wherein the second parent node is a parent node of the first parent node.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of nodes corresponds to the storage pool, wherein the hierarchical data structure comprises metadata associated with the storage pool.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of nodes corresponds to a container, wherein the hierarchical data structure comprises metadata associated with the container.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein computer-readable instructions to determine the value comprises computer-readable instructions to:

determine whether the value of the attribute is explicitly defined in the first node of the plurality of nodes in the hierarchical data structure;

when the value of the attribute is explicitly defined in the node;

obtain the value from the first node of the plurality of nodes;

when the value of the attribute is not explicitly defined in the node;

trace a path of nodes from the first node of the plurality of nodes to a second node corresponding to a storage pool, and for at least one node encountered;

determine whether the value of the attribute is explicitly defined;

obtain the value, if the value of the attribute is explicitly defined;

continue the tracing, if the value of the attribute is not explicitly defined; and

when the value of the attribute is not obtained by the tracing, select a default value.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the hierarchical data structure comprises a plurality of nodes, wherein each of the plurality of nodes corresponds to one selected from the group consisting of the first file system, a container, and the storage pool.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the storage pool comprises a plurality of disks.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the hierarchical data structure comprises a second node of the plurality of nodes, wherein the second node represents a second file system.