Redundancy management service for peer-to-peer networks

• US 7,783,600 B1
• Filed: 02/27/2006
• Issued: 08/24/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Symantec Operating Corporation (NortonLifeLock Inc.)
• Inventors: Kritov, Slava, Spertus, Michael P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Breene; John E
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bullock; Joshua
• Application Number:
  US11/362,957
• Time in Patent Office: 1,639 Days
• Field of Search: 707/204, 707/622, 707/610, 714/6
• US Class Current: 707/622
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/10 Adding special bits or symbols to the coded information, e.g. parity check, casting out 9's or 11's
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1837 Management specially adapted to peer-to-peer storage networks topology management mechanisms of peer-to-peer networks H04L67/1042
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/184 implemented as replicated file system

Abstract

A system for a redundancy management service for peer-to-peer (P2P) networks includes one or more processors and memory coupled to the processors. The memory stores program instructions executable by the processors to receive a request at a device to upload a data object from the device into a P2P network. In response to receiving the request, the instructions are executable to identify a redundancy manager associated with the device and to transmit the data object to the redundancy manager. In addition, the instructions are executable to upload, from the redundancy manager to one or more target devices of the P2P network, a plurality of data blocks derived from the data object, such that the data object may be recovered from a subset of the plurality of data blocks.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a plurality of client devices; and

a plurality of redundancy manager devices;

wherein the plurality of client devices includes a first client device configured to;

receive a first request to upload a data object into a peer-to-peer (P2P) network;

in response to the first request, identify a particular redundancy manager device of the plurality of redundancy manager devices as a redundancy manager device designated to upload data objects into the P2P network on behalf of the first client device; and

in response to identifying the particular redundancy manager device, transmit the data object to the particular redundancy manager device in a second request to upload the data object into the P2P network;

wherein the particular redundancy manager device is configured to;

in response to receiving from the first client device the second request to upload the data object into the P2P network, derive a plurality of data blocks from the data object, wherein the data object is recoverable from a subset of the plurality of data blocks; and

upload the plurality of data blocks to one or more target devices of the P2P network on behalf of the first client device, wherein the one or more target devices include at least one device selected from the plurality of client devices and the plurality of redundancy manager devices.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first client device is further configured to:

display a user interface enabling a user to select a service level from a set of two or more service levels for uploading data objects into the P2P network, including a first service level in which redundancy encoding for data objects is performed at a redundancy manager device, and a second service level in which redundancy encoding for data objects is performed at the first client device;

wherein the first client device is configured to identify the particular redundancy manager device and request the particular redundancy manager device to upload the data object into the P2P network in response to receiving user input selecting the first service level from the set of two or more service levels.

3. The system of claim 2,

wherein the data object is a first data object;

wherein the first client device is further configured to;

receive an additional request to upload a second data object into the P2P network;

in response to receiving user input selecting the second service level from the set of two or more service levels, derive a plurality of data blocks from the second data object and upload the plurality of data blocks derived from the second data object to one or more target devices of the P2P network.

4. The system of claim 1,

wherein the first client device is further configured to transmit to the particular redundancy manager device one or more redundancy parameters to be used by the particular redundancy manager device in deriving the plurality of data blocks from the data object;

wherein the particular redundancy manager device is configured to use the one or more redundancy parameters in deriving the plurality of data blocks from the data object.

5. The system of claim 1,

wherein the particular redundancy manager device is further configured to return to the first client device a notification that the second request to upload the data object into the P2P network was successful after receiving the data object from the first client device but before uploading the plurality of data blocks to the one or more target devices of the P2P network.

6. The system of claim 1,

wherein the particular redundancy manager device is configured to upload the plurality of data blocks to the one or more target devices of the P2P network asynchronously with respect to the second request received from the first client device.

7. The system of claim 1,

wherein the particular redundancy manager device is configured to derive the plurality of data blocks from the data object asynchronously with respect to the second request received from the first client device.

8. The system of claim 1,

wherein the particular redundancy manager device is configured to begin deriving the plurality of data blocks from the data object before the entire data object has been received by the particular redundancy manager device.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the first client device is further configured to:

prior to receiving the first request to upload the data object, store information specifying the particular redundancy manager device as a redundancy manager device designated to upload data objects into the P2P network on behalf of the first client device;

wherein identifying the particular redundancy manager device comprises determining that the stored information specifies the particular redundancy manager device.

10. The system of claim 1,

wherein identifying the particular redundancy manager device comprises dynamically selecting the particular redundancy manager device from the plurality of redundancy manager devices based on current availability of one or more resources of the particular redundancy manager device.

11. The system of claim 1,

wherein the plurality of data blocks comprise an erasure-encoded version of the data object.

12. The system of claim 1,

wherein the plurality of data blocks include a plurality of complete copies of the data object.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the particular redundancy manager device is further configured to:

after uploading the plurality of data blocks, determine a redundancy level of the data object in the P2P network;

in response to determining that the redundancy level is below a threshold level, upload at least a subset of the plurality of data blocks derived from the data object to one or more additional target devices of the P2P network.

14. The system of claim 1,

wherein the first client device is further configured to encrypt the data object before transmitting the data object to the particular redundancy manager device in the second request to upload the data object into the P2P network.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the particular redundancy manager device is further configured to:

store at least a portion of a distributed hash table; and

select the one or more target devices to which to upload the plurality of data blocks using the distributed hash table.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the first client device is further configured to:

receive a plurality of additional requests to upload respective additional data objects into the P2P network; and

transmit each additional data object to a different respective redundancy manager device of the plurality of redundancy manager devices in accordance with a load-balancing methodology.

17. The system of claim 1,

wherein the particular redundancy manager device implements a web service;

wherein the first client device is configured to use an interface provided by the web service to transmit the data object to the particular redundancy manager device in the second request to upload the data object into the P2P network.

18. A storage device storing program instructions executable by a first client device of a plurality of client devices to implement:

the first client device receiving a first request to upload a data object into a peer-to-peer (P2P) network, wherein the data object is a first data object;

in response to the first request, the first client device identifying a particular redundancy manager device of a plurality of redundancy manager devices as a redundancy manager device designated to upload data objects into the P2P network on behalf of the first client device; and

in response to identifying the particular redundancy manager device, the first client device transmitting the data object to the particular redundancy manager device in a second request to upload the data object into the P2P network;

in response to receiving from the first client device the second request to upload the data object into the P2P network, the particular redundancy manager device deriving a plurality of data blocks from the data object, wherein the data object is recoverable from a subset of the plurality of data blocks; and

the particular redundancy manager device uploading the plurality of data blocks to one or more target devices of the P2P network on behalf of the first client device, wherein the one or more target devices include at least one device selected from the plurality of client devices and the plurality of redundancy manager devices;

the first client device receiving an additional request to upload a second data object into the P2P network; and

in response to receiving user input selecting the second service level from the set of two or more service levels, the first client device deriving a plurality of data blocks from the second data object and uploading the plurality of data blocks derived from the second data object to one or more target devices of the P2P network.

19. The storage device of claim 18, wherein the program instructions are further executable by the first client device to implement:

displaying a user interface enabling a user to select a service level from a set of two or more service levels for uploading data objects from the first client device into the P2P network, including a first service level in which redundancy encoding for data objects is performed at a redundancy manager device, and a second service level in which redundancy encoding for data objects is performed at the first client device; and

identifying the particular redundancy manager device and requesting the particular redundancy manager device to upload the data object into the P2P network in response to receiving user input selecting the first service level from the set of two or more service levels.

20. The storage device of claim 18, wherein the program instructions are further executable by the first client device to implement:

the first client device transmitting to the particular redundancy manager device one or more redundancy parameters to be used by the particular redundancy manager device in deriving a plurality of data blocks from the data object.

25. The storage device of claim 19, wherein the program instructions are further executable by the first client device to implement:

displaying a user interface enabling a user to select a service level from a set of two or more service levels for uploading data objects from the first client device into the P2P network, including a first service level in which redundancy encoding for data objects is performed at a redundancy manager device, and a second service level in which redundancy encoding for data objects is performed at the first client device; and

identifying the particular redundancy manager device and requesting the particular redundancy manager device to upload the data object into the P2P network in response to receiving user input selecting the first service level from the set of two or more service levels.

21. A computer-implemented method comprising:

a first client device of a plurality of client devices receiving a first request to upload a data object into a peer-to-peer (P2P) network;

in response to the first request, the first client device identifying a particular redundancy manager device of a plurality of redundancy manager devices as a redundancy manager device designated to upload data objects into the P2P network on behalf of the first client device;

in response to identifying the particular redundancy manager device, the first client device transmitting the data object to the particular redundancy manager device in a second request to upload the data object into the P2P network;

in response to receiving from the first client device the second request to upload the data object into the P2P network, the particular redundancy manager device deriving a plurality of data blocks from the data object, wherein the data object is recoverable from a subset of the plurality of data blocks; and

the particular redundancy manager device uploading the plurality of data blocks to one or more target devices of the P2P network on behalf of the first client device, wherein the one or more target devices include at least one device selected from the plurality of client devices and the plurality of redundancy manager devices.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, further comprising:

the first client device displaying a user interface enabling a user to select a service level from a set of two or more service levels for uploading data objects from the first client device into the P2P network, including a first service level in which redundancy encoding for data objects is performed at a redundancy manager device, and a second service level in which redundancy encoding for data objects is performed at the first client device; and

wherein the first client device identifies the particular redundancy manager device and requests the particular redundancy manager device to upload the data object into the P2P network in response to receiving user input selecting the first service level from the set of two or more service levels.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 22,

wherein the data object is a first data object;

wherein the method further comprises;

the first client device receiving an additional request to upload a second data object into the P2P network;

in response to receiving user input selecting the second service level from the set of two or more service levels, the first client device deriving a plurality of data blocks from the second data object and uploading the plurality of data blocks derived from the second data object to one or more target devices of the P2P network.

24. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, further comprising:

the first client device transmitting to the particular redundancy manager device one or more redundancy parameters to be used by the particular redundancy manager device in deriving the plurality of data blocks from the data object.