System and method for reconciling multi-protocol scan results by a storage virtualization system

• US 7,925,627 B1
• Filed: 12/28/2007
• Issued: 04/12/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Yu, Jie, Simon, Dylan, Aji, Srinivas, Brown, Ronald, Bankier, John Duncan
• Primary Examiner(s): Cottingham; John R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Allen; Nicholas E
• Application Number:
  US11/966,733
• Time in Patent Office: 1,201 Days
• Field of Search: 707/600, 707/711
• US Class Current: 707/634
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/183 Provision of network file services by network file servers, e.g. by using NFS, CIFS network file access protocols H04L67/1097

Abstract

The present invention is a system and method for reconciling results returned from a multi-protocol scan of a NAS system. Certain NAS systems use different protocols. Some may use the NFS protocol, whereas others may use the CIFS protocol. A scan of the NAS may therefore produce two data object names for a single data object. When a storage virtualization system is tasked with acting as an intermediary between the client and the NAS, these two data object names will cause errors during data migration, synchronization or redirection. The present invention is a method for using the results of a multi-protocol scan of the NAS in order to reconcile data object names that may present differently depending on the protocol applied.

Claims

1. A method for mapping data comprising:

providing a storage virtualization system connected to a network addressed storage (NAS) system, the NAS system having a plurality of stored data objects;

scanning the plurality of stored data objects using a first network file system protocol to generate first scan results;

scanning the plurality of stored data objects using a second network file system protocol to generate second scan results;

matching the first scan results with the second scan results; and

storing matched results on the storage virtualization system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first network file system protocol is NFS and the second network file system protocol is CIFS.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first network file system protocol is CIFS, and the second network file system protocol is NFS.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first scan results comprise a first list of the order in which the plurality of data objects are stored on the NAS system and the second scan results comprise a second list of the order in which the plurality of data objects are stored on the NAS system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first scan results comprise a first list of file identifiers for the plurality data objects and the second scan results comprise a second list of file identifiers for the plurality of data objects.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first scan results comprise a first list of attributes for the plurality data objects and the second scan results comprise a second list of attributes for the plurality of data objects.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the matched results are stored in a mapping index on the virtualization system.

8. A computer program product, comprising a non-transitory computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method for mapping data, the method comprising:

scanning a NAS system using a first network file system protocol to generate first scan results;

scanning the NAS system using a second network file system protocol to generate second scan results;

matching the first scan results with the second scan results; and

storing matched results.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the first network file system protocol is NFS and the second network file system protocol is CIFS.

10. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the first network file system protocol is CIFS, and the second network file system protocol is NFS.

11. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the first scan results comprise a first list of the order in which the plurality of data objects are stored on the NAS system and the second scan results comprise a second list of the order in which the plurality of data objects are stored on the NAS system.

12. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the first scan results comprise a first list of file identifiers for the plurality data objects and the second scan results comprise a second list of file identifiers for the plurality of data objects.

13. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the first scan results comprise a first list of attributes for the plurality data objects and the second scan results comprise a second list of attributes for the plurality of data objects.

14. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the matched results are stored in a mapping index.

15. A method for mapping data comprising:

providing a storage virtualization system connected to a network addressed storage (NAS) system, the NAS system having a plurality of stored data objects;

scanning the plurality of data objects using a first network file system protocol to generate first scan results;

scanning the plurality of data objects using a second network file system protocol to generate second scan results;

storing the first scan results and the second scan results on the storage virtualization system;

matching the first scan results with the second scan results; and

storing matched results on the storage virtualization system.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the first scan results comprise a first list of the order in which the plurality of data objects are stored on the NAS system and the second scan results comprise a second list of the order in which the plurality of data objects are stored on the NAS system.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the first scan results comprise a first list of file identifiers for the plurality data objects and the second scan results comprise a second list of file identifiers for the plurality of data objects.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the first scan results comprise a first list of attributes for the plurality data objects and the second scan results comprise a second list of attributes for the plurality of data objects.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the matched results are stored in a mapping index.