Method and system for responding to file system requests
First Claim
1. A system for responding to file system requests having file IDs comprising V, a volume identifier specifying the file system being accessed, and R, an integer, specifying the file within the file system being accessed comprising:
- D disk elements in which files are stored, where D is greater than or equal to 2 and is an integer;
a switching fabric having a first switching element and a second switching element, each of which are connected to each of the D disk elements to route requests to a corresponding disk element based on the file system request'"'"'s ID; and
N network elements, each of which is connected to each of the switching elements of the switching fabric, each network element having a mapping function that for every value of V, specifies one or more elements from the set D that store the data specified by volume V, where N is greater than or equal to 2 and is an integer and N +D is greater than or equal to 4, which receives the requests and causes either the first or second switching element of the switching fabric to route the requests by their file ID according to the mapping function, the switching fabric connected between the disk elements and the network elements, the disk elements form a cluster, with one of the disk elements being a cluster coordinator which communicates with each disk element in the cluster to collect from and distribute to the network elements which file systems are stored in each disk element of the cluster at predetermined times.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system for responding to file system requests having file IDs comprising V, a volume identifier specifying the file system being accessed, and R, an integer, specifying the file within the file system being accessed. The system includes D disk elements in which files are stored, where D is greater than or equal to 1 and is an integer. The system includes a switching fabric connected to the D disk elements to route requests to a corresponding disk element. The system includes N network elements connected to the switching fabric. Each network element has a mapping function that for every value of V, specifies one or more elements from the set D that store the data specified by volume V, where N is greater than or equal to 1 and is an integer and N+D is greater than or equal to 3, which receives the requests and causes the switching fabric to route the requests by their file ID according to the mapping function.
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Citations
19 Claims
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1. A system for responding to file system requests having file IDs comprising V, a volume identifier specifying the file system being accessed, and R, an integer, specifying the file within the file system being accessed comprising:
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D disk elements in which files are stored, where D is greater than or equal to 2 and is an integer; a switching fabric having a first switching element and a second switching element, each of which are connected to each of the D disk elements to route requests to a corresponding disk element based on the file system request'"'"'s ID; and N network elements, each of which is connected to each of the switching elements of the switching fabric, each network element having a mapping function that for every value of V, specifies one or more elements from the set D that store the data specified by volume V, where N is greater than or equal to 2 and is an integer and N +D is greater than or equal to 4, which receives the requests and causes either the first or second switching element of the switching fabric to route the requests by their file ID according to the mapping function, the switching fabric connected between the disk elements and the network elements, the disk elements form a cluster, with one of the disk elements being a cluster coordinator which communicates with each disk element in the cluster to collect from and distribute to the network elements which file systems are stored in each disk element of the cluster at predetermined times. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method for responding to file system requests comprising the steps of:
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receiving file system requests having file IDs comprising V, a volume identifier specifying the file system being accessed, and R, an integer, specifying the file within the file system being accessed at network elements, each having a mapping function that for every value of V, specifies one or more elements from the set D that store the data specified by volume V, the receiving step includes the step of obtaining the file ID from path names included in the requests with a translator of the network element, the receiving step includes the step of receiving requests at a network port of the network element which can respond to any request, and all the network elements and disk elements together appear as a single system; and routing the requests to a switching fabric connected between the network elements and disk elements having a first switching element and second switching element, each of which is connected to each network element through unique connections to the network elements based on the file system request'"'"'s ID according to the mapping function and through the respective connections to disk elements connected to each of the switching elements of the switching fabric with the switching fabric processing higher priority requests before lower priority requests, the routing step includes the step of maintaining all disk element locations at each file system location database of each disk element and each network element so each network element can translate each file system request ID into a corresponding disk element location, the routing step includes the step of collecting from and distributing to the disk elements and the network elements, which form a cluster, which file systems are stored in each disk element by a cluster coordinator, which is one of the disk elements of the cluster, at predetermined times. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19)
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Specification