Computer architectures using shared storage

• US 8,171,337 B2
• Filed: 03/30/2010
• Issued: 05/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Peters, Marc A., Kuehn, Dennis L., Bettger, David D., Stone, Kevin A.
• Primary Examiner(s): MCCARTHY, CHRISTOPHER S
• Application Number:
  US12/750,608
• Publication Number:
  US 20100251010A1
• Time in Patent Office: 763 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 714/6.2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0813 with a network or matrix configuration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4221 being an input/output bus, e.g. ISA bus, EISA bus, PCI bus, SCSI bus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/176 Support for shared access to files; File sharing support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/28 Databases characterised by their database models, e.g. relational or object models
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0607 by facilitating the process of upgrading existing storage systems, e.g. for improving compatibility between host and storage device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0608 Saving storage space on storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0655 Vertical data movement, i.e. input-output transfer; data movement between one or more hosts and one or more storage devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/50 Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU]

Abstract

Shared storage systems and methods are provided. A particular shared storage system is a system including multiple instances of shared storage. Each of the instances of shared storage includes data and file system metadata separated from the data. The file system metadata includes location data specifying storage location information related to the data. A persistent common view is provided of local and remote files, file systems, and services in the shared storage.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

multiple instances of shared storage, wherein each of the instances of shared storage includes data and file system metadata separated from the data, wherein the file system metadata includes location data specifying storage location infounation related to the data, wherein a persistent common view is provided of local and remote files, file systems, and services in the shared storage, and wherein two or more of the multiple instances of shared storage have different governance policies; and

a virtualization layer supporting proxying to enable non-direct access clients to access the shared storage.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one federated registry of at least one of the data available in the multiple instances of shared storage and the services available in the multiple instances of shared storage.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the data is federated across the multiple instances of shared storage.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein information to generate the persistent common view is stored in the shared storage.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the governance policies include computer and data usage, local or remote access, data retention, malware scanning, or any combination thereof.

6. A method, comprising:

providing a persistent common view of local and remote files, file systems, and services in multiple instances of shared storage;

applying different governance policies at two or more of the multiple instances of shared storage; and

supporting proxying to enable non-direct access clients to access the shared storage.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

maintaining in a first shared storage system a first registry of services available in the first shared storage system; and

federating the first registry with a second registry of a second shared storage system, wherein the second shared storage system is remote from the first shared storage system.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the first registry identifies data available in the first shared storage system and the second registry identifies data available in the second shared storage system.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the first registry identifies infrastructure functions available in the first shared storage system and the second registry identifies infrastructure functions available in the second shared storage system.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising automatically maintaining the persistent common view at the first shared storage system when a communication link between the first shared storage system and the second shared storage system is interrupted.

11. The method of claim 6, further comprising transferring at least one of data, services, and infrastructure functions from the shared storage without using at least one of a server session, an application-to-server session, and an application session.

12. The method of claim 6, further comprising automatically adding to the persistent common view information related to an added shared storage system in response to the added shared storage system being added to the shared storage.

13. The method of claim 6, further comprising restricting access to the files, the file systems and the services based on an access level of a data consumer using a virtualization layer.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising restricting access to metadata, data service providers and data elements based on the access level of the data consumer using the virtualization layer.

15. The method of claim 6, further comprising synchronizing metadata of the file systems.

16. The method of claim 6, further comprising synchronizing the files across the shared storage.

17. The method of claim 6, further comprising synchronizing the services across the shared storage.

18. The method of claim 6, further comprising relocating one or more of the files, the file systems and the services from one shared storage system to another shared storage system based on locations of users of the one or more of the files, file systems and services.

19. The method of claim 6, further comprising providing data integrity using a federated metadata file system.

20. The method of claim 6, further comprising prioritizing services based on a quality of service.

21. The method of claim 6, further comprising automatically synchronizing data of an ad-hoc network with the persistent common view when the ad-hoc network is added to the shared storage.

22. The method of claim 6, further comprising establishing and maintaining at least one of trust relationships and certificates between elements of the shared storage.

23. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

publishing the services in a directory structure; and

enabling devices to publish and subscribe to the services over the shared storage.

24. The method of claim 6, further comprising enabling addition, removal and use of the files and the services of the shared storage independent of time.

25. The method of claim 6, further comprising restricting access to at least one of a file and a service of the shared storage.

26. The method of claim 6, wherein, when a requestor causes a particular file or service to be accessed the particular file or service inherits at least one identity attribute of the requestor associated with a security level of the requestor.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising, when the requestor uses a particular service on particular data to generate output data, determining a security level of the output data based on at least one of an identity and security level of the requestor and a security level of the particular data.

28. The method of claim 6, wherein the services are stateless services, wherein a stateless service does not retain any information regarding usage, a current state, and a security level of the stateless service after use, and wherein the stateless services are moveable to any storage device of the shared storage.

29. The method of claim 6, further comprising logging requests to access at least one of a service and a file.

30. The method of claim 6, further comprising performing diagnostics of at least one of a service and a file.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising automatically reconfiguring hardware of the shared storage in response to a hardware failure.

32. The method of claim 31, further comprising recovering faulted data.

33. The method of claim 6, wherein the governance policies include computer and data usage, local or remote access, data retention, malware scanning, or any combination thereof.

34. A method, comprising:

maintaining a federated metadata registry including storage location information regarding data stored at a first shared storage system and storage location information regarding data stored at one or more remote shared storage systems;

receiving a request to access the federated metadata registry;

filtering the federated metadata registry based on authentication information associated with a requesting device to generate a filtered federated metadata registry, wherein the filtered federated metadata registry does not include storage location information regarding data that the requesting device is not authorized to access based on the authentication information; and

sending the filtered federated metadata registry to the requesting device.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein maintaining the federated metadata registry includes identifying storage locations of all user data stored at the first shared storage system and storage locations of all user data stored at the one or more remote shared storage system in the federated metadata registry.

36. The method of claim 34, further comprising maintaining a federated service catalog, wherein the federated service catalog includes storage location information to enable reconstruction of instructions to implement a plurality of services, wherein the instructions to implement a first set of the plurality of services are stored at the first shared storage system and wherein the instructions to implement a second set of the plurality of services are stored at the one or more remote shared storage systems.

37. The method of claim 34, further comprising maintaining a federated infrastructure function catalog, wherein the federated infrastructure function catalog includes data descriptive of storage location information to enable reconstruction of instructions to implement a plurality of infrastructure functions, wherein the instructions to implement a first set of the plurality of infrastructure functions are stored at the first shared storage system and wherein the instructions to implement a second set of the plurality of infrastructure functions are stored at the one or more remote shared storage systems.

38. The method of claim 34, wherein the data stored at the first shared storage system is striped across multiple physical storage devices of the first shared storage system.

39. The method of claim 34, wherein the federated metadata registry further includes storage location information regarding data striped across multiple independent storage systems of one or more storage area networks.

40. The method of claim 34, wherein maintaining the federated metadata registry includes synchronizing the federated metadata registry with a remote federated metadata registry associated with the one or more remote shared storage systems.

41. The method of claim 34, wherein the federated metadata registry further includes user identifications corresponding to each of a plurality of users, security levels corresponding to each of the plurality of users, and location information of data files in a local or a wide area network.