Symbiotic wide-area file system and method

• US 8,315,975 B2
• Filed: 12/09/2002
• Issued: 11/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Saito, Yasushi, Karamanolis, Christos
• Primary Examiner(s): Leroux, Etienne
• Application Number:
  US10/315,583
• Publication Number:
  US 20040111441A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,634 Days
• Field of Search: 707/10, 707/204, 709/201, 709/241
• US Class Current: 707/610
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1834 implemented based on peer-to-peer networks, e.g. gnutella p2p communication protocols H04L67/104

Abstract

In one embodiment, the invention provides a method and apparatus for a wide area file system, including: creating a peer-to-peer wide-area file system that allows read and write sharing of data. In another embodiment, the invention provides a method and apparatus for a wide area file system, including using per-file replication to achieve high availability and performance in the wide-area distributed file system.

Claims

1. An apparatus for a wide area file system, the apparatus comprising:

a plurality of distributed nodes configured to create a peer-to-peer wide-area file system that allows read and write accesses of files maintained in said file system; and

wherein a node of the plurality of distributed nodes is configured to select m existing replicas for a file contained in the file system, where m is an integer that is at least 3, to select an existing replica closest to the node, and to select m−

2 replicas by a random traversal from the existing replica closest to the node.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the nodes are configured to maintain a graph of replicas of files contained in said file system.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the nodes are configured to propagate updates on a per-file basis.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the nodes are configured to exchanging updates in a peer-to-peer fashion.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the nodes are configured to create a replica of a file in said file system whenever the file is accessed.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the file comprises a directory.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the file comprises data.

8. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the replicas include core replicas.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein a core replica is related to maintenance of a hierarchical name space.

10. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the replicas include non-core replicas.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the nodes are configured to remove an inactive replica.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the nodes are configured to randomly select a plurality of replicas.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein a plurality of regions includes at least one of the selected replicas.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein a local region includes at least one of the selected replicas.

15. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the nodes are configured to add a non-core replica to the graph.