Transparent file system access for wide area network file system acceleration

• US 8,346,966 B1
• Filed: 07/19/2007
• Issued: 01/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Blue Coat Systems Incorporated (Gen Digital Inc.)
• Inventors: Phatak, Shirish H., Rangarajan, Murali, Kilaru Satish, Chandra, Rana, Pratik Shankarial
• Primary Examiner(s): Lazaro, David
• Assistant Examiner(s): Yu, Xiang
• Application Number:
  US11/780,123
• Time in Patent Office: 1,993 Days
• Field of Search: 709/245
• US Class Current: 709/245
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/182 Distributed file systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching

Abstract

The present invention, in particular embodiments, provides methods, apparatuses and systems directed to providing a mechanism by which clients can transparently access remote file server appliances. Due to this, clients do not need to modify the pathnames in order to access the file servers.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

intermediating, by a gateway device, a remote file connection session between a client computing system and a file server over a network;

maintaining by the gateway device, in a storage cache within or accessible by the gateway device, one or more shared resources of the file server;

intercepting, by the gateway device, one or more handshake messages transmitted by the client computing system during an initiation of the remote file connection session between the client computing system and the file server;

modifying, by the gateway device, one or more of the handshake messages transmitted by the client computing system or the file server to cause the client computing system to transmit a request for a referral link to a shared resource hosted on the file server; and

modifying, by the gateway device, a response to the request for a referral link transmitted by the file server to identify the storage cache, the response operative to cause the client computing system to automatically connect to the storage cache to access the shared resource using a path name specified in the response to the request for a referral link;

wherein;

the requested shared resource of the file server is identified in the referral link received at the gateway device by a first respective path name comprising a host name and a shared resource identifier;

the corresponding cached shared resource maintained in the storage cache is identified by a second path name comprising the first path name corresponding to the respective shared resource maintained at the file server and an identifier of the storage cache; and

the response to the request for a referral link is automatically modified such that the path name specified in the response to the request for a referral link received by the client computing system is replaced by the second path name corresponding to the shared resource requested by the client and such that the modification of the response is transparent to an end user using the client computing system.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising modifying one or more of the handshake messages to disable message block signing between the client computing system and the file server.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising tunneling one or more of the handshaking messages between the gateway device and a second gateway device associated with the file server.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising tunneling one or more authentication messages of the handshaking messages without modification between the gateway device and a second gateway device associated with the file server.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising identifying, responsive to at least one handshake message, a second gateway device corresponding to the file server.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein one or more of the handshake messages are forwarded to the gateway device by a router configured with one or more policies.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the gateway device is deployed in the routed communications path between the client computing system and the file server.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the network is a wide area network.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the second path name further comprises one or more identifiers corresponding to the gateway device or one or more other gateway devices.

9. An apparatus comprising:

a memory,

one or more network interfaces,

one or more processors; and

logic encoded in one or more computer readable media, the logic comprising computer executable instructions operative to cause the one or more processors to;

intermediate a remote file connection session between a client computing system and a file server over a network;

maintain, in a storage cache within or accessible by the apparatus, one or more shared resources of the file server;

intercept one or more handshake messages transmitted by the client computing system during an initiation of the remote file connection session between the client computing system and the file server;

modify one or more of the handshake messages transmitted by the client computing system or the file server to cause the client computing system to transmit a request for a referral link to a shared resource hosted on the file server; and

modify a response to the request for a referral link transmitted by the file server to identify the storage cache, the response operative to cause the client computing system to automatically connect to the storage cache to access the shared resource using a path name specified in the response to the request for a referral link;

wherein;

the requested shared resource of the file server is identified in the referral link received at the gateway device by a first respective path name comprising a host name and a shared resource identifier;

the corresponding cached shared resource maintained in the storage cache is identified by a second path name comprising the first path name corresponding to the respective shared resource maintained at the file server and an identifier of the storage cache; and

the response to the request for a referral link is automatically modified such that the path name specified in the response to the request for a referral link received by the client computing system is replaced by the second path name corresponding to the shared resource requested by the client and such that the modification of the response is transparent to an end user using the client computing system.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 further comprising computer executable instructions operative to cause the one or more processors to modify one or more of the handshake messages to disable message block signing between the client computing system and the file server.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 further comprising computer executable instructions operative to cause the one or more processors to tunnel one or more of the handshaking messages between the apparatus and a second gateway device associated with the file server.

12. The apparatus of claim 9 further comprising computer executable instructions operative to cause the one or more processors to tunnel one or more authentication messages of the handshaking messages without modification between the apparatus and a second gateway device associated with the file server.

15. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the second path name further comprises one or more identifiers corresponding to the gateway device or one or more other gateway devices.

13. A system comprising:

a first gateway device operative to;

maintain, in a storage cache within or accessible by the first gateway device, cached versions of one or more shared resources of a file server;

allow access to the cached versions to one or more client computing systems; and

a second gateway device operative to;

access the one or more shared resources of the file server; and

transmit the one or more shared resources to the first gateway device;

wherein the first gateway device is further operative to;

intercept one or more handshake messages transmitted by a one of the one or more client computing systems during an initiation of a remote file connection session between the one of the one or more client computing systems and the file server;

modify one or more of the handshake messages transmitted by the one of the one or more client computing systems or the file server to cause the client computing system to transmit a request for a referral link to a shared resource hosted on the file server; and

modify a response to the request for a referral link transmitted by the file server to identify the storage cache, the response operative to cause the one of the one or more client computing systems to automatically connect to the storage cache to access the shared resource using a path name specified in the response to the request for a referral link;

wherein;

the requested shared resource of the file server is identified in the referral link received at the gateway device by a first respective path name comprising a host name and a shared resource identifier;

the corresponding cached shared resource maintained in the storage cache is identified by a second path name comprising the first path name corresponding to the respective shared resource maintained at the file server and an identifier of the storage cache; and

the response to the request for a referral link is automatically modified such that the path name specified in the response to the request for a referral link received by the client computing system is replaced by the second path name corresponding to the shared resource requested by the client and such that the modification of the response is transparent to an end user using the client computing system.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the second path name further comprises one or more identifiers corresponding to the gateway device or one or more other gateway devices.