Remote enabling of storage

• US 9,141,287 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Issued: 09/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Micro Focus Software, Inc. (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Novell Incorporated (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Isaacson, Scott Alan, Nicolet, Jim Alan, Nazeer, Nadeem Ahmad, Nicholes, Bradley Garrell, Boogert, Kevin Marinus
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, HIEP T
• Application Number:
  US13/832,378
• Publication Number:
  US 20140281292A1
• Time in Patent Office: 921 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/06 Digital input from, or digital output to, record carriers , e.g. RAID, emulated record carriers or networked record carriers
• 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 3/0661 Format or protocol conversion arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

Techniques for enabling storage remotely are presented. A REpresentational State Transfer (REST) front-end interface is interfaced to a legacy file system via a backend interface that directly interacts with the native storage and protocols of the legacy file system. The REST interface is presented as the frontend interface to the legacy file system making the storage of the legacy file system available to web or network-enabled devices.

Claims

1. A method implemented and programmed within memory and/or a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium and processed by a device configured to perform the method, comprising:

receiving, at the device, a storage operation directed to legacy storage, the storage operation in a first format that is unrecognized by a legacy Application Programming Interface (API) used by the legacy storage;

translating, via the device, the storage operation from the first format to a second format associated with the legacy API; and

sending, via the device, the storage operation in the second format to the legacy storage for processing, and operating the device as a reverse proxy for an environment associated with the legacy storage for intercepting the storage operation.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising, receiving, at the device, results associated with the legacy storage processing the storage operation in the second format.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising, translating, at the device the results to the first format and sending the results in the first format to an initial requestor that sent the storage operation.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising, pushing, via the device, a notification to a subscriber, when changes to subscribed portions of the legacy storage are detected.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising, indexing, via the device, the legacy storage and maintaining an index to the legacy storage separate from the environment associated with the legacy storage.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving further includes handling the first format as a REpresentational State Transfer (REST) interface.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein handling further includes identifying a requesting device providing the storage operation using the REST interface as a mobile device of a user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein translating further includes searching an index maintained separately from the legacy storage to at least partially resolve the storage operation and using data gathered from the index to translate the storage operation to the second format.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein translating further includes integrating security procedures maintained by the environment of the legacy storage with the storage operation in the second format.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein translating further includes integrating auditing procedures maintained by the environment of the legacy storage with storage operation in the second format.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein translating further includes recognizing the first format at a REpresentational State Transfer (REST) format and the second format as one that is used to access mounted or mapped storage drives.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein sending further includes communicating the storage operation in the second format via a legacy storage protocol used by the legacy storage.

13. A method implemented and programmed within memory and/or a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium and processed by a server configured to perform the method, comprising:

processing, at the server, storage commands provided in a first format associated with mobile devices, the storage commands directed to a legacy storage environment that does not recognize the first format;

interacting, at the server, with the legacy storage environment utilizing a second format to at least partially handle the storage commands; and

communicating, from the server, results from interacting with the legacy storage environment to the mobile devices in the first format, and operating the server as a reverse proxy for a legacy storage environment and intercepting the storage commands.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising, enhancing, via the server, features associated with the legacy storage environment, the features not natively supported by the legacy storage environment.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein enhancing further includes permitting users, via mobile devices, to publish and to subscribe to notifications associated with the legacy storage environment.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein enhancing further includes implementing custom authentication when processing the storage commands that are not associated with the legacy storage environment.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein enhancing further includes implementing custom auditing when processing the storage commands that are not associated with the legacy storage environment.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein enhancing further includes maintaining an index for the legacy storage environment and providing enhanced searching from the index not natively available from the legacy storage environment.

19. A system, comprising:

a memory configured with a storage interface manager that processes on one or more processors of a server;

wherein the storage interface manager is configured to act as an intermediary between client interfaces and legacy interfaces of legacy storage environments to provide remote access to the legacy storage environments, and wherein the server is configured to operate the storage interface manager as a reverse proxy for the legacy storage environments.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the server is accessible via a cloud processing environment that is separate and remote from each of the legacy storage environments.