File access for applications deployed in a cloud environment

• US 9,678,984 B2
• Filed: 09/06/2012
• Issued: 06/13/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/06/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Holland, Yaron, Kessel, Avi, Shimoni, Shalom, Jerbi, Amir
• Primary Examiner(s): Torgrimson, Tyler
• Application Number:
  US13/605,442
• Publication Number:
  US 20140067864A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,741 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/188 Virtual file systems

Abstract

A method of operating a virtual computer system including a file access interceptor and multiple virtual machines that are logically arranged in a virtualization environment that is managed by a virtualization environment manager is provided. The method includes reading file settings definitions that include identifications and properties of files that are configured to be accessed by a computer application, replacing operations of a file interface in the computer application using with file access interceptor operations that use the file settings to decouple file attributes from the computer application, managing file access via the file access interceptor operations to provide data file storage and read access to the files, and synchronizing file actions in each of a plurality of instances of the files. Related systems and computer program products are disclosed.

Claims

1. A method of operating a computer system, the method comprising:

reading file settings definitions that comprise identifications and properties of files that are configured to be accessed by a computer application;

replacing operations of a file interface in the computer application with file access interceptor operations that use the file settings to provide access to the files without file attributes in the computer application;

managing file access via the file access interceptor operations to provide data file storage and read access to the files; and

synchronizing file actions in each of a plurality of instances of the files,

wherein replacing operations of the file interface comprises;

receiving a file access request from the computer application; and

generating a replacement file access request that provides the computer application with access to the file,

wherein the file comprises a database file that includes data elements stored therein and that is used by a database application that operates using the database file, and

wherein the file access request comprises file access parameters that identify a portion of the database file to be retrieved without retrieving other portions of the database file,

wherein the file access interceptor receives an interceptor definition from the computer application and generates the replacement operation based on the interceptor definition,

wherein the interceptor definition corresponds to a file request, and

wherein the file request comprises a plurality of file settings corresponding to the data source that the computer application is configured to access.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the replacement file access request comprises the file access parameters.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein replacing operations of the file interface comprises replacing a local memory storage address that is associated with the operations of the file interface with a network address that is associated with file access interceptor operations.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the network address includes a uniform resource locator (URL) identifier.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein replacing the local memory storage address with the network address comprises determining the network storage address using a mapping of local memory storage addresses and the network addresses.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

generating priority data that determines a priority computer application of a plurality of the computer applications on a plurality of managed machines,

wherein the priority computer application accesses the file responsive to the file access request via the file access interceptor.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the priority data is rule-based and wherein file access requests from ones of the plurality of computer applications other than the priority computer application are denied.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the replacing operations of the file interface in the computer application with file access interceptor operations includes performing a plurality of mirror operations in a plurality of instances of files that are configured to be accessed by the computer application.

9. A computer program product for operating a computer system including a plurality of managed machines that use resources of the computer system, the computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied in the medium, the computer readable program code comprising;

computer readable program code configured to replace a file interface operation of a computer application with a replacement operation corresponding to a data source that the computer application is configured to access; and

computer readable program code configured to connect a cloud access control manager to the file access interceptor to synchronize multiple instances of the data source,

wherein the computer readable program code configured to replace the file interface operation include computer readable program code to receive a file access request from the computer application and generate a replacement file access request that provides the computer application with access to the file,

wherein the file access request comprises file access parameters that identify a portion of the file to be retrieved without retrieving other portions of the file,

wherein the file comprises a database file that includes data elements stored therein and that is used by a database application that operates using the database file,

wherein the file access interceptor receives an interceptor definition from the computer application and generates the replacement operation based on the interceptor definition,

wherein the interceptor definition corresponds to a file request, and

wherein the file request comprises a plurality of file settings corresponding to the data source that the computer application is configured to access.

10. A computer system, comprising:

a processor;

a file access interceptor that, when executed by the processor, replaces a file interface operation of a computer application with a replacement operation corresponding to a data source that the computer application is configured to access; and

a file access connector that, when executed by the processor, connects a cloud access control manager to the file access interceptor to coordinate multiple instances of the data source,

wherein the data source that the computer application is configured to access comprises a database file that includes data elements stored therein that exclude the database file as a data element and that is used by a database application that operates using the database file,

wherein the replacement operation includes a file request to the database file, the file request including a plurality of file settings that include query parameters corresponding to a query that is configured to be submitted to the database file,

wherein the query parameters include data ranges corresponding to a field in the database file,

wherein the file access interceptor receives an interceptor definition from the computer application and generates the replacement operation based on the interceptor definition,

wherein the interceptor definition corresponds to a file request, and

wherein the file request comprises a plurality of file settings corresponding to the data source that the computer application is configured to access.

11. The computer system according to claim 10, wherein the plurality of file settings include file source data that identifies the data source that the computer application is configured to access.

12. The computer system according to claim 10, wherein the file access interceptor replaces a local memory storage address that is associated with the file interface operation with a network address that is associated with the replacement operation and that identifies a location of the data source in a networked memory device.

13. The computer system according to claim 12, wherein the network address includes a uniform resource locator (URL) identifier.

14. The computer system according to claim 10, wherein the file access interceptor receives a plurality of file settings corresponding to the data source that the computer application is configured to access and determines replacement file settings that correspond to a replacement instance of the data source that is implemented in a distributed computing environment.

15. The computer system according to claim 14, wherein the replacement operation is performed using the replacement file settings.

16. The computer system according to claim 10, wherein the file access interceptor supplements operations of the file interface operation in the computer application responsive to a plurality of file settings.

17. The computer system according to claim 10, further comprising a file settings module that maintains the file settings that are configured to be used by the file access interceptor.

18. The computer system according to claim 17, wherein the file settings include location data that identifies a storage location of files, and wherein the location data includes a directory.

19. A computer system, comprising:

a processor;

a file access interceptor that, when executed by the processor, replaces a file interface operation of a computer application with a replacement operation corresponding to a data source that the computer application is configured to access;

a file access connector that, when executed by the processor, connects a cloud access control manager to the file access interceptor to coordinate multiple instances of the data source; and

a plurality of managed machines, each of the managed machines comprises a respective file access interceptor that replaces a respective file interface operation of a respective computer application with a respective replacement operation corresponding to access to the data source that the respective computer application is configured to access,

wherein the data source that the computer application is configured to access comprises a database file that includes data elements stored therein that exclude the database file as a data element and that is used by a database application that operates using the database file,

wherein the replacement operation includes a file request to the database file, the file request including a plurality of file settings that include query parameters corresponding to a query that is configured to be submitted to the database file,

wherein the query parameters include data ranges corresponding to a field in the database file, and

wherein the file access interceptor includes a priority module that generates priority data that corresponds to a determination of which of the respective computer applications has priority to access the data source.

20. The computer system according to claim 19, wherein the file access interceptor synchronizes file actions corresponding to the access by any of the computer applications via the cloud access control manager and the file access connector.

21. The computer system according to claim 19, wherein the file access interceptor provides the data source and the priority module denies other ones of the computer applications access to the data source when another one of the computer applications is accessing the data source.

22. The computer system according to claim 19, wherein the priority data is rule based on at least one rule that is defined prior to a corresponding file access request.

23. The computer system according to claim 19, wherein the priority module provides data specifying an order of data access to respective computer applications, and

wherein a low priority computer application having a lower priority pauses an operation thereby during an access to the data source by a high priority computer application having a higher priority than the low priority computer application.

24. The computer system according to claim 19, wherein the file access interceptor provides a respective file instance for each of respective computer applications and synchronizes file actions in the respective file instances corresponding to access by any of the computer applications via the cloud access control manager and the file access connector.