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System and method for an on-demand peer-to-peer storage virtualization infrastructure

  • US 20060041619A1
  • Filed: 08/19/2004
  • Published: 02/23/2006
  • Est. Priority Date: 08/19/2004
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. An apparatus for providing on-demand distributed storage in a peer-to-peer network comprising:

  • a plurality of partners connected by the peer-to-peer network;

    a demand for storage causing one of the plurality of partners to be a requesting partner;

    an agent in a memory of each of the plurality of partners enabling each partner in the network to directly communicate and share data with any other partner in the network and enabling each partner in the network to act as a server to any other partner in the network;

    a contributing program in the agent with instructions to allocate available physical storage space into a first storage unit and a second storage unit and to format the second storage unit so that it is not visible to an operating system of a partner connected to the second storage unit; and

    a requesting program in the agent with instructions to perform a scan to determine the physical storage available in the second storage unit of each partner other than the requesting partner, to engage a rules engine to select a plurality of second storage units and to allocate a plurality of spaces from each of the selected second storage units, to create a virtual drive from the plurality of spaces to satisfy the demand for storage, and to direct a plurality of data blocks in and out of the virtual drive.

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