Block based access to a dispersed data storage network

• US 20100023524A1
• Filed: 10/09/2007
• Published: 01/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pure Storage, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Cleversafe Incorporated (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Dhuse, Greg, Volvovski, Ilya, Thornton, Vance, Bellanca, Jamie, Gladwin, S. Christopher, Motwani, Manish, Resch, Jason, Quigley, John
• Granted Patent: US 8,285,878 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: N/A
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1004 to protect a block of data words, e.g. CRC or checksum G06F11/1076 takes precedence; security arrangements for protecting computers or computer systems against unauthorized activity G06F21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1076 Parity data used in redundant arrays of independent storages, e.g. in RAID systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0617 in relation to availability
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0635 by changing the path, e.g. traffic rerouting, path reconfiguration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

A block-based interface to a dispersed data storage network is disclosed. The disclosed interface accepts read and write commands from a file system resident on a user'"'"'s computer and generates network commands that are forwarded to slice servers that form the storage component of the dispersed data storage network. The slice servers then fulfill the read and write commands.

Claims

1. A method of reading data from a dispersed data network, said method operating on at least one computer and comprising the steps of:

i) requesting a block of data from an interface operating on said computer, said interface adapted to provide data in block format;

ii) assembling a list of slice servers, wherein each slice server on said list can access at least one data slice associated with said requested block of data;

iii) repeating the following steps;

(1) issuing a request for said data slice from at least one of the slice servers on said list;

(2) receiving said data slice from at least one of the slice servers to which said request was issued;

until sufficient data slices have been received to assemble said requested block of data;

iv) assembling said requested block of data; and

v) providing said block of data from said interface.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said block of data is encrypted and further comprising the step of decrypting said assembled block of data.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of calculating a first checksum for said block of data, and comparing said first checksum to a second checksum appended to said block of data.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of calculating a first checksum for a received data slice, and comparing said first checksum to a second checksum appended to said received data slice.

5. A method of writing data to a dispersed data network, said method operating on at least one computer and comprising the steps of:

i) writing at least one block of data to a software interface operating on said computer, said interface adapted to accept data in block format;

ii) segmenting said block of data into a plurality of data slices, wherein each of said data slices includes less than all data contained in said block of data;

iii) transmitting said data slices to a plurality of slice servers, wherein each of said data slices is transmitted to a separate slice server; and

iv) storing each of said data slices on the particular slice server to which it was transmitted.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising the step of encrypting said block of data.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising the steps of calculating a checksum for said block of data and appending said checksum to said block of data.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising the steps of calculating a checksum for a data slice and appending said checksum to said data slice.

9. A distributed computer system implementing a dispersed data storage network comprising:

i) an operating system including a file system for creating, updating, maintaining and organizing digital files in block format, and at least one read interface enabling digital files to be read;

ii) an application software program programmatically coupled to said operating system and using said read interface;

iii) a data assembly software component accepting a plurality of data slices and providing blocks to said file system, wherein each of said blocks are constructed from said data slices in accordance with a data assembly algorithm;

iv) a network layer receiving a plurality of data slices from a plurality of slice servers and providing said data slices to said data assembly software component; and

v) a grid server application program operating on each of said slice servers and providing data slices to said network layer.

10. The distributed computer system of claim 9, wherein said data assembly software component is implemented as an iSCSI target.

11. The distributed computer system of claim 10, wherein said operating system and said application software program operate on a first computer and said iSCSI target operates on a second computer.

12. The distributed computer system of claim 9, wherein said data assembly software component is implemented as a device driver.

13. A distributed computer system implementing a dispersed data storage network comprising:

i) an operating system including a file system for creating, updating, maintaining and organizing digital files in block format, and at least one write interface enabling digital files to be written;

ii) an application software program programmatically coupled to said operating system and using said write interface;

iii) a data dispersal software component accepting blocks from said file system and generating a plurality of data slices for each accepted block, wherein said accepted block may be reconstructed from less than all of said data slices;

iv) a network layer accepting said data slices and forwarding each of said data slices to a separate network address; and

v) a grid server application program operating on a plurality of slice servers, each of said slice servers receiving and storing one of said data slices.

14. The distributed computer system of claim 13, wherein said data dispersal software component is implemented as an iSCSI target.

15. The distributed computer system of claim 14, wherein said operating system and said application software program operate on a first computer and said iSCSI target operates on a second computer.

16. The distributed computer system of claim 13, wherein said data dispersal software component is implemented as a device driver.