Scalable distributed file system
Patent 6173293 Issued on January 9, 2001. Estimated Expiration Date: 
March 13, 2018. Estimated Expiration Date is calculated based on simple USPTO term provisions. It does not account for terminal disclaimers, term adjustments, failure to pay maintenance fees, or other factors which might affect the term of a patent.
March 13, 2018. Estimated Expiration Date is calculated based on simple USPTO term provisions. It does not account for terminal disclaimers, term adjustments, failure to pay maintenance fees, or other factors which might affect the term of a patent.Patent ReferencesApparatus and methods for making a portion of a first name space available as a portion of a second name space Distributed computing system Method and apparatus for improving the throughput of a local area network Archiving file system for data servers in a distributed network environment Patent #: 5764972 InventorsAssigneeApplicationNo. 039057 filed on 03/13/1998US Classes:707/201Coherency (e.g., same view to multiple users)ExaminersPrimary: Ho, Ruay LianAttorney, Agent or FirmInternational ClassG06F 017/30AbstractA file system is distributed over a plurality of computers connected to each other by a network. The plurality of computers execute user programs, and the user programs access files stored on a plurality of physical disks connected to the plurality of computers. The file system includes a plurality of file servers executing on the plurality of computers as a single distributed file server layer. In addition, the file system includes a plurality of disk servers executing on the plurality of computers as a single distributed disk server layer, and a plurality of lock servers executing on the plurality of computers as a single distributed lock server to coordinate the operation of the distributed file and disk server layers so that the user programs can coherently access the files on the plurality of physical disks. The plurality of file servers executes independently on a different one of the plurality of computers, and the plurality of file servers communicate only with plurality of disk servers and the plurality of lock servers, and not with each other. Furthermore, the disk server layer organizes the plurality of physical disks as a single virtual disk having a single address space for the files.Other References
Field of SearchPrivileged accessPattern matching access Distributed or remote access Access augmentation or optimizing DATABASE OR FILE ACCESSING Query augmenting and refining (e.g., inexact access) Concurrency (e.g., lock management in shared database) Query formulation, input preparation, or translation Query processing (i.e., searching) Sorting FILE OR DATABASE MAINTENANCE Coherency (e.g., same view to multiple users) Recoverability Version management Archiving or backup File allocation Garbage collection | |
