Patent application number | Description | Published |
20100070515 | SHARED NAMESPACE FOR STORAGE CLUSTERS - Any client application uses a namespace application to resolve its pathname in order to reference a computer file. Computer files are stored in a fixed-content storage cluster and are accessed by retrieving a unique identifier for the computer file using the namespace application. Any type of pathname scheme from any client application is supported by the namespace. The namespace application uses a bindings table to record bindings between objects including the start date and end date for each binding, and direction and separator data used in the pathname scheme. An attribute table in the namespace keeps track of each attribute and its value for each object of the namespace including a start date and an end date for each attribute. The namespace provides syntactic generality in that any pathname scheme of a client application can be resolved to identify a unique computer file in the storage cluster. The namespace may be shared between applications because when one application modifies a file or its attributes using the namespace, another application using a different pathname scheme has access to the exact same data and modifications. The namespace provides a near instantaneous continuous backup for computer files in the storage cluster because of the use of start date and end dates for the bindings and attributes. | 03-18-2010 |
20100088317 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR HARVESTING FILE SYSTEM METADATA - A harvester is disclosed for harvesting metadata of managed objects (files and directories) across file systems which are generally not interoperable in an enterprise environment. Harvested metadata may include 1) file system attributes such as size, owner, recency; 2) content-specific attributes such as the presence or absence of various keywords (or combinations of keywords) within documents as well as concepts comprised of natural language entities; 3) synthetic attributes such as mathematical checksums or hashes of file contents; and 4) high-level semantic attributes that serve to classify and categorize files and documents. The classification itself can trigger an action in compliance with a policy rule. Harvested metadata are stored in a metadata repository to facilitate the automated or semi-automated application of policies. | 04-08-2010 |
20100145917 | SYSTEM, METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ENTERPRISE POLICY MANAGEMENT - Disclosed are systems, methods and apparatuses for managing objects (files and directories) in network file systems according to policies. Each policy may have one or more rules, each of which ties a condition to an action. Each condition can be expressed in terms of metadata harvested across file systems and stored in a metadata repository. The actions are user-programmable. Users can apply and/or enforce a policy by manipulating the metadata stored in the metadata repository. For example, suppose a policy prohibits storing MP3 files in corporate storage, a user can specify a rule that ties the condition “no MP3 files in volumes A-Z” to an action “delete MP3 files from volumes A-Z.” A file management application may apply a filter to the metadata repository to produce metadata records having values that meet the specified condition and take the corresponding action on managed objects associated with those metadata records. | 06-10-2010 |
20110040568 | ADAPTIVE POWER CONSERVATION IN STORAGE CLUSTERS - Each node and volume in a fixed-content storage cluster makes an independent decision whether to reduce power consumption based on lack of requests from client applications and nodes over a configurable time period. Node configuration parameters sleepAfter and wakeAfter respectively determine how long to wait until idling a node or volume, and how long to wait while idle before again performing integrity checks. A bid value is calculated by each node and reflects how much it will cost for that node to write a file, read a file, or keep a copy of the file. A node with the lowest bid wins, and nodes that are idle have a premium added to each bid to help ensure that idle nodes are kept idle. Normally, nodes with more capacity will submit a lower bid to write a file. In an archive mode, writes bids are reversed meaning that nodes with less capacity submit lower bids, meaning that fuller nodes fill up faster and are then idled, while empty or near empty nodes may remain idle for some time before winning a write bid. | 02-17-2011 |
20120136843 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MANAGING FILE SYSTEMS AND FILE-BASED DATA STORAGE - Embodiments of the present invention can comprise systems and methods for managing filesystems and can provide a programmable filesystem with active rules and policies, an n-tier network filesystem, stack mounting, a union filesystem with write-through semantics, a filesystem middleware with selective delegation, a filesystem with a statistical warehouse and/or other management functionality. | 05-31-2012 |
20120278549 | ADAPTIVE POWER CONSERVATION IN STORAGE CLUSTERS - Each node and volume in a storage cluster makes a decision whether to reduce power consumption based on lack of requests from client applications and nodes over a time period. Node configuration parameters determine how long to wait until idling a node or volume, and how long to wait while idle before performing integrity checks. A bid value is calculated by each node and reflects how much it will cost for that node to write a file, read a file, or keep a copy. A node with the lowest bid wins, and nodes that are idle have a premium added to each bid to ensure that idle nodes are kept idle. In an archive mode, writes bids are reversed, nodes with less capacity submit lower bids, fuller nodes fill up faster and are then idled, while empty or near empty nodes may remain idle before winning a write bid. | 11-01-2012 |
20130191355 | System, Method and Apparatus for Enterprise Policy Management - Disclosed are systems, methods and apparatuses for managing objects (files and directories) in network file systems according to policies. Each policy may have one or more rules, each of which ties a condition to an action. Each condition can be expressed in terms of metadata harvested across file systems and stored in a metadata repository. The actions are user-programmable. Users can apply and/or enforce a policy by manipulating the metadata stored in the metadata repository. For example, suppose a policy prohibits storing MP3 files in corporate storage, a user can specify a rule that ties the condition “no MP3 files in volumes A-Z” to an action “delete MP3 files from volumes A-Z.” A file management application may apply a filter to the metadata repository to produce metadata records having values that meet the specified condition and take the corresponding action on managed objects associated with those metadata records. | 07-25-2013 |
20140013134 | ADAPTIVE POWER CONSERVATION IN STORAGE CLUSTERS - Each node and volume in a storage cluster makes a decision whether to reduce power consumption based on lack of requests from client applications and nodes over a time period. Node configuration parameters determine how long to wait until idling a node or volume, and how long to wait while idle before performing integrity checks. A bid value is calculated by each node and reflects how much it will cost for that node to write a file, read a file, or keep a copy. A node with the lowest bid wins, and nodes that are idle have a premium added to each bid to ensure that idle nodes are kept idle. In an archive mode, writes bids are reversed, nodes with less capacity submit lower bids, fuller nodes fill up faster and are then idled, while empty or near empty nodes may remain idle before winning a write bid. | 01-09-2014 |