Storage clustering system and method for providing access to clustered storage

Abstract

A storage clustering system comprises storage front-ends and clustering modules. At least one clustering module receives an access command from a client. When the access command instructs that a data item be stored, a clustering module invokes at least one computing module to compute at least one derivative value of the data item, and at least one clustering module stores, based on an index, the derivative value or at least part of the data item through a storage front-end, and accordingly updates an instance of metadata. When the access command instructs that a data item be fetched, a clustering module examines the metadata to select a storage front-end, through which a clustering module fetches the data item. When the storage front-end returns a derivative value instead, the fetching clustering module examines the index according to the derivative value to synthesize the data item for the client.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to storage clustering, and more particularly to performance considerations and data de-duplication in clustered storage. Background technique [0002] Traditional storage architectures generally can only scale up vertically but cannot scale out horizontally. In other words, the number and specifications of hosts in the architecture remain the same, and the only way to install or replace more hard disks is to install or replace more hard disks when more storage space is needed. Therefore, vertical expansion cannot be expanded without limit, and it is not beneficial to performance. It is very time-consuming to migrate data from the earlier smaller hard drive to the newly purchased larger hard drive during vertical expansion, not to mention that the capacity of the hard drive is not directly proportional to the asking price. [0003] Clustering storage and managing nodes as units can partially solve the above problems. Howe...

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Problems solved by technology

However, in the case of a Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) storage cluster, the clustering and access rights granting occurs in the Logical Volume Management (LVM) behind the SCSI target. With the ability to identify targets, each target can only control eight to sixteen SCSI devices, and if distributed lock management (DLM) is used for all targets, the performance will be unimaginably low

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