Method and apparatus for implementing extensible network-attached secondary storage

Abstract

A storage comprising an object access module for the shared part for implementing advanced I / O provides an interface for registering and deleting object description data declaring how to store objects within a second storage, in order to reduce the development cost of modules for implementing functions. Also, in order to reduce the total cost of ownership, modules are transferred to the storage through a management computer. The present invention allows the storage for contiguously providing functions effective to a vast range of applications to be provided with lower development cost as well as lower total cost of ownership.

Description

[0001] The present application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09 / 416,961, filed Oct. 13, 1999, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to a computer system, more specifically to a method and an apparatus for implementing extensible secondary storage, suitable for application programs. DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART [0003] Primary components in a modern computer system include computers (one computer comprises a processor, memory, and peripheral devices), a network, and a secondary storage. The storage heretofore was considered as a device attached to a computer, however the situation has been changed recently. [0004] At first, there become common in recent years that a plurality of computers shares a single storage, because of the widespread usage of network. The processing power of the computer attaching the storage may become a bottleneck to cause storage input / output (I / O) from another ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0044] Accordingly, the object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for implementing extensible network-attached secondary storage by solving problems cited above to contiguously provide functions effective for a vast range of applications so as to enable the storage of next generation to be achieved.

[0047] In order to address to a vast range of applications, the extensibility of storage may be provided by enabling object access modules to be downloadable from a computer to storage. The object access modules may determine how to be stored in the secondary storage. Objects for an application may be retrieved from one or more of blocks in a secondary storage by using these modules. In such a way, the development cost of function modules for a vast range of applications may be reduced.

[0049] The development cost may be reduced by writing in the declaration the declarative part of the way to store objects in a secondary storage (in which part of which block and in which order the object is stored). Thus in accordance with the present invention, object description data is introduced, which describes declaratively the way to store objects in secondary storages.

[0050] By enabling the object description data to be downloadable from a computer to storage, the extensibility of storage may be provided while object-basis accesses may be achieved with lower development cost.

[0051] In accordance with the present invention, the reduction of development cost may be possible with function modules achieved by using the functions of object access modules. By enabling the function modules to be downloadable from a computer to storage, the extensibility of storage may be provided while sophisticated functions for each application may be achievable.

Problems solved by technology

The processing power of the computer attaching the storage may become a bottleneck to cause storage input / output (I / O) from another computer through a network to be slowed down.

Secondly, The storage capacity and the throughput required for a storage increase from year to year.

As a result, the number of storages attached to a single computer may grow up so that the computer may become the bottleneck of the storage I / O.

If the range of application is sufficiently vast, that may lead to larger market, and then larger market may lead to some decrease of development cost and to some increase of development speed.

Although there have been proposed a number of machines proprietary for database usage, these machines was difficult to have sufficient competitive power to survive among other multi-purpose machines using versatile devices, because these database-specific machines lacked sufficient range of versatility so that enough development cost was not invested.

In the Prior Art the extensibility has been considered as to downloading of advanced functions for every applications to the storage as needed, however, the development cost and TCO have not been sufficiently considered.

This means that even if a conventional software layer was directly applied to a storage, it might be difficult to address such vast range of application to be covered by the storage.

The system described in the reference #5 is still in its designing step, however intends to use with RDBMS with its limited range of application.

Concerning the development cost, if each of advanced functions for every application is developed separately, the development cost thereof will be increased, resulting in the weakened competitiveness.

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