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

"The present invention provides 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. The invention allows for the separation of object access modules from function modules, reducing development costs. The invention also provides a mechanism for protecting the use of object access modules from function modules and allows for mutual exclusion to prevent multiple objects from being accessed simultaneously. A management computer is also provided for downloading and managing modules into storages. The invention enables the efficient development of function modules for a vast range of applications and reduces the development cost."

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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