502 results about "Inode" patented technology

A keymap service architecture for a distributed storage system. A system may implement storage nodes configured to store replicas of data objects, where each of the replicas is accessible via a respective locator value, and keymap instances each configured to store keymap entries corresponding respectively to the data objects. A given keymap entry may indicate a mapping from a given key value corresponding to a given data object to each respective locator value of its replicas. Each of the keymap instances may store a replica of the given keymap entry and may index its respective stored keymap entries within a respective index data structure including hierarchically arranged index nodes corresponding to keymap entries. For a given keymap entry having a given corresponding index node, each tag value associated with each ancestor of the given corresponding index node may be a prefix of the given key value.

A method for managing energy resources, comprising the steps of collecting energy-related data in an event database from a plurality of network-connected iNodes, using a network-connected statistics server to compute a reliability rating for a plurality of users based at least in part on the data collected from iNodes associated with the users, using the reliability ratings at least to select a subset of users for inclusion in a derivative energy security, computing an expected performance profile and reliability rating for the derivative energy security, and making the derivative security available on a digital exchange, is disclosed.

A system for electric grid utilization and optimization comprising a communications interface executing on a network-connected server and adapted to receive information from a plurality of iNodes, the plurality of iNodes comprising a source iNode, a sink iNode, a plurality of transmission or distribution iNodes, an event database coupled to the communications interface and adapted to receive events from a plurality of iNodes via the communications interface, a modeling server coupled to the communications interface, and a statistics server coupled to the event database and the modeling server, wherein the modeling server, receives a request to establish an allocation of at least one of transmission losses, distribution losses, and ancillary services to a specific sink iNode, computes at least one virtual path for electricity flow between a source iNode and the specific sink iNode, the computed path being determined based on optimization of perceived comfort of users in affected areas.

A dynamic pricing system for complex energy securities, comprising a communications interface executing on a network-connected server and adapted to receive information from a plurality of iNodes, an event database coupled to the communications interface and adapted to receive events from a plurality of iNodes via the communications interface, a pricing server coupled to the communications interface, and a statistics server coupled to the event database and the pricing server, is disclosed. According to the invention, the pricing server, on receiving a request to establish a price for an energy security, requests at least one statistical indicia of risk from the statistics server, the statistical indicia of risk being computed by the statistics server based on a plurality of historical data obtained from the event database, and the pricing server computes a price for the security based at least in part on the statistical indicia of risk.

A system and method for updating a replicated destination file system snapshot with changes in a source file system snapshot, facilitates construction of a new directory tree on the destination from source update information using a temporary or “purgatory” directory that allows any modified and deleted files on the destination active file system to be associated with (e.g. moved to) the purgatory directory if and until they are reused. In addition, an inode map is established on the destination that maps source inode numbers to destination inode numbers so as to facilitate building of the destination tree using inode/generation number tuples. The inode map allows resynchronization of the source file system to the destination. The inode map also allows association of two or more destination snapshots to each other based upon their respective maps with the source.

Read-only and read-write snapshot copies of a production file in a Unix-based file system are organized as a version set of file inodes and shared file blocks. Version pointers and branch pointers link the inodes. Initially the production file can have all its blocks preallocated or it can be a sparse file having only an inode and its last data block. A protocol is provided for creating read-only and read-write snapshots, deleting snapshots, restoring the production file with a specified snapshot, refreshing a specified snapshot, and naming the snapshots. Block pointers are marked with a flag indicating whether or not the pointed-to block is owned by the parent inode. A non-owner marking is inherited by all of the block's descendants. The block ownership controls the copying of indirect blocks when writing to the production file, and also controls deallocation and passing of blocks when deleting a read-only snapshot.

An improved system and method for flexible object placement and soft-state indexing of objects in a distributed object store is provided. A distributed object store may be provided by a large number of system nodes operably coupled to a network. A system node provided may include an access module for communicating with a client, an index module for building an index of a replicated data object, a data module for storing a data object on a computer readable medium, and a membership and routing module for detecting the configuration of operable nodes in the distributed system. Upon failure of an index node, the failure may be detected at other nodes, including those nodes that store the replicas of the object. These nodes may then send new index rebuilding requests to a different node that may rebuild the index for servicing any access request to the object.

A system and method for inserting checkpoints into a data stream and for restarting an asynchronous transmission of a data stream from a source file system to a destination file system is provided. The data stream can be a set of changes between a base snapshot and incremental snapshot of the source file system for update of a replicated file system on the destination. State information relating to the progress of the source in processing and transmitting the data stream is stored at regular intervals, and a checkpoint number associated with each stored segment of the state information is inserted into the data stream. The destination tracks the fall commitment of each segment of the data stream to persistent storage on the replicated file system. If an error or communication loss requires the data transfer to be restarted, the destination sends the checkpoint number associated with the last fully committed segment of the data stream. The source reinitializes its data gathering processes using the state information associated with the particular checkpoint number. The changes sent from the source file system to the destination file system relate to a sub-organization of a volume on the source such as a qtree, identified by a qtree identifier (ID) in the associated inodes and data stream.

An improved method and apparatus for creating a snapshot of a file system. A record of which blocks are being used by a snapshot is included in the snapshot itself, allowing effectively instantaneous snapshot creation and deletion. The state of the active file system is described by a set of metafiles; in particular, a bitmap (henceforth the “active map”) describes which blocks are free and which are in use. The inode file describes which blocks are used by each file, including the metafiles. The inode file itself is described by a special root inode, also known as the “fsinfo block”. The system begins creating a new snapshot by making a copy of the root inode. This copy of the root inode becomes the root of the snapshot.

In a system and method for updating a remote replicated destination file system snapshot with changes in a source file system snapshot, users and processes are redirected to a local exported snapshot of the replicated snapshot on the active file system on the destination before beginning the next update of the active file system's replicated snapshot. In this manner, an unstable replicated snapshot is not accessed. Indirection is introduced into inode lookup at the destination as the destination's active file system is being updated. The indirection can be based upon a snapshot ID that conforms to a latest exported snapshot ID.

A data structure, added to a modified form of the B^link-tree data structure, tracks delete states for nodes. The index delete state (D_X) indicates whether it is safe to directly access an index node without re-traversing the B-tree. The D_X state is maintained globally, outside of the tree structure. The data delete state (D_D) indicates whether it is safe to post an index term for a new leaf node. A D_D state is maintained in each level 1 node for its leaf nodes. Delete states indicate whether a specific node has not been deleted, or whether it may have been deleted. Delete states are used to remove the necessity for atomic node splits and chains of latches for deletes, while not requiring retraversal. This property of not requiring a retraversal is exploited to simplify the tree modification operations.

A file system (i) permits storage capacity to be added easily, (ii) can be expanded beyond a given unit, (iii) is easy to administer and manage, (iv) permits data sharing, and (v) is able to perform effectively with very large storage capacity and client loads. State information from a newly added unit is communicated (e.g., automatically and transparently) to central administration and management operations. Configuration and control information from such operations is communicated (e.g., automatically) back down to the newly added units, as well as existing units. In this way, a file system can span both local storage devices (like disk drives) and networked computational devices transparently to clients. Such state and configuration and control information can include globally managed segments as the building blocks of the file system, and a fixed mapping of globally unique file identifiers (e.g., Inode numbers) and/or ranges thereof, to such segments.

A hierarchical storage system includes file servers and a policy engine server. Offline attributes are added to file system inodes in a primary file server, file system parameters are added in the primary server, offline read and write access method fields are added to a connection database, and the primary file server uses these attributes and parameters for selecting a particular read method or write method for access to an offline file or section of an offline file. The write methods follow a “write recall full” policy, a “pass-through write” policy, a “pass-through multi-version” policy, or a “directory write pass-through” policy. The pass-through multi-version policy results in a new offline version of a file each time that a client opens and writes to a multi-version file. The directory write pass-through policy results in a new offline file when a file is created within a write pass-through directory.

A self healing file system is designed for proactive detection and containment of faults, errors, and corruptions, in order to enable in place (online) and non-intrusive recovery. For proactive fault detection, the file system maintains certain per-block metadata of each file system block. The per-block metadata includes a redundancy check, and for file system data blocks, an inode identifier, and an offset of the file system data block in the file including the file system data block. The redundancy check is used to detect and mark bad file system blocks. The inode identifier and offset is used for validating connectivity of the file system blocks to the inodes, and for tracing bad blocks to files that contain the bad blocks.

A file system (i) permits storage capacity to be added easily, (ii) can be expanded beyond a given unit, (iii) is easy to administer and manage, (iv) permits data sharing, and (v) is able to perform effectively with very large storage capacity and client loads. State information from a newly added unit is communicated (e.g., automatically and transparently) to central administration and management operations. Configuration and control information from such operations is communicated (e.g., automatically) back down to the newly added units, as well as existing units. In this way, a file system can span both local storage devices (like disk drives) and networked computational devices transparently to clients. Such state and configuration and control information can include globally managed segments as the building blocks of the file system, and a fixed mapping of globally unique file identifiers (e.g., Inode numbers) and/or ranges thereof, to such segments.

A hierarchical storage system is constructed from file servers and a policy engine server by building upon a file migration service. Offline attributes are added to file system inodes in a primary file server, file system parameters are added in the primary server, an offline read access method field is added to a connection database, and the primary file server is programmed to use these attributes and parameters for selecting a particular method (such as a partial read migration or a pass through read method) for read access to an offline file. In this fashion, the primary file server is provided with flexibility for selecting a particular one of a number of migration methods depending on various conditions, in order to improve the trade-off between the cost of storage and delay in file access.

The invention relates to a method allowing dynamically networking among a plurality of devices to share resource. It includes: installing a software of dynamic networking and resource sharing on each of devices to realize dynamic networking and resource sharing. These devices periodically announce information with multicasting. A device serves as node control device, and announces the message of the existence of the device through multicasting, creates a node. A device can find the node by monitoring announcement message from the node. The device which requests to join into the node device registers its service information that can be provided by the device to the node control device. The device which has joined into the node finds the device providing service by indexing the nodal control device, and obtains desired service from the device by sending a service calling information. The method is applied to home backbone network for performing networking in home network. Then a topology connection structure with master/slave and peer-to-peer modes can be realized. The dynamic networking and resource sharing between the service providing device and the service utilizing device in the home backbone network can be realized.

An integrity verifier and validator is provided in which an initial anti-virus scan is performed against an entire file system to verify the integrity of the file system and create a corresponding file system level integrity verification database of known scanned regions of the file system. The database contains a copy of the file system's partition table referencing the range of occupied inodes and directory blocks. When new or updated content is written to the file system the integrity of the corresponding occupied inodes and directory blocks is no longer assured, and the integrity verifier flags them on the database for rescanning. Subsequent attempts to rescan any portion of the file system triggers the integrity validator to scan the database to validate whether that portion of the file system falls within any of the occupied inodes or directory blocks that have been flagged for rescanning. If they are not flagged, then rescanning of that portion of the file system is unnecessary as the integrity of at least that portion is assured. However, if they are flagged, then the anti-virus software rescans that portion of the file system for the presence of viruses.

Metadata management in a file server or storage network is delegated from a primary data processor to a secondary data processor in order to reduce data traffic between the primary data processor and the secondary data processor. The primary data processor retains responsibility for managing locks upon objects in the file system that it owns, and also retains responsibility for allocation of free blocks and inodes of the file system. By leasing free blocks and inodes to the secondary and granting locks to the secondary, the secondary can perform the other metadata management tasks such as appending blocks to a file, truncating a file, creating a file, and deleting a file.

A computer-implemented B-tree structure for information processing. The B-tree structure is used with any storage mechanism that can hold a plurality of data records. The B-tree includes interconnected nodes having a root node, index nodes and leaf nodes. The B-tree structure allows for the data records to be associated with duplicate keys that are stored separate from the leaf nodes.

Disclosed is a method for systematically collecting and searching for access routes of information resources. Search index node is formed in hierarchical tree structure in the computer. Basic search information including access route and name of resource loaded on web browser is input with selection of search index node. Information node is configured and stored in linkage with the selected search index node based on the basic search information. Text search window is provided to the user to receive hierarchical information node access route distinguished by identifier, output node name list in the hierarchy corresponding to the identifier, receive user selection of node name from the list, and adds the selected node name to the identifier to hierarchically extend the access route step by step. When settled, the access route is extracted, and target information resource is obtained through Internet to be output to the user.

A system, method and computer readable medium for providing a writable file system snapshot with ditto address feature is disclosed. In an embodiment of the present invention, the method includes accessing a first file system snapshot in a set of file system snapshots. A snapshot includes data contents comprising at least one shadow inode or at least one shadow inode and at least one data block corresponding to the shadow inode. The data contents of the first snapshot are copied and written to the next oldest file system snapshot. Subsequently, the data contents of the first snapshot are modified in accordance with modifications to at least one source file corresponding to the first snapshot. Then, a next most recent file system snapshot is accessed. The data contents of the next most recent snapshot are copied and written to the first file system snapshot.