File System Metadata Extensions for Object Store Integrity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional object stores in cloud storage environments face difficulties in detecting data tampering and recovering from data corruption, as they lack effective tracking of access history and mechanisms to determine when corruption occurred or which replica to use for recovery.
Innovation Solution
Implementing an object store with back-end storage and file system metadata extensions that include time-based and data integrity check attributes, such as checksums, to track access history and facilitate detection of tampering and recovery from corrupted data by mapping objects to files and using file system metadata extensions to identify and recover from tampered files.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional object stores map objects to files without metadata extensions, then the system maintains simplicity and fast access, but the system cannot detect data tampering or determine when corruption occurred
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-computing and storing checksums in file system metadata extensions before data corruption occurs. Each file access triggers a checksum verification, and the metadata extension maintains a history of access times and checksums. This allows the system to detect tampering by comparing current checksums against stored values, and to determine when corruption occurred by examining the access history, without requiring complex post-detection analysis.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces file system metadata extensions as an intermediary layer between the object store and the underlying file system. These metadata extensions store checksums, access times, and other attributes that mediate between the simple object-store abstraction and the complex file system details. This intermediary enables tampering detection and corruption timing analysis without fundamentally redesigning either the object store or file system, resolving the contradiction by adding detection capability through a targeted metadata layer.
2Reliability
If the system tracks complete access history with multiple attributes, then the system can detect tampering and determine corruption timing, but the metadata storage and processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential attributes needed for tampering detection and corruption timing into the metadata extension, rather than storing complete access history. Specifically, it stores checksums, access times, and modification times - the minimum necessary information to detect tampering and determine when corruption occurred. This extraction approach enables reliable tampering detection while minimizing metadata storage overhead by excluding redundant or unnecessary access details.
3Reliability
If the system computes checksums on every file access, then the system can verify data integrity in real-time, but the processing time and computational overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by computing and storing checksums in advance during file write operations, rather than computing them from scratch on every read access. The metadata extension stores these pre-computed checksums, allowing rapid verification by simple comparison during subsequent accesses. This eliminates redundant computation while maintaining real-time integrity verification capability, resolving the contradiction between reliability and productivity.
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus comprises an object store, back-end storage supporting the object store, and a file system associated with the back-end storage. Objects of the object store are mapped to files of the file system. The file system is configured to provide file system metadata extensions for respective ones of the files, with the file system metadata extension for a given one of the files comprising a plurality of sets of attributes characterizing respective ones of a plurality of accesses to the given file. The file system metadata extension for the given one of the files may be updated responsive to each of the plurality of accesses to that file to incorporate a corresponding one of the sets of attributes. Each of the sets of attributes may comprise, for example, at least one time-based attribute and at least one data integrity check attribute.