Lookup Partitioning Service for Dynamic Storage Load Balancing
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional online storage systems, particularly multiple remote file servers, lack efficiency and flexibility in managing and routing access to user-dependent applications and resources, such as e-mail applications, due to rigid hash-based allocations that fail to adjust load balances and require locking entire hash buckets for resource movement.
Innovation Solution
A method and system utilizing a lookup partitioning service (LPS) that processes resource identifiers through a hash function to determine storage server locations, allowing for dynamic load balancing and automatic creation of new storage resources, with primary and backup servers for redundancy, enabling efficient and granular control over storage resource access.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If rigid hash-based allocations are used to segment online storage resources, then storage resources can be distributed across multiple servers, but the system loses flexibility to adjust load balances and requires locking entire hash buckets for resource movement
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the storage system into multiple independent file servers, each with its own hash table for resource allocation. This allows resources to be distributed across servers while maintaining independent control over each server's load balancing, resolving the contradiction between distribution efficiency and flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements dynamic resource allocation where resources can be moved between servers without locking entire hash buckets. The system dynamically adjusts load balancing by allowing fine-grained resource migration, enabling adaptability while maintaining distribution efficiency.
2Reliability
If multiple remote file servers are used to store user-dependent applications, then redundancy and availability are improved, but access control and routing to specific resources become inefficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a lookup service as an intermediary between clients and file servers. This mediator maintains information about resource locations across multiple servers, enabling efficient routing and access control while preserving the redundancy benefits of multiple servers.
Solution Approach 2:
The lookup service performs multiple functions: it routes resource access requests, manages resource location information, and supports access control across multiple file servers. This universal service simplifies resource access while maintaining system reliability.
3Stability of the object's composition
If hash buckets are locked for resource movement in rigid hash-based systems, then resource location consistency is maintained, but user difficulty in moving resources increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic resource movement that does not require locking entire hash buckets. Resources can be moved individually or in small groups between servers, maintaining location consistency through coordinated updates while greatly improving ease of resource relocation for users.
Data Source
AI summary
A method, system, and computer-readable medium for accessing and managing an online storage system is disclosed. Access to a storage resource in a multiple server storage system is provided by sending to a lookup partitioning service server a resource identifier that is associated with a storage resource stored in a particular storage partition of a storage server. The LPS returns the looked-up partition that stores the storage resource associated with the resource identifier. Access to the storage resource is then enabled to the looked-up storage partition.