Network-Attached Storage Centralization for Application Server File Consistency
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing storage systems for application servers rely on local storage, leading to errors, inconsistencies, and security vulnerabilities due to multiple instances of files being loaded and logs being stored individually on each server, which complicates access and management.
Innovation Solution
A network-attached storage system that centralizes file storage and log management, allowing multiple application servers to access the same files and logs from a shared network-attached storage device, while enforcing security restrictions through network zones and disabling remote access to sensitive server statuses.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If local storage is used on each application server, then each server has independent file access, but errors and inconsistencies occur due to multiple instances of files being loaded
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the storage resources of multiple application servers into a single network-attached storage device. All application servers access the same files from this centralized storage location, ensuring that there is only one instance of each file in memory across the entire system, thereby eliminating file consistency errors and inconsistencies.
Solution Approach 2:
The network-attached storage device serves as a universal storage resource for multiple application servers simultaneously. Instead of each server having dedicated local storage, the shared storage device provides file access to all servers, enabling centralized management while maintaining reliability across the system.
2Ease of operation
If logs are stored individually on each server's local storage, then each server has independent log storage, but log retrieval becomes complicated
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines log storage from multiple application servers into a single centralized location on the network-attached storage device. Instead of accessing distributed log files across multiple servers, users can retrieve all logs from one centralized location, significantly simplifying log retrieval operations.
3Ease of operation
If remote access is enabled to server status, then monitoring is convenient, but security vulnerabilities increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a script as an intermediary between the monitoring system and the Apache server status. Instead of allowing direct remote access to the server status, the script locally retrieves the status information and stores it on the network-attached storage device, eliminating direct remote access vulnerabilities while maintaining monitoring capability.
4Reliability
If multiple instances of files are loaded on each server, then each server has local file access, but errors and inconsistencies arise
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges file storage into a single centralized location on the network-attached storage device. Instead of each application server having its own local copy of files, all servers access the same file instances from the shared storage, reducing the quantity of file instances from N (where N is the number of servers) to 1, thereby ensuring version consistency and eliminating errors.
Data Source
AI summary
A storage system for application servers is disclosed. The storage system comprises a network-attached storage device comprising a plurality of files that include a plurality of server applications in a plurality of network zone directories. Each of the network zone directories corresponds to one of a plurality of network zones. Access is restricted between each of the network zones. The storage system also comprises one or more application servers in each of the network zones. Each application server is configured to mount only a network zone directory of the network zone directories corresponding to a network zone of the network zones within which the corresponding application server resides based on a policy associated with the network-attached storage device and access one or more of the files including at least one server application of the server applications in the network zone directory.