KR20100062442A - System and method for accessing to file storage - Google Patents

Abstract

File storage access systems and methods are disclosed. The file storage access system stores a gateway that accesses at least one other type of file storage in response to a file access request and a global namespace mapped to the file storage, and accesses the file according to the metadata request of the gateway. It may include a metadata server for providing information.

Description

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ACCESSING TO FILE STORAGE}

The present invention relates to a file storage access system and method, and more particularly, to a file storage access system and method that provides a unified interface for accessing file storage belonging to various file systems.

With the development of Internet technology, the storage capacity of file storage used for Internet services is increasing rapidly every year. Accordingly, capacity expansion of file storage has become a necessity every year. Therefore, the problem of rational management of file storage is very important.

At this time, since the characteristics (size, file operation type, etc.) of the file stored for each service are different, the file is stored in a file storage suitable for the characteristic corresponding to the service. Depending on the type of file storage, the interfaces for providing file operations to services can vary. Therefore, in order to provide an Internet service, the information of the file storage where the file is stored must be known to use the corresponding interface to access the file. In addition, since different types of file storage are applied to each service, the file access interface is limited depending on the type of file storage in terms of developing an Internet service.

In addition, it is difficult to know the file storage of each of a large number of files for the service, and managing them can cause a very heavy load from the point of view of operating an Internet service.

Thus, there is a need for a method that provides integrated access to various file storages.

The present invention provides a file storage access system and method for providing a unified interface that can access various types of file storage.

The present invention provides a file storage access system and method that can access a file storage in which a file is stored with reference to a global namespace mapped to file storage.

The present invention provides a file storage access system and method for accessing file storage even if the user does not know the information of the file storage in which the file to be accessed is stored and only the path name of the file.

The present invention provides a file storage access system and method for accessing file storage by referring to the global namespace without modification of the application even if the file storage is physically changed.

The file storage access system according to an embodiment of the present invention stores a gateway that accesses at least one other type of file storage in response to a file access request, and a global namespace mapped to the file storage, wherein the gateway It may include a metadata server for providing file access information according to the metadata request of the.

The gateway according to an embodiment of the present invention transmits a metadata request including a path name of the file to an access request receiver for receiving a file access request for a file stored in at least one other type of file storage, and a metadata server. And a file access unit for receiving file access information of the file from a metadata server referring to the global namespace and accessing the file storage in which the file is stored.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a metadata server includes a metadata request receiver configured to receive a metadata request including a path name of a file from a gateway and a file mapped to a file storage in which the file is stored based on the path name of the file. It may include a global namespace reference unit for referencing a namespace and a file access information provider for providing file access information for the file to the gateway through a result of referencing the global namespace.

In an embodiment, a method of accessing a file storage includes receiving a file access request for a file stored in at least one other type of file storage, and transmitting a metadata request including a path name of the file to a metadata server. And transmitting the file access information of the file from the metadata server and accessing the file storage in which the file is stored by referring to the file access information.

According to the present invention, a file storage access system and method are provided for providing a unified interface that can access various types of file storage.

According to the present invention, a file storage access system and method are provided that can access a file storage in which a file is stored with reference to a global namespace mapped to file storage.

According to the present invention, there is provided a file storage access system and method for accessing file storage even if the user does not know the information of the file storage where the file to be accessed is stored and only the path name of the file is provided.

According to the present invention, even if the file storage is physically changed, there is provided a file storage access system and method that can access the file storage with reference to the global namespace without modification of the application.

Hereinafter, with reference to the contents described in the accompanying drawings will be described in detail an embodiment according to the present invention. However, the present invention is not limited to or limited by the embodiments. Like reference numerals in the drawings denote like elements. The file storage access method may be performed by components constituting the file storage access system.

1 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of a file storage access system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, a file storage access system may include a gateway 101, an application 102, a metadata server 103, and file storage 104-1 through 104 -N.

The file storage access system according to an embodiment of the present invention may provide an integrated interface to access various types of file systems. The file storage access system may send a file access request for the file that the user wishes to process through the application 102 to the gateway 101. Then, the gateway 101 may obtain the file access information for the file storage where the file is stored from the metadata server 103 and then access the file storages 104-1 to 104-N where the file is stored through the network. have. At this time, the file storages 104-1 to 104-N can operate by different types of file systems. That is, the file storage access system may perform a virtualization function that integrates different types of file storages 104-1 to 104 -N into one. File storage access systems can access file storage through a unified interface, regardless of the type of physical file storage.

In this case, the metadata server 103 may store a global name space mapped with the file storages 104-1 to 104 -N. The global namespace may mean that file storage, which is a file storage space for each service, is mapped to a service name. The global namespace is described in detail in FIG.

The gateway 101 and the metadata server 103 may have a clustering structure composed of a plurality of servers to support high performance and high availability. In this case, the plurality of servers configuring the gateway 101 and the metadata server 103 may be designed to operate statelessly.

2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a global namespace to which file storage is mapped according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, the global namespace may be hierarchical in tree form. Here, each node may mean a service. For example, when B is a portal service with "portal service", b1 may mean a mail service of "mail", b2 may mean a community service of "community", and b3 may mean a search service of "search".

In this case, the global name space may be mapped to a file storage and a service name, which are physical storage spaces of a file for each service. Even if the file storage, which is the actual physical storage space, is changed, the path name of the file is not changed, so the file can be easily accessed. The node mapped with the file storage may be the lowest node in the tree structure of the global namespace. If a file x is used for the search service, x may be stored in file storage z.

The user may send a file access request for file x to gateway 101 via application 102. Then, the gateway 101 can send a metadata request including the file path name to the metadata server 103. In this case, the file path name may also include a service name to which the file belongs.

then. After checking the service to which the file x belongs, the metadata server 103 can refer to the stored global namespace. The metadata server 103 may check the file storage mapped to the corresponding service and provide the file access information for accessing the identified file storage to the gateway 101 in response to the metadata request. In this case, the file access information may include a file system type of the file storage in which the file is stored, a network address of the file storage, or a local path name of the file.

Then, the gateway 101 may access the file storage in which the file requested by the user is stored through the file access information. That is, even if a user does not know what kind of file system the file storage is stored in, the user can access the file if he or she knows the path name of the file.

3 is a view for explaining the detailed operation of the file storage access system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3, a process of accessing various types of file storage 104 through the gateway 101 is illustrated.

When a user wants to access a file, the user may send a file access request to the gateway 101 through the application 102. The file access request may include a path name of a file to be accessed. If the file name to be accessed is "/ foo / bar", the file path name may mean "X / service / community / foo / bar". At this time, the user may have already obtained a pathname of the file.

If the file system type of the file storage 104 mapped to the service community is changed, "/ foo / bar" still has a path name of "X / service / community / foo / bar".

The gateway 101 may transmit a metadata request to the metadata server 103 through the file path name included in the file access request. Metadata server 103 may store and maintain a global namespace. As mentioned above, the global namespace may refer to a tree structure in which file storage 104, which is a storage space of a file for each service, and a name of the service are mapped. That is, the global namespace may include a plurality of nodes mapped to the file storage 104 in which files of the corresponding service are stored.

The metadata server 103 can refer to the global namespace through the path name of the file in response to the metadata request. The metadata server 103 may check access information on the file storage 104 mapped to the corresponding service through the name of the service included in the path name of the file. Then, the metadata server 103 may return the file access information for the file requested by the user to the gateway 101 in response to the metadata request.

In this case, the file access information may include a file system type of the file storage 104 in which the file is stored, a network address of the file storage 104, or a local path name of the file. The gateway 101 may access the file storage 104 in which the file requested by the user is stored using the file access information. The gateway 101 may perform a file input / output function for accessing at least one other type of file storage 104.

At this time, if a request is made to the metadata server 103 for a file for x, in order to prevent repetitive requests for the same file thereafter, the gateway 101 stores the mapping information of file storage for the file x as cache data. Can be stored as In addition, for consistency of the mapping information, the gateway 101 may periodically update the mapping information through the metadata server 103.

4 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of a gateway according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, the gateway 101 may include an access request receiving unit 401, a metadata requesting unit 402, a file accessing unit 403, and a mapping information storage unit 404.

The access request receiver 401 may receive a file access request for a file stored in at least one other type of file storage. There is no limit to the type of file storage. In this case, the access request receiving unit 401 may receive a file access request from an application through a remote procedure call (RPC) protocol.

The file access request may include a path name of a file stored in file storage. The path name of the file may include the name of the service in which the file is used. The metadata server 103 can then refer to the global namespace using the name of the service included in the path name of the file.

The metadata requesting unit 402 may transmit a metadata request including a path name of a file to the metadata server.

The file access unit 403 may receive file access information about a file from the metadata server 103 referring to the global namespace, and access the file storage in which the file is stored. In this case, the global name space may have a structure in which the file name and the service name, which are storage spaces of files for each service, are mapped.

The metadata server 103 may check the file storage mapped to the global namespace using the path name of the file included in the file access request. That is, the metadata server 103 may provide the file access information 403 with file access information that is information of file storage for a file with reference to the global namespace. In one example, the file access information may include a file system type of file storage in which the file is stored, a network address of the file storage, or a local path name of the file.

In this case, the file system type of file storage may mean a type of file system to which file storage belongs. The network address of the file storage may mean an IP address of the file storage. In addition, the local path name of the file may mean a directory name where the file is stored in the file storage.

The file access unit 403 may access file storage through the file input / output function of the gateway 101. In this case, regardless of the type of file storage, the file access unit 403 may access a file stored in the file storage through a file input / output function.

The mapping information storage unit 404 may store mapping information of the global namespace and file storage as cache data for a file for which file access is requested. Sending a metadata request to the metadata server 103 every time a file is requested may cause performance degradation in terms of the gateway.

Therefore, for a file referred to by the metadata server once by a file access request, the mapping information storage unit 404 may store mapping information between a service to which the file belongs and file storage as cache data. In order to maintain consistency of the mapping information, the mapping information storage unit 404 may update the mapping information by querying the metadata server 103 at a predetermined predetermined period. Since the mapping information for the global namespace and physical file storage does not change often, the update cycle can be adjusted according to the system configuration.

5 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of a metadata server according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, the metadata server 103 may include a metadata request receiver 501, a global namespace reference 502, and a file access information provider 503.

The metadata request receiving unit 501 may receive a metadata request including a path name of a file from the gateway 101. In this case, the path name of the file may include the name of the service in which the file is used. The name of the service can be used to identify file storage mapped to the global namespace.

The global namespace reference 502 may refer to the global namespace mapped to the file storage where the file is stored based on the path name of the file. In this case, the global name space may be a structure in which file storage, which is a storage space of a file for each service, and the name of the service are mapped. In the global namespace, a plurality of nodes matching the service name may be configured in a tree form. End nodes can be mapped to file storage in the global namespace.

If a path name for file x is received through the metadata request, the global namespace reference unit 502 refers to the global namespace through the service y included in the path name, thereby referring to file storage mapped to the global namespace. You can check it.

The file access information providing unit 503 may provide file access information about the file to the gateway 101 through the result of referencing the global namespace. The file access information may include the file system type of the file storage where the file is stored, the network address of the file storage or the local path name of the file.

Then, the gateway 101 may receive a file access request and receive file access information according to the file access request from the metadata server 103 to access at least one other type of file storage.

6 is a flowchart illustrating a file storage access method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 6, a process of accessing file storage through a gateway will be described.

In step S601, the gateway may receive a file access request for a file stored in at least one other type of file storage. In this case, the file access request may include a path name for the file.

In step S602, the gateway may send a metadata request including the path name of the file to the metadata server. At this time, the metadata server may provide the file access information of the file by referring to the global namespace mapped to the file storage through the path name of the file.

The global namespace may be a structure in which the name of the service is mapped to file storage, which is a file storage space for each service.

In step S603, the gateway may receive file access information of a file from a metadata server.

In this case, the file access information may include a file system type of the file storage in which the file is stored, a network address of the file storage, or a local path name of the file.

In operation S604, the gateway may access file storage in which the file is stored by referring to file access information. At this time, the gateway may access the file storage using the file input / output function. In addition, the number and types of file storages are not limited, and the gateway may provide a common interface for accessing various types of file storages.

In step S605, the gateway may store mapping information for the global namespace and file storage as cache data for the file for which the file access is requested. At this time, the gateway may update the mapping information by querying the metadata server at predetermined predetermined periods.

7 is a diagram illustrating a process of accessing file storage according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In step S701, the metadata server 103 may store and maintain the global namespace. In this case, the global name space may mean a structure in which file storage, which is a storage space of a file for each service, and a name of the service are mapped.

In step S702, the user may send a file access request to the gateway 101 via the application 102. In this case, the file access request may include a path name of a file. Here, the path name of the file may be configured as a name of a service in which the file is used.

In step S703, the gateway 101 may send a metadata request to the metadata server 703 including the path name of the file in response to receiving the file access request.

Then, at step S704, metadata server 103 may reference the global namespace. That is, the metadata server 103 may check the information of the file storage mapped to the global namespace through the name of the service to which the file requested by the user belongs. In step S705, the metadata server 103 may provide the file access information to the gateway 101. The file access information may include the file system type of the file storage where the file is stored, the network address of the file storage or the local path name of the file.

Then, in step S706, the gateway 101 may store mapping information about the file checked once through the metadata server 103 as cache data. Thereafter, the gateway 101 may update the mapping information at a predetermined period in order to maintain the consistency of the mapping information.

In operation S707, the gateway 101 may access the file storage 104 through the file access information received from the metadata server 103.

Parts not described in FIGS. 6 and 7 may refer to descriptions of FIGS. 1 to 5.

In addition, the file storage access method according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a computer readable medium including program instructions for performing operations implemented by various computers. The computer readable medium may include program instructions, data files, data structures, etc. alone or in combination. The media may be program instructions that are specially designed and constructed for the present invention or may be available to those skilled in the art of computer software. Examples of computer-readable recording media include magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape, optical media such as CD-ROMs, DVDs, and magnetic disks, such as floppy disks. Magneto-optical media, and hardware devices specifically configured to store and execute program instructions, such as ROM, RAM, flash memory, and the like. Examples of program instructions include not only machine code generated by a compiler, but also high-level language code that can be executed by a computer using an interpreter or the like.

As described above, the present invention has been described by way of limited embodiments and drawings, but the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, which can be variously modified and modified by those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains. Modifications are possible. Accordingly, the spirit of the present invention should be understood only by the claims set forth below, and all equivalent or equivalent modifications thereof will belong to the scope of the present invention.

1 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of a file storage access system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a global namespace to which file storage is mapped according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a view for explaining the detailed operation of the file storage access system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of a gateway according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of a metadata server according to an embodiment of the present invention.

6 is a flowchart illustrating a file storage access method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

7 is a diagram illustrating a process of accessing file storage according to an embodiment of the present invention.

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

101: gateway

102: application

103: metadata server

104-1 ~ 104 ~ N: file storage

Claims (24)

A gateway for accessing at least one other type of file storage in response to a file access request; And A metadata server that stores a global namespace mapped to the file storage and provides file access information in response to metadata requests from the gateway File storage access system comprising a. The method of claim 1, The file access request is And a path name of a file stored in said file storage. The method of claim 1, The global namespace is The file storage access system characterized in that the name of the service and the file storage that is the storage space of the file for each service is mapped. The method of claim 1, The metadata server, And upon receipt of a metadata request including a path name of a file from the gateway, providing file access information for the file storage where the file is stored with reference to the global namespace. The method of claim 1, The file access information, A file system type of file storage in which the file is stored, a network address of the file storage, or a local path name of the file. The method of claim 1, The gateway is, And storing mapping information about the global namespace and file storage as cache data for the file for which the file access is requested. The method of claim 6, The gateway is, The file storage access system, characterized in that for updating the mapping information by querying the metadata server every predetermined period. An access request receiver configured to receive a file access request for a file stored in at least one other type of file storage; A metadata request unit which transmits a metadata request including a path name of the file to a metadata server; And A file access unit which receives file access information of the file from a metadata server referring to the global namespace and accesses file storage in which the file is stored Gateway comprising a. The method of claim 8, The metadata server, A file storage, which is a storage space of a file for each service, and a global namespace to which the service name is mapped. 10. The method of claim 9, The metadata server, A reference to the global namespace through a path name of the file and return file access information of file storage mapped to the global namespace in response to the metadata request. The method of claim 8, The file access information, A file system type of file storage in which the file is stored, a network address of the file storage, or a local path name of the file. The method of claim 8, Mapping information storage unit for storing the mapping information for the global namespace and the file storage for the file file requested to access the file as cache data Gateway further including. The method of claim 12, The mapping information storage unit, The gateway, characterized in that for updating the mapping information by querying the metadata server every predetermined period. A metadata request receiver for receiving a metadata request including a path name of a file from a gateway; A global namespace reference that references a global namespace mapped to file storage in which the file is stored based on a path name of the file; And A file access information provider for providing file access information for the file to the gateway through a result of referencing the global namespace; Metadata server comprising a. The method of claim 14, The file access information, And a file system type of file storage in which the file is stored, a network address of the file storage, or a local path name of the file. The method of claim 14, The gateway is, Receiving a file access request and receiving file access information according to the file access request from the metadata server to access at least one other type of file storage. The method of claim 14, The gateway is, And storing mapping information about the global namespace and file storage as cache data for a file for which file access is requested. The method of claim 14, The gateway is, The metadata server, characterized in that for updating the mapping information by querying the metadata server every predetermined period. Receiving a file access request for a file stored in at least one other type of file storage; Sending a metadata request including a path name of the file to a metadata server; Receiving file access information of the file from the metadata server; And Accessing a file storage in which the file is stored by referring to the file access information File storage access method comprising a. The method of claim 19, The metadata server, And providing file access information of the file by referring to a global name space mapped with the file storage through a path name of the file. The method of claim 20, The global namespace is File storage access method characterized in that the name of the service and file storage mapped to the storage space of the file for each service. The method of claim 19, The file access information, And a file system type of file storage in which the file is stored, a network address of the file storage, or a local path name of the file. The method of claim 19, Storing mapping information about the global namespace and file storage as cache data for the file for which the file access is requested; File storage access method further comprising. A computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for executing the method of any one of claims 19 to 23.

Images