Owen F Anderson, 74161 Moran Spgs Rd NE, Milledgeville, GA 31061

6836775, Dec 28, 2004

Apr 24, 2002

10/132870

Owen Theodore Anderson - Chapel Hill NC
Craig Fulmer Everhart - Pittsburgh PA
Boaz Shmueli - Pittsburgh PA

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

G06F 1730

707 10, 707205

In one form, in a method for making file systems accessible, a referring file system attribute is created, responsive to a first file system having a referral object referring to a second file system. The referring file system attribute describes referring file system identification for the first file system. A path attribute is created, responsive to the first file system having the referral object, describing a path from a root of the first file system to the referral object. A referred file system attribute is created, responsive to the first file system having the referral object, describing a referred file system identification for the second file system. A parent attribute is created, responsive to the first file system having the referral object, describing a parent flag for the second file system.

6931410, Aug 16, 2005

Jan 11, 2002

10/044730

Owen T. Anderson - Chapel Hill NC, US
Craig F. Everhart - Pittsburgh PA, US
Boaz Shmueli - Pittsburgh PA, US

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

G06F007/00

707100, 707 1, 707 3, 707102, 711154

A system provides referencing from one file system server to another through the use of a file system location database, improving movement and replication of file systems. When a file system is moved from a first file system server, a data object that references the file system remains in the first server and contains information used to find the current location of the file system. The actual location of the file system is stored in the separate file system location database, which contains the locations of file systems on a number of file system servers. This allows the data in a file system to be replicated or moved without requiring updates to the data in any redirecting or referencing servers.

6947940, Sep 20, 2005

Jul 30, 2002

10/208439

Owen T. Anderson - Chapel Hill NC, US
Craig F. Everhart - Pittsburgh PA, US
Boaz Shmueli - Pittsburgh PA, US

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

G06F017/30

707 10, 709227

Improved techniques are disclosed for accessing content in file systems, allowing file system clients to realize advantages of file system referrals even though a file access protocol used by the client is not specifically adapted for referral objects. (For example, the client may have a legacy file system protocol or a proprietary file system protocol which does not support referrals. ) These advantages include a uniform name space view of content in a network file system, and an ability to locate content in a (nearly) seamless and transparent manner, even though the content may be dynamically moved from one location to another or replicated in different locations. A file system server returns a symbolic link in place of a referral, and an automated file mounting process on the client is leveraged to access the content using the link. Built-in crash recovery techniques of the file system client are leveraged to access moved content.

7685128, Mar 23, 2010

Jun 10, 2004

10/864605

Owen Theodore Anderson - Chapel Hill NC, US
Binny Sher Gill - San Jose CA, US
Leo Shyh-Wei Luan - Saratoga CA, US
Geoffrey Albert Riegel - Santa Cruz CA, US

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

G06F 17/30

707 10, 707 1, 707203, 709217

Addressed is a system and method for remote data caching and replication by local copy maintenance of remote data within a SAN file system. Distributed Storage Tank (DST), an extension to a SAN file system, provides for transparent SAN client access of local copies by importing, exporting, and storing data using network file access protocols as well as by providing assurance of metadata and file content validity. A Remote Access Agent (RAA) handles protocol implementation and conversion necessary for communication with remote data sources. Controlled by a consistency policy, consistency is maintained by RAA fetching and updating local copies if modifications have occurred to a file since it was first stored as a local copy in local storage. Additionally, RAA returns metadata pertaining to the requested data. A SAN client obtains metadata corresponding to the requested data and utilizes it to directly access locally stored copies of remote data.

7774364, Aug 10, 2010

Mar 9, 2005

11/076235

Owen T. Anderson - Chapel Hill NC, US
Craig F. Everhart - Pittsburgh PA, US
Boaz Shmueli - Pittsburgh PA, US

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

G06F 17/30

707782, 707781, 709204, 709227

Improved techniques are disclosed for accessing content in file systems, allowing file system clients to realize advantages of file system referrals even though a file access protocol used by the client is not specifically adapted for referral objects. (For example, the client may have a legacy file system protocol or a proprietary file system protocol which does not support referrals. ) These advantages include a uniform name space view of content in a network file system, and an ability to locate content in a (nearly) seamless and transparent manner, even though the content may be dynamically moved from one location to another or replicated in different locations. A file system server returns a symbolic link in place of a referral, and an automated file mounting process on the client is leveraged to access the content using the link. Built-in crash recovery techniques of the file system client are leveraged to access moved content.

8229899, Jul 24, 2012

Feb 16, 2010

12/706233

Owen T. Anderson - Chapel Hill NC, US
Binny S. Gill - San Jose CA, US
Leo Luan - Saratoga CA, US
Geoffrey A. Riegel - Santa Cruz CA, US

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

G06F 17/00

707690, 709217, 707694, 707827

A system and method is disclosed for maintaining, in a Storage Area Network (SAN), the consistency of a local copy of a remote file system sub-tree obtained from a remote source. Directory structure of the remote file system sub-tree is mapped to a remote container attached to the SAN and each remote object of the remote file system sub-tree is represented as a local object component of the remote container. Next, each of the local objects are labeled with attributes associated with the represented remote object, and metadata describing each of the local objects is stored in a metadata server. Also, a consistency policy is associated with each of the local objects in the remote container (wherein the policy defines conditions for checking freshness of said labeled attributes), and the local object components of remote container is updated in accordance with the consistency policy.

2005026, Nov 24, 2005

Jul 1, 2005

11/174146

Owen Anderson - Chapel Hill NC, US
Craig Everhart - Pittsburgh PA, US
Boaz Shmueli - Pittsburgh PA, US

G06F007/00

707010000

A system provides referencing from one file system server to another through the use of a file system location database improving movement and replication of file systems. When a file system is moved from a first file system server a data object that references the file system remains in the first server and contains information used to find the current location of the file system. The actual location of the file system is stored in the separate file system location database which contains the locations of file systems on a number of file system servers. This allows the data in a file system to be replicated or moved without requiring updates to the data in any redirecting or referencing servers.