# US 2008/0189343 A1 · System and method for performing distributed consistency verification of a clustered file system > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2008/0189343 A1 - Document ID: US20080189343A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 11/966,591 - Filed: 2007-12-28 - Published: 2008-08-07 - Earliest claimed: 2006-12-29 - Assignees: NetApp, Inc. - Inventors: Robert Wyckoff Hyer; Todd Derr; John K. Edwards - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20080189343A1 ## CPC - G06F 3/0653: {Monitoring storage devices or systems} - G06F 3/0614: {Improving the reliability of storage systems} - G06F 3/0643: {Management of files} - G06F 3/067: {Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]} - G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N) ## Abstract A system and method for performing a distributed consistency check of a clustered file system. File system functions for loading an inode and/or buffer tree are modified so that in response to either of these functions being invoked, a consistency check is performed. The consistency check verifies both local consistency on a node of the clustered file and a distributed check across the nodes of the storage system ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method for performing verification of a striped volume set, the method comprising the steps of: requesting a data container; accessing the requested data container to determine if the container has been checked locally; in response to determining that the requested data container has not been checked locally, performing a local check of the data container; and performing a striped volume set check of the requested data container. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 wherein the data container comprises an inode. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 wherein the data container comprises a buffer tree. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 wherein the step of performing the striped volume set check further comprises the step of verifying that the requested data container is consistent with a metadata volume of the striped volume set. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 wherein the step of performing the striped volume set check further comprises the step of verifying that the requested data container is consistent with a container attribute volume of the striped volume set. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 wherein the local check of the data container comprises performing a file inode check of the data container. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 wherein the local check of the data container comprises performing a file inode check of the data container. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of modifying a function to load the data container to perform a check of the data container in response to requesting the data container. ### Claim 9 A system configured to perform verification of a striped volume set, the system comprising: one or more nodes configured as a storage system cluster implementing the striped volume set; and a file system module executing on each of the nodes, the file system module including a function to load a data container, the function modified to determine if the data container has been checked locally, the function further configured to, in response to determining that the data container has not been checked locally, perform a local check of the data container and further configured to perform a striped volume set check of the data container. ### Claim 10 (depends on 9) The system of claim 9 wherein the data container comprises an inode. ### Claim 11 (depends on 9) The system of claim 9 wherein the data container comprises a buffer tree. ### Claim 12 (depends on 9) The system of claim 9 wherein the function is further configured to verify that the data container is consistent with a metadata volume of the striped volume set. ### Claim 13 (depends on 9) The system of claim 9 wherein the function is further configured to verify that the data container is consistent with a container attribute volume of the striped volume set. ### Claim 14 (depends on 9) The system of claim 9 wherein the local check of the data container comprises performing a file inode check of the container. ### Claim 15 (depends on 9) The system of claim 9 wherein the local check of the data container comprises performing a file inode check of the container. ### Claim 16 (depends on 9) The system of claim 9 further comprising a set of verification processes adapted to verify the consistency of the striped volume set. ### Claim 17 (depends on 9) The system of claim 9 wherein each node comprises a network element and a disk element. ### Claim 18 (depends on 9) The system of claim 9 wherein the striped volume set comprises of a plurality of volumes serviced by the one or more nodes. ### Claim 19 (depends on 18) The system of claim 18 wherein the plurality of volumes are organized into a single addressable storage space. ### Claim 20 A computer readable medium for performing verification of a striped volume set, the computer readable medium including program instructions for performing the steps of: requesting a data container structure; accessing the requested data container structure to determine if the requested data container structure has been checked locally; and in response to determining that the requested data container structure has not been checked locally, performing a local check of the data container structure; and performing a striped volume set check of the requested data container structure.