US 7,353,240 B1Granted

Method and storage system that enable sharing files among multiple servers

AssigneeHitachi, Ltd.

InventorsYoshifumi Takamoto, Kiyohiro Obara, Naoki Watanabe, Hiroaki Odawara

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Abstract

A method is provided for sharing a file among a plurality of hosts; the file is stored in a disk device shared among the plurality of hosts, each of which uses an operating system (OS) having a different format. In general, a management system of a file is different depending on the OS. Therefore, because a stored location of the file is unknown, it is not possible to view the file, which is managed by a management system of a certain OS, from the other OSs. Therefore, a method is provided whereby stored-location information of the file, which is managed by a management system of a first OS, is converted into stored-location information that is managed by a second OS format. Then, the second OS reads the file on the basis of the stored-location information that has been converted.

Claims14

Dependent claims

A file sharing method in a storage system, the storage system having a controller and a plurality of disk drives for sharing a file stored in the storage system, and being connected to a first host computer and a second host computer, the first host computer being operatively connected to communicate with said second host computer via a local area network, the storage system being operatively connected to each of the first host computer and the second host computer via a storage area network, the first host computer using a first operating system for managing files using a first format and first file management information, the second host computer using a second operating system for managing files using a second format different from said first format and second file management information, and the storage system storing the first file management information when the file to be shared is stored in the storage system, the first file management information including information of a location of a disk area where the file to be shared is allocated by the first operating system, the second file management information including information of a disk area location capable of being managed by the second operating system, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving at the controller a host ID of said second host computer;
determining via a host table of the controller a conversion for the second host computer to manage said file to be shared;
converting said first file management information into said second file management information;
and
reading data corresponding to said file to be shared on the basis of said second information from said disk drives by the second host computer.

2 more elements

A storage system that is connected to a first host computer and a second host computer, the first host computer using a first operating system for managing a file to be shared using a first format and first file management information, and the second host computer using a second operating system for managing files using a second format different from said first format and second file management information, the first host computer being operatively connected to communicate with said second host computer via a local area network, the storage system being operatively connected to each of the first host computer and the second host computer via a storage area network, the storage system storing the first file management information when the file to be shared is stored in the storage system, the first file management information including information of a location of a disk area where the file to be shared is allocated by the first operating system, the second file management information including information of a disk area location capable of being managed by the second operating system, said storage system comprising:

a plurality of disk drives for storing data therein;
and
a disk controller comprising an interface for connecting to said first host computer and said second host computer, and an interface for connecting to said plurality of disk drives, wherein:
said disk controller comprises:
a means for receiving a host ID of said second host computer and determining a conversion for the second host computer to manage the file to be shared by the second operating system including a host table;
means for converting said first file management information into said second file management information;
and
a means for reading data corresponding to said file to be shared on the basis of the second information from said disk drives when an access request to access said file to be shared is issued from said second host computer.

5 more elements

A storage system that is connected to a first host computer and a second host computer, the first host computer being operatively connected to communicate with said second host computer via a local area network, the storage system being operatively connected to each of the first host computer and the second host computer via a storage area network, the first host computer using a first operating system for managing a file to be shared using a first format and first file management information, the second host computer using a second operating system for managing files using a second format different from said first format and second file management information, the storage system storing the first file management information when the file to be shared is stored in the storage system, the first file management information including information of a location of a disk area where the file to be shared is allocated by the first operating system, the second file management information including information of a disk area location capable of being managed by the second operating system, said storage system comprising:

a plurality of disk drives for storing data therein;
and
a disk controller comprising an interface for connecting to said first host computer and said second host computer, and an interface for connecting to said plurality of disk drives;
wherein:
said disk controller mirrors said file to be shared, which is stored in any one of said plurality of disk drives and is managed under said first operating system, in another disk drive of said plurality of disk drives;
said disk controller converts via a host table said first file management information into a corresponding second file management information to write the corresponding second file management information into said another disk drive;
and
said disk controller reads said file to be shared from said another disk drive when an access request to access said file to be shared is issued from said second host computer.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 10/031,381Filed 29 Sep 1999
Granted: 1 Apr 2008
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification9 codes

H04L 67/1097
In which an application is distributed across nodes in the network: for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for…
G06F 16/116
File system administration, e.g. details of archiving or snapshots: details of conversion of file system types or formats
G06F 16/1834
Distributed file systems: implemented based on peer-to-peer networks, e.g. gnutella
H04L 67/06
Protocols: specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]