Methods and apparatus facilitating access to shared storage among multiple computers

In an environment including multiple computers having concurrent access to shared storage, a computer-implemented method comprising:

• providing a transaction manager at each of the multiple computers in the environment to coordinate access to locations in the shared storage, the transaction manager at each of the multiple computers utilizing a unified address space that maps locations in the shared storage to corresponding access properties maintained by respective transaction managers, the access properties indicating an access status of the locations associated with the shared storage, the transaction managers at each of the multiple computers supporting operations of:
• receiving a request to access data stored in the shared storage;
• identifying a unique address in a unified address space associated with the data stored in the shared storage;
• utilizing the unique address to retrieve access properties associated with the data in the shared storage;
• and
• based on the retrieved access properties, identifying whether other computers in the environment have requested contemporaneous access to the data and, if so, communicating with transaction managers at the other computers accessing a common storage location of the shared storage to resolve conflicts associated with multiple computers attempting to access the common storage location of the shared storage;
• at each of the multiple computers:
• maintaining the unified address space to span a range of address values, each of the address values corresponding to respective storage capacity in the shared storage;
• producing boundaries within the unified address space;
• and
• utilizing the boundaries to define ranges in the unified address space, the ranges in the unified address space representing corresponding portions of storage capacity in the shared storage;
• maintaining a respective property object for each of the ranges in the unified address space, each respective property object indicating access rights to a respective portion of the shared storage to which a range pertains;
• at a first computer of the multiple computers, receiving a request to access a file in the shared storage;
• converting an identifier associated with the file to an address value in the unified address space;
• based on the address value in the unified address space, identifying a specific range in the unified address space in which the address value resides;
• accessing a property object for the specific range in the unified address space;
• and
• analyzing the property object to identify which, if any, of the multiple computers has current access rights to the file.

A computer system for managing access to shared storage, the computer system comprising:

• a processor;
• a memory unit that stores instructions associated with an application executed by the processor;
• a communication interface that supports communication with other computers having access to the shared storage;
• and
• an interconnect coupling the processor, the memory unit, and the communication interface, enabling the computer system to execute the application and perform operations of:
• providing a transaction manager at each of the multiple computers in the environment to coordinate access to locations in the shared storage, the transaction manager at each of the multiple computers utilizing a unified address space that maps locations in the shared storage to corresponding access properties maintained by respective transaction managers, the access properties indicating an access status of the locations associated with the shared storage, the transaction managers at each of the multiple computers supporting operations of:
• receiving a request to access data stored in the shared storage;
• identifying a unique address in a unified address space associated with the data stored in the shared storage;
• utilizing the unique address to retrieve access properties associated with the data in the shared storage;
• and
• based on the retrieved access properties, identifying whether other computers in the environment have requested contemporaneous access to the data and, if so, communicating with transaction managers at the other computers accessing a common storage location of the shared storage to resolve conflicts associated with multiple computers attempting to access the common storage location of the shared storage;
• at each of the multiple computers:
• maintaining the unified address space to span a range of address values, each of the address values corresponding to respective storage capacity in the shared storage;
• producing boundaries within the unified address space;
• and
• utilizing the boundaries to define ranges in the unified address space, the ranges in the unified address space representing corresponding portions of storage capacity in the shared storage;
• maintaining a respective property object for each of the ranges in the unified address space, each respective property object indicating access rights to a respective portion of the shared storage to which a range pertains;
• at a first computer of the multiple computers, receiving a request to access a file in the shared storage;
• converting an identifier associated with the file to an address value in the unified address space;
• based on the address value in the unified address space, identifying a specific range in the unified address space in which the address value resides;
• accessing a property object for the specific range in the unified address space;
• and
• analyzing the property object to identify which, if any, of the multiple computers has current access rights to the file.