Scalable file replication and web-based access

A system comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory coupled to the processor, the memory comprising computer-program instructions executable by the processor to perform operations comprising:
• replicating a file with a replication entity to produce a staged file by determining whether the staged file is acceptable to a file system via determinations comprising:
• in an event a directory corresponding to a unique global identifier (UID) of the parent resource is identified, contents of the staged file are accepted in the file system;
• in an event meta-data corresponding to the UID of the parent indicates that the directory corresponding to the UID of the parent resource has been deleted, contents of the staged file are accepted in the file system responsive to re-animating the deleted directory corresponding to the UID of the parent resource by downloading the directory corresponding to the UID of the parent resource from a peer;
• in an event meta-data corresponding to the UID of the parent indicates that the directory corresponding to the UID of the parent resource has been deleted and re-animating the deleted directory corresponding to the UID of the parent resource by downloading the directory corresponding to the UID of the parent resource from a peer is not successful, contents of the staged file are not accepted in the file system;
• in an event no directory corresponding to the UID of the parent resource is identified, contents of the staged file are not accepted in the file system;
• storing the staged file in a scalable binary large object (blob) store located on a first node, wherein the scalable blob store includes put, get, and delete operations in order to reduce storage semantics as compared to the file system, thereby minimizing file system constraints;
• receiving from the scalable blob store, a metadata write request to write:
• replication metadata,
• file system metadata for the staged file, and
• a locator token;
• performing the metadata write to obtain:
• the replication metadata,
• the file system metadata for the staged file, and
• the locator token;
• storing, in a scalable metadata store located on a second node, the replication metadata, file system metadata for the staged file, and the locator token for the staged file from the scalable blob store;
• using the locator token, in response to a web client request, to locate and retrieve a datastream associated with the staged file;
• merging the replication metadata and blob store metadata to facilitate combined transactions.