Loosely coupled mass storage computer cluster having a set of data storage controllers interoperable for reading and writing data objects

A method of accessing data storage within a data cluster, the data cluster comprising three or more cluster members that store a plurality of data objects, each cluster member comprising data storage and a processor that executes a data storage controller, wherein each of the plurality of data objects comprise data blocks that are stored across the cluster members according to a distributed, redundant storage process, the method comprising at the data storage controller of at least one of the cluster members:

• receiving individual data service requests for a data object;
• and
• interoperating with other data storage controllers within a set of the three or more cluster members to access the corresponding data storage to read or write data blocks comprising the data object according to the distributed, redundant storage process.

A data cluster, comprising:

• three or more cluster members that store a plurality of data objects, each cluster member comprising data storage and a processor that executes a data storage controller, wherein each of the plurality of data objects comprise data blocks that are stored across the cluster members according to a distributed, redundant storage process;
• and
• the data storage controller of at least one of the cluster members receiving individual data service requests for a data object and interoperating with other data storage controllers within a set of the three or more cluster members to access the corresponding data storage to read or write data blocks comprising the data object according to the distributed, redundant storage process, the data blocks being stored with metadata for accessing the data object and the metadata comprising information for determining locations of individual data blocks.

A method of accessing data storage within a data cluster, the data cluster comprising three or more cluster members that store a plurality of data objects, each cluster member comprising data storage and a processor that executes a data storage controller, wherein each of the plurality of data objects comprise data blocks that are stored across the cluster members according to a distributed, redundant storage process, the method comprising at the data storage controller of at least one of the cluster members:

• receiving individual data service requests for a data object;
• and
• interoperating with other data storage controllers within a set of the three or more cluster members to access the corresponding data storage to read or write data blocks comprising the data object according to the distributed, redundant storage process, the data blocks being stored with metadata for accessing the data object and the metadata comprising information for determining locations of individual data blocks.