Mirror file system
DC CAFCFirst Claim
1. A virtual file system which provides mirroring and linking of two file systems, comprising:
- means for mounting components of each of said two file systems on a single mount point constituting a single root directory for the components of both of said two file systems such that each mounted component of one of said two file systems is linked together with and becomes a mirroring pair with a corresponding mounted component in the other one of said two file systems, each of said two file systems having an application interface data structure constituting a programming interface for management thereof and access thereto; and
a virtual file system configured to manage the linking and mirroring of the corresponding mounted components of each of said two file systems, and including a super application interface data structure containing an application interface data structure of said virtual file system, and said application interface data structures of each of said two file systems.
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Abstract
A mirror file systems (MFS) is a virtual file system that links two or more file systems together and mirrors between them in real time. The file systems linked and mirrored through the mirror file system can be a local file system connected to a physical device, or a network file system exported by a remote system on a network. The mirroring mechanism is established by linking a file system to another file system on a single directory through an MFS mounting protocol. User applications perform normal file system operation and file/directory operation system calls like open, read, write and close functions from the pathname of either file system. When updates occur, such as a write operation, the MFS mechanism ensures that all data updates go to both the file systems in real time.
94 Citations
18 Claims
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1. A virtual file system which provides mirroring and linking of two file systems, comprising:
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means for mounting components of each of said two file systems on a single mount point constituting a single root directory for the components of both of said two file systems such that each mounted component of one of said two file systems is linked together with and becomes a mirroring pair with a corresponding mounted component in the other one of said two file systems, each of said two file systems having an application interface data structure constituting a programming interface for management thereof and access thereto; and a virtual file system configured to manage the linking and mirroring of the corresponding mounted components of each of said two file systems, and including a super application interface data structure containing an application interface data structure of said virtual file system, and said application interface data structures of each of said two file systems. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 7, 8, 9)
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4. A method for mirroring files and directories between file systems on a computer system or on two computer systems connected to each other via a network, comprising the steps of:
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mounting components of each of two file systems on a single mount point constituting a single root directory to create a virtual file system in which each mounted component of one of said two file systems is linked together with a corresponding component in the other one of said two file systems, each of said mounted components being one of a directory and a file; configuring said virtual file system so that each component of said virtual file system has a super application interface data structure containing an application interface data structure of said component in said virtual file system, an application interface data structure of a linked component in said one of said two file systems, and an application interface data structure of said corresponding linked component in said other one of said two file systems, said application interface data structure of said component in said virtual file system providing a mechanism for managing said component within said virtual file system and the corresponding linked components within said two file systems; upon receiving a request to perform a write operation on one of said mounted components, using said application interface data structure of said component in said virtual file system to perform the write operation on said linked component in said one of said two file systems and on the corresponding linked component in said other one of said two file systems in real time in response to said request. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 10, 17)
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11. A mirrored file system, comprising:
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a first server having a first local file system and a first physical storage device associated therewith; a second server having a second local file system and a second physical storage device associated therewith; and a client device having a virtual file system which mounts an imported file system from said first server and an imported file system from said second server on a single mount point constituting a single root directory to provide a single point of access for mounted components stored in each of said first and second local file systems, such that each mounted component in one of said first and second local file systems has a corresponding copy in the other one of said first and second local file systems. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18)
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Specification