Abstract:
The storage of data sets in a storage set (e.g., data sets written to hard disk drives comprising a RAID array) may diminish the performance of storage set through non-sequential writes, particularly if storage devices promptly write data sets that are followed by sequentially following data sets. Additionally, storage sets may exhibit inconsistencies due to non-atomic writes of data sets and verifiers (e.g., checksums) and an intervening failure, such as an occurrence of the RAID write hole. Instead, data sets and verifiers may first be written to a stored on the nonvolatile media of a storage device before being committed to storage set. Such writes may be sequentially written to the journal, irrespective of the locations of data sets in the storage set; and recovery of a failure may simply involve re-committing the consistent records in the journal to correct incomplete writes to storage set.
Abstract:
Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to error detection for files. In aspects, before allowing updates to a clean file, a flag marking the file as dirty is written to non-volatile storage. Thereafter, the file may be updated as long as desired. Periodically or at some other time, the file may be marked as clean after all outstanding updates to the file and error codes associated with the file are written to storage. While waiting for outstanding updates and error codes to be written to storage, if additional requests to update the file are received, the file may be marked as dirty again prior to allowing the additional requests to update the file. The request to write a clean flag regarding the file may be done lazily.
Abstract:
Transactions among kernel objects utilize application program interfaces (APIs) to implement operations on a transaction object and APIs to implement operations on a resource manager object.
Abstract:
A system to perform transacted remote file operations over a network includes a client and a server. The client and server each include a transaction manager (TM) and a file system (FS). The client also includes a redirector (RDR), while the server includes a server application (SRV). The RDR receives a request for a remote transacted file operation. In response, the RDR retrieves the transaction from the request. The RDR may use the TM to marshall the transaction for transmission to the server. The RDR sends the transaction to the server over the network. The SRV component receives the transaction, which the TM and FS of the server then use to perform the file operation. The server then returns the file operation result to the client via the network.
Abstract:
Upon receiving a request to allocate a storage region, a storage device may initialize the contents of the storage device to default values ( e.g. , zero) in order to avoid problems arising from unknown data stored in the locations of the storage region ( e.g. , upon writing a data set to a location involved in a mirroring relationship, uninitialized data in the corresponding mirror location may result in a mismatch that jeopardizes the written data). However, initializing the storage device may be time-consuming and inefficient. Instead, a usage bitmap may be generated that, for respective location sets of the storage region, indicates whether values exist in the location. A read request may be fulfilled by examining the usage bitmap to determine whether values exist in the specified location, and if not, the default value may be returned without accessing the storage device. Other efficiencies may also be achieved using the usage bitmap.
Abstract:
A method and a processing device are provided for sequentially aggregating data to a write log included in a volume of a random-access medium. When data of a received write request is determined to be suitable for sequentially aggregating to a write log, the data may be written to the write log and a remapping tree, for mapping originally intended destinations on the random-access medium to one or more corresponding entries in the write log, may be maintained and updated. At time periods, a checkpoint may be written to the write log. The checkpoint may include information describing entries of the write log. One or more of the checkpoints may be used to recover the write log, at least partially, after a dirty shutdown. Entries of the write log may be drained to respective originally intended destinations upon an occurrence of one of a number of conditions.
Abstract:
A transactional file system wherein multiple file system operations may be performed as part of a user-level transaction. An application specifies that the operations on a file, or the file system operations of a thread, should be handled as part of a transaction, and the application is given a file handle associated with a transaction context. For file system requests associated with a transaction context, a component within the file system manages the operations consistent with transactional behavior. The component, which may be a resource manager for distributed transactions, provides data isolation by providing multiple versions of a file by tracking copies of pages that have changed, such that transactional readers do not receive changes to a file made by transactional writers, until the transactional writer commits the transaction and the reader reopens the file. The component also handles namespace logging operations in a multiple-level log that facilitates logging and recovery. Page data is also logged separate from the main log, with a unique signature that enables the log to determine whether a page was fully flushed to disk prior to a system crash. Namespace isolation is provided until a transaction commits via isolation directories, whereby until committed, a transaction sees the effects of its own operations not the operations of other transactions. Transactions over a network are also facilitated via a redirector protocol.
Abstract:
Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to error detection for files. In aspects, before allowing updates to a clean file, a flag marking the file as dirty is written to non-volatile storage. Thereafter, the file may be updated as long as desired. Periodically or at some other time, the file may be marked as clean after all outstanding updates to the file and error codes associated with the file are written to storage. While waiting for outstanding updates and error codes to be written to storage, if additional requests to update the file are received, the file may be marked as dirty again prior to allowing the additional requests to update the file. The request to write a clean flag regarding the file may be done lazily.
Abstract:
The storage of data sets in a storage set (e.g., data sets written to hard disk drives comprising a RAID array) may diminish the performance of the storage set through non-sequential writes, particularly if the storage devices promptly write data sets that are followed by sequentially following data sets. Additionally, storage sets may exhibit inconsistencies due to non-atomic writes of data sets and verifiers (e.g., checksums) and an intervening failure, such as an occurrence of the RAID write hole. Instead, data sets and verifiers may first be written to a stored on the nonvolatile media of a storage device before being committed to the storage set. Such writes may be sequentially written to the journal, irrespective of the locations of the data sets in the storage set; and recovery of a failure may simply involve re-committing the consistent records in the journal to correct incomplete writes to the storage set.
Abstract:
A system to perform transacted remote file operations over a network includes a client and a server. The client and server each include a transaction manager (TM) and a file system (FS). The client also includes a redirector (RDR), while the server includes a server application (SRV). The RDR receives a request for a remote transacted file operation. In response, the RDR retrieves the transaction from the request. The RDR may use the TM to marshall the transaction for transmission to the server. The RDR sends the transaction to the server over the network. The SRV component receives the transaction, which the TM and FS of the server then use to perform the file operation. The server then returns the file operation result to the client via the network.