Patent ID: 9575985
Date: 2017-02-21
CPC Classifications: G06F

Claim:
1. An apparatus, comprising: a first processor to grant a synchronization lock with a renewable lease to a requesting node included in a group of nodes when a file having copies distributed among the nodes including the requesting node is in an unsynchronized state and when no write lock has already been granted to the requesting node and to any other nodes in the group of nodes, wherein the synchronization lock is to disable modification of the file, to enable synchronization of one of the copies on the requesting node to another one of the copies comprising a synchronization master copy on another one of the nodes, and wherein the first processor is to grant a write lock with a renewable lease to a write requesting node included in the nodes when the file is in a synchronized state and when the write lock has not already been granted, wherein the write lock is to disable granting the synchronization lock, to enable modification of the file, wherein if the file is in an unsynchronized state when the write lock is requested, the first processor causes nodes in the group of nodes that have not synchronized their copy of the file to the synchronization master copy to immediately synch theft copy of the file to the synchronization master copy before the write lock is granted; and a second processor to maintain the synchronization lock while the renewable lease for the synchronization lock is not expired, and to maintain the write lock while the renewable lease for the write lock is not expired.