Patent ID: 8224772
Filing Date: 2012-07-17
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A data management apparatus comprising: a message transfer/analysis unit that receives an object data access request, sent from a client, and returns a response; an object metadata non-transitory storage unit that stores a set of ancillary information on data on an object and a data area corresponding to the ancillary information as metadata on the object; an object metadata management unit that processes metadata on objects and, in response to a request from the message transfer/analysis unit, manages an execution of reading, update, and registration of metadata stored in the object metadata storage unit; a data access unit that connects to a file server and a database server; and a data conversion unit that generates a data access command, corresponding to the file server or the database server, in response to a request from the message transfer/analysis unit, sends the data access command to the data access unit, and extracts object data from response data sent from the data access unit for sending the extracted object data to the message transfer/analysis unit, wherein: the data access unit sends the data access command, specified by the data conversion unit, to the file server and the database server and sends response data, received from the file server or the database server, to the data conversion unit, (a1) when an object creation request, for which a data format and ancillary information representing whole object data to be created are specified, is received from the client, the message transfer/analysis unit extracts the data format information and the ancillary information from the object creation request, and sends the data format information, the ancillary information, and the object creation request to the object metadata management unit, (a2) the object metadata management unit generates an object ID based on the ancillary information, determines a data storage location address at which the object is to be stored, establishes a relation among the object ID information, data format information, ancillary information, and data storage location address information and stores the related information in the object metadata storage unit, and sends the object ID and the data storage location address information to the message transfer/analysis unit, (a3) the message transfer/analysis unit sends an object creation request, for which the object ID, data storage location address information, and data format information are specified, to the data conversion unit, (a4) the data conversion unit creates an object creation command corresponding to the specified data format and sends the object creation command, corresponding to the data format, to the data access unit, (a5) the data access unit, based on the object creation command, sends a file creation command to the file server if the object is a file, sends a table creation command to the database server if the object is a database, and if a response is returned from the file server or the database server indicating that object creation processing is executed successfully, notifies to the data conversion unit that the file or table creation request is executed successfully, (a6) the data conversion unit notifies to the message transfer/analysis unit that the object creation request is executed successfully when the notification is received from the data access unit notifying that the file or table creation request is executed successfully, and (a7) the message transfer/analysis unit receives the notification, which notifies that the object creation request is executed successfully, from the data conversion unit and notifies the object ID, as well as the notification that the object creation request is executed successfully, to the client.