Patent ID: 8161128
Filing Date: 2012-04-17
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method for sharing data across two or more different clusters, comprising: checking, by an operating system in a cluster, a metadata record of a file system of a shared device to retrieve path group identifiers (PGIDs) in the metadata record of the file system, wherein the path group identifiers in the metadata record of the file system indicate that the path group identifiers are active in the file system, wherein the cluster comprises members and the operating system is one member of the cluster; checking, by the operating system, a control unit list of the shared device to retrieve path group identifiers that are active on the shared device; checking, by the operating system, an input/output supervisor (IOS) record in a couple dataset of the shared device to retrieve path group identifiers in the cluster, wherein the IOS record indicates that the path group identifiers are in the same cluster; and comparing, by the operating system, the metadata record of the file system, the control unit list, and the IOS record in the couple dataset; wherein based on the comparison if a PGID is found in the metadata record that is not in the IOS record by the operating system, the operating system determines that the found PGID is in a different cluster, and if the found PGID is not in the control unit list, the operating system determines that the found PGID is not active on the shared device; wherein in response to the found PGID not being in the IOS record and not being in the control unit list, the operating system removes the found PGID of the different cluster from the metadata record of the file system; and wherein in response to the found PGID of the different cluster being removed from the metadata record of the file system by the operating system, the operating system allows the members of the cluster to read and write to the file system when the found PGID is removed.