Patent ID: 7506009
Filing Date: 2009-03-17
Classification: G06F,H04L,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A shared storage network, comprising: at least one storage node; two or more server nodes configured to access blocks of data stored on said storage node in response to a read/write request received from a client or user, each of said two or more server nodes comprising an information handling system and including an operating system executing thereon; and a virtual scale out layer operating and extending between said two or more server nodes at a layer above the operating system layer, said virtual scale out layer including virtual scale out logic and global data ownership information, said virtual scale out layer communicating between each of said two or more server nodes via at least one internode communication path, and said global data ownership information being globally stored on each of said two or more server nodes such that any change to said global data ownership information is propagated to all of said two or more server nodes; wherein each of said two or more server nodes comprises at least one shared nothing application executing on said server node; and wherein each of said two or more server nodes is configured to access said blocks of data stored on said same storage node through said virtual scale out layer in response to a read/write request received by said at least one shared nothing application from said client or user; wherein each block of said data on said at least one storage node is owned by only one of said two or more server nodes at any given time, wherein each of said two or more server nodes owns at least one data block on the same said storage node at the same time, and wherein ownership of said blocks of data on said data storage node is indicated by global data ownership information; wherein said virtual scale out layer is configured to access said global data ownership information to determine the owner of said block of data on said at least one storage node prior to said first one of said two or more server nodes accessing said block of said data on said storage node; wherein said first one of said two more server nodes is configured to access said block of data if said virtual scale out layer determines that said first one of said server nodes is the current owner of said block of data based on said data ownership information; and wherein said first one of said two more server nodes is configured to forward a request to access said block of data to a second one of said two or more server nodes if said virtual scale out layer determines that said second one of said server nodes is the current owner of said block of data based on said data ownership information.