Patent ID: 7069393
Filing Date: 2006-06-27
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A system for storing files comprising: a host computer coupled to a plurality of client computers, each client computer sending a file access request which has a staging and de-staging request; and a first storage unit coupled to the host computer, wherein the first storage unit has a first disk device, a first cache memory and a first disk controller coupled to the first disk device and the first cache memory, the first disk controller receiving block data sent from the host computer and storing the block data in the first cache memory and controlling to stage or de-stage for each block data and the host computer has an operating system, which configures a file system in the first storage unit and manages the correspondence between a file of the file system and a plurality of blocks data in the first disk device configuring the file, and a first control unit, wherein the first control unit is configured to receive each file access request and send to said first storage unit a plurality of attribute setting/changing instructions which are used to set/change an attribute information of each block data corresponding to each file access request based upon the staging and de-staging request, and the first disk controller is configured to manage the attribute information for each block data and receive the plurality of attribute setting/changing instructions and setting/changing the attribute information based on the received attribute setting/changing instructions from the first control unit and is configured to recognize the need for staging or destaging based upon the attribute information for each block data and controls staging and destaging based upon such recognition, wherein the staging causes the block data to be transferred to the first cache memory from the disk device, and the destaging causes the block data to no longer have permission to reside in the first cache memory, whereby block data of the file designated by each client computer is staged or destaged in the first cache memory of the first storage unit, and whereby the first storage unit stores data blocks in said first disk device corresponding to a plurality of files from the plurality of client computers.