Abstract:
System and method aspects for filesystem management in a multilingual distributed computer environment are described. A system includes at least one server system for storing filesystem objects. A remote system is further included for remotely performing filesystem management operations on the filesystem objects of the at least one server system. At least one client system is provided for the at least one server system to support remote access to the filesystem objects by the remote system through a client agent, the client agent providing Unicode encoding of filesystem objects passed between the remote system and the at least one server system to ensure conversion of filesystem objects to a universal translation form, wherein proper recognition and management of filesystem objects occur in the remote system of the multilingual distributed computer environment.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     The present invention is related to co-pending U.S. Patent application entitled “System and Method for Remotely Accessing a Client in a Client Server Environment”, Ser. No. 09/191,256 (docket SA9-98-160), assigned to the assignee of the present invention which is now pending. 
    
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates generally to remote access to filesystem data in a distributed environment, and more particularly to filesystem object encoding to support remote access in a multilingual distributed environment. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Today&#39;s major operating systems offer flexibility in naming filesystem objects. Some operating systems offer almost limitless length and varying character combinations when naming filesystem objects, e.g., names for directories, sub-directories, folders, and files. For example, the historical “eight-dot-three” naming convention restriction of DOS computers is no longer strictly utilized. By way of example, users on Japanese systems are able to name filesystem objects with Kanji characters, while users of Russian systems are able to name filesystem objects using Cyrillic characters. While improving usability on an individual system level, storage administrators face challenges in managing these filesystem objects in a distributed environment. A main challenge arises from the fact that the different languages span different coded character sets. 
     Network file access protocols have emerged that allow access to file system objects that reside on a remote machine. However, these protocols often restrict the character set of the names of the filesystem objects. Further, the client and the server may be required to run the same operating system in the same language. For example, when an English Windows 95 system maps to a network drive of a Japanese Windows 95 system, the user on the English system is unable to access any file or directory on the Japanese system that contains Japanese characters in its name due to the inability to render the Japanese characters on the English system or, more seriously, the inability to recognize that the filesystem objects exist at all. 
     In order to illustrate the problem more particularly, FIG. 1 a  provides a screen capture shot (i.e., screen shot) of filesystem objects viewed locally on a Chinese machine. An open sub-directory  10  contains Chinese characters in its name, as well as files and sub-directories  12  with Chinese characters in their names. When an attempt is made to view the same sub-directory  10  on a remote English machine, problems result, as shown in the screen shot of FIG. 1 b . As illustrated by the screen shot of FIG. 1 b , the filesystem object  10  having the Chinese characters in its name is not displayed correctly, while its sub-directories and files  12  are not even recognized as existing in the English machine, and thus, are not displayed at all. The inability to recognize all filesystem objects severely hampers achieving complete and accurate system management. 
     Accordingly, a need exists for access and management capabilities for filesystem objects regardless of the operating system platform and language environment on which the filesystem objects reside. The present invention meets these needs. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention provides system and method aspects for filesystem management in a multilingual distributed computer environment. A system includes at least one server system for storing filesystem objects. A remote system is further included for remotely performing filesystem management operations on the filesystem objects of the at least one server system. At least one client system is provided for the at least one server system to support remote access to the filesystem objects by the remote system through a client agent, the client agent providing Unicode encoding of filesystem objects passed between the remote system and the at least one server system to ensure conversion of filesystem objects to a universal translation form, wherein proper recognition and management of filesystem objects occur in the remote system of the multilingual distributed computer environment. 
     The present invention allows a storage administrator to access and manage remote filesystem objects regardless of the operating system platform and language environment on which the filesystem objects reside. The invention incorporates Unicode to encode characters in a distributed environment to allow crossing of operating system platform boundaries, as well as language boundaries, during remote system management. These and other advantages of the aspects of the invention will be more fully understood in conjunction with the following detailed description and accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 a  illustrates a screen shot of filesystem objects viewed locally on a Chinese system. 
     FIG. 1 b  illustrates a screen shot of an English system lacking recognition of the filesystem objects of the Chinese system of FIG. 1 a  when remotely accessing the Chinese system. 
     FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of a distributed client in a distributed environment according to the present invention. 
     FIG. 3 illustrates a flow chart depicting the access to the client according to the present invention. 
     FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram representation of the distributed client of the present invention in a distributed storage management software application. 
     FIGS. 5 a - 5   b  illustrate screen shots when remotely accessing a client according to the present invention. 
     FIG. 6 illustrates a block flow diagram of remotely accessing a client to perform filesystem management operations with Unicode encoding for a multilingual distributed environment in accordance with the present invention. 
     FIG. 7 illustrates a screen shot from a remote system showing proper recognition of filesystem objects from Japanese and Chinese machines on an English machine as an example for the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention is related to remote access for filesystem management of filesystem objects in a multilingual distributed environment. The following description is presented to enable one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention and is provided in the context of a patent application and its requirements. Various modifications to the preferred embodiment and the generic principles and features described herein will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiment shown but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and features described herein. 
     It should be appreciated that the computer programming code according to the invention will typically be stored in one or more machine readable storage devices such as fixed (hard) drives, diskettes, optical disks, magnetic tape, semiconductor memories such as ROMs, PROMs, etc., thereby making an article of manufacture in accordance with the invention. The article of manufacture containing the programming code is used by either executing the code directly from the storage device, by copying the code from the storage device into another storage device such as a hard disk, RAM, etc., or by transmitting the code on a network for remote execution. 
     The present invention utilizes a distributed storage management client facility wherein the storage can be managed in a robust and distributed fashion, as described in the aforementioned related, co-pending U.S. Patent application, portions of which have been included herein. Through a distributed storage management, a client in a client-server system can be accessed remotely through a web browser, such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer. For example, a user at home can access a client machine at the office and subsequently backup the client to a server (or restore a file from a server to the client machine in the office). The user can also migrate and recall, archive and retrieve files to the client from the server. Similarly, a system administrator at a central location can access a client machine and initiate these client functions to the server. 
     FIG. 2 illustrates remotely accessing a client. The remote client access system  20  includes a server  24 , a client  22 , and a browser  26 . The browser  26  is any web browser such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer. The client  22  includes a listening agent program  28 , such as a hyper-text transport protocol (HTTP) daemon facility, and a client agent  29  that sets up the communication between the client  22  and browser  26 , and between the client  22  and server  24 . 
     A preferred method for remotely accessing the client  22  is described generally in connection with the flow diagram of FIG.  3 . At step  30 , from the browser  26 , a user enters information about the client  22  they want to access at the universal resource command line (URL). The request is in the form of the machine name and HTTP port number, separated by a colon. At the client machine  22 , the listening program  28  is listening at this defined port, and keeps track of contact made to the client  22 . If contact is made (for example, as described in step  30  above), the listening program  28  responds with the port number for establishing the next communication with that client machine  22 . Next, at step  32 , the browser  26  makes a connection to the client machine  22 . In the client machine  22 , the listening program  28  accepts the connection from the browser  26 , and serves a response such as a JAVA applet back to the browser  26  at step  34 . The response or JAVA applet contains a GUI (graphical user interface). The GUI could be a fully functional GUI that has the same look and feel as the client software running on the client machine, or could be as simple as a command line interface. The response also contains the command verbs or APIs to allow client operations to take place from the browser  26 . These verbs are structured such that communications between the client agent  29  and applet  23  running at the browser  26  are both language independent and machine independent. This is accomplished by tailoring the verbs to the specific application that the client performs without language or machine type dependencies. Furthermore, all character elements in the verb are encoded in Unicode in accordance with the present invention. Next, at step  36 , the browser  26  displays the client GUI. At step  37 , the user selects a client operation from the GUI displayed. For security purposes, an ID and password can be required. The ID and password may be encrypted at the browser  26  and decrypted at the client agent  29 , also for security reasons. The level of access to client operations can be controlled by this ID and password received from the browser. A client agent  29  is then spawned to perform the requested operation and communicate with the browser  26 . The client agent  29  contains the conventional client bundled with a layer of communications interface that allows the client machine  22  to be accessed directly or remotely. The communications interface contains a set of verbs or APIs that are understood by both the client  22  and applet  23  running in the browser  26 . In accordance with the present invention, the client agent  29  further includes a Unicode converter  31 , as described hereinbelow with reference to FIG. 6, to provide character encoding of filesystem object names being communicated to/from the applet  23  running in the browser  26 . At step  39 , the client agent  29  communicates back and forth with the applet on the browser  26  in this protocol (that includes verbs for sending and receiving information needed to display to the user through the GUI). When the client request is completed, the client agent  29  waits for additional requests, if any. 
     FIG. 4 is a block diagram which shows the system and method for a distributed client in the context of a client-server storage management software product such as Adstar Distributed Storage Management software (ADSM) from IBM Corporation. Here, the system  40  includes a browser  42 , a client machine  48 , and a server machine  54  which includes an ADSM server  56 . Here, the user enters the ADSM client machine name and ADSM client HTTP port number, separated by a colon, at the URL  44  in the browser  42 . By way of example, FIG. 5 a  shows a browser such as a Netscape Navigator browser. At the URL  51 , the user enters the ADSM machine name  53  and HTTP port number  55  separated by a colon. Referring back to FIG. 4, over connection  60 , which may be a network connection, the browser  42  establishes communication with the distributed storage management client  48 . At the distributed storage management client  48 , the HTTP daemon (listening program)  50  in the ADSM client  48  accepts the connection, and serves a JAVA applet using connection  62  back to the browser  42 . The browser  42  then displays the ADSM client GUI  46 . FIG. 5 b  shows the display of the GUI  46  at the browser  42  from the applet received from the HTTP daemon on the ADSM client machine  48 . As can be seen in FIG. 5 b , the GUI  46  provides the same look and feel as login access directly on the client machine  48  would appear. Here, the user selects a filesystem management operation to be performed. For example, the user clicks on Backup from the GUI  46 , and is prompted for an ID and password. This is communicated back to the ADSM client  48  over connection  64 . At the ADSM client  48 , the HTTP daemon  50  spawns the ADSM client agent  52 . The ADSM client agent  52  then sends and receives all the information required to display the GUI to the end user, as well as communicating over connection  58  with the ADSM server  56  in the server machine  54  to perform the requested backup operation with Unicode encoding, as described with reference to FIG.  6 . 
     In accordance with the present invention, support for a multilingual distributed environment, i.e., an environment in which the browser and client agent systems may operate with different local native languages and possibly different operating systems, occurs via a Unicode converter  53 . The Unicode converter  53  provides code to perform conversion of character data, e.g., according to a conversion table stored in memory, in accordance with the Unicode standard. FIG. 6 illustrates an overall block flow diagram of a method for remotely accessing and managing filesystem objects in a multilingual distributed environment represented in the block diagram of FIG.  4 . Remote access initiates with the establishing of a connection to the client agent  52  via the browser  42  (step  100 ), and selecting a filesystem management operation, e.g., a BACKUP operation, (step  102 ), as described hereinabove. The client agent  52  responds to a request for a filesystem operation by performing the filesystem operation with utilization of Unicode encoding (step  104 ). The agent  52  understands the filesystem structure and the character set encoding of the filesystem on which it operates. Thus, the agent  52  gets the names of the filesystem objects via the APIs provided by the operating system for the server machine  54 . The filesystem APIs return the names of the filesystem objects. If the APIs require any passing of a string parameter, the agent  52  converts any parameters to the local character set of the filesystem. The filesystem APIs then return the names in the local character set as well. The agent  52  packages the filesystem object data as encoded Unicode through Unicode conversion before sending the packaged Unicode to the browser  42 . The browser  42  then displays the received packaged Unicode using a tree metaphor. The packaging of the data in Unicode allows the names of these objects to be in any language. 
     FIG. 7 illustrates a screen shot that demonstrate the ability of the present invention to provide access to data among machines operating in accordance with differing native languages with differing character sets. In the example of FIG. 7, from a browser running applet  200  of an English machine, an access to filesystem objects on two filesystems, a Chinese filesystem and a Japanese system, is made to perform a Backup operation. Through the use of a Unicode converter of a client agent for each of these filesystems, the filesystem objects of the Chinese filesystem and the Japanese filesystem are properly included and displayed on the English machine, as shown by windows  202  and  204 , respectively. In addition to supporting any language, the present invention successfully operates in environments where the filesystem objects reside on platforms that differ from the platform on which the applet is run. In the example of FIG. 7, the applet  200  was run on remote machine operating in accordance with the Windows 95 operating system platform, the Japanese filesystem was provided on an OS/2 machine, and the Chinese filesystem was provided on a Windows NT machine. Thus, the present invention achieves accurate access and management capabilities from a remote machine in a distributed computer environment that crosses platform and language boundaries. 
     Although the present invention has been described in accordance with the embodiments shown, one of ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize that there could be variations to the embodiments and those variations would be within the spirit and scope of the present invention. Accordingly, many modifications may be made by one of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the appended claims.