Patent ID: 7165083

Claim:
A file management method of a distributed storage system, which includes a plurality of distributed storage devices, and a management server for managing identifiers of files stored in these storage devices and the storage devices, wherein said management server performs at least the steps of: allocating Globally Unique Identifiers (GUIDs) as unique identifiers to a storage device based on a request from the storage device, and storing a state of allocation of the GUIDs in a GUID allocation database of the management server, wherein the storage device performs at least a step of giving GUIDs that were allocated by the management server to files, wherein the storage device performs at least steps of: giving a GUID to a new file every time the storage device creates the new file, making a request to the management server for GUIDs when allocated GUIDs run short, wherein the management server performs at least a step of: allocating unused GUIDs to the storage device in increments of a block in response to the request from the storage device.