Patent ID: 7406484

Claim:
A method of associating data with a file server in a file system, the method comprising: receiving a communication at a first device among an association of devices that implements a distributed, segmented single file system including file system entities residing in segments and comprising at least portions of one of files and directories, the association of devices including a plurality of file servers that control metadata of separate segments, including metadata of file system entities residing in the segments, the communication pertaining to data to be stored in the single file system, the data belonging to a directory of the single file system residing in a first segment controlled by a second file server; and storing the data in a second segment under control of a third file server concurrently with control of the first segment by the second file server, the data being stored in the single file system non-hierarchically relative to the directory, with the third file server being a file server other than the second file server; wherein the second segment is selected in accordance with a storage policy dependent upon at least one of (1) amounts of free storage space and free data identifiers, (2) relative amounts of free storage space and free data identifiers on a base file server and a possible controlling server, (3) at least one affinity group associating an application with a preferred segment, (4) a random selection from at least a first subset of the segments, (5) relative amounts of free storage space in different segments, (6) relative free amounts of file/directory location identifiers in different segments, (7) a predetermined pattern of at least a second subset of the segments, (8) a first constraint that subdirectories are to be stored hierarchically and files are to be stored non-hierarchically, and (9) a second constraint that subdirectories are to be stored non-hierarchically and files are to be stored hierarchically.