Patent ID: 8078622

Claim:
A method of accessing data on a volume of a remote storage server via an extended global namespace of volumes of a cluster of storage servers, comprising: providing a global namespace of volumes of said cluster of storage servers, each of said volumes of said cluster of storage servers being linked into said global namespace via a junction corresponding to an internal mount point in said global namespace for a respective one of said volumes of said cluster of storage servers; receiving, at one of said storage servers of said cluster of storage servers, at least one request from at least one client regarding data on at least one volume of said remote storage server, the client request including a volume identifier for the respective remote storage server volume, wherein said global namespace is extended to include the volume of said remote storage server, the volume of said remote storage server being linked into the extended global namespace via a junction corresponding to an internal mount point in the extended global namespace for the volume of said remote storage server; querying, by said one of said storage servers of said cluster of storage servers using the volume identifier for the remote storage server volume, at least one database to obtain location information for the remote storage server volume, said location information being associated with said internal mount point in the extended global namespace for the remote storage server volume; locating the remote storage server volume using said location information obtained from the database; and accessing data associated with the located remote storage server volume.