Patent ID: 8914429

Claim:
A method for creating contiguous name space linkage within the domain of a hierarchical distributed file system composed of file servers and file service proxy cache nodes, the method comprising: creating a domain data export directory in an unexported portion of a local file system tree of a file service proxy cache node; sequentially processing a list of sub-domain member names; and for each member name: creating a sub-directory in the domain data export directory with the same name as the member name; interrogating a name service to retrieve an Internet Protocol (“IP”) address of the named sub-domain; sending a request to connect to the domain data export directory of the sub-domain at the IP address; converting the request to a protocol used by the sub-domain when it is determined that the protocol used by the sub-domain is different than the protocol used by the file service proxy cache node; authenticating the file service proxy cache node to the sub-domain when it is determined that authentication is required at the sub-domain; receiving the response from the sub-domain at the IP address; converting the response to the protocol used by the file service proxy cache node when it is determined that the protocol used by the sub-domain is different than the protocol used by the file service proxy cache node; and grafting the root of the domain data export directory of the sub-domain at the IP address onto the sub-directory.