Patent ID: 7231401

Claim:
A method for implementing an extensible network-attached storage in a system including a plurality of computers, at least one secondary storage apparatus having a storage medium, which stores data in units each being a block, in which said data is kept after shutting down a power source and an active network storage controller for inputting and outputting a block-based input/output (I/O) request between the computers and the storage medium, wherein at least one application program is deployed in one of the computers processing data in units each being an object, said application program issues object-based I/O requests to said secondary storage apparatus, said method comprising the steps of: receiving an object-based I/O request from one of the computers; downloading an object access module describing how a requested object is stored in the secondary storage apparatus to the active network storage controller from one of the computers; implementing the object access module to convert the object-based I/O request to a block-based I/O request; sending the block-based I/O request to the secondary storage apparatus; receiving a response to the block-based I/O request from the secondary storage apparatus; and transmitting a response to the object-based I/O request.