Patent ID: 8843533

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for checking file system consistency for a storage server, the method comprising: receiving a request from a client for data managed by a file system of the storage server during a startup phase of the file system and during a file system consistency checking operation on metadata in the file system, wherein the file system consistency checking operation only checks metadata used to maintain consistency of a metadata file requested by an internal client of the storage server during a startup phase of the file system, wherein the file system consistency checking operation also checks metadata used to maintain consistency of a user data file requested by an external client of the storage server after the startup phase of the file system; determining that the request is for metadata of a metadata file indicated in the request and is from an internal client, wherein the internal client comprises a process running on the storage server; while still in the start up phase of the file system, checking consistency of the requested metadata of the metadata file indicated in the request and checking consistency of metadata of the metadata file in a path from a root node for the metadata file to a node for the requested metadata; and allowing the internal client access to the metadata file during the startup phase after completion of the consistency check of the requested metadata of the metadata file and the consistency check of the metadata in the path, and before metadata of the metadata file outside of the path is checked for consistency.