Patent ID: 8005953

Claim:
A method of caching data from user files stored in shared data computer network, where each user file of at least a plurality of the user files is divided into portions stored on a plurality of file servers, among a group of file servers in a computer network, comprising: receiving a user request to access a subset of a specified user file, the request including a request for an opportunistic lock on the subset of the specified user file; identifying a subset of file servers that store portions of the user file that together comprise the subset of the specified user file; sending an oplock request to each file server in the subset of file servers, and receiving oplock request replies from the subset of file servers; aggregating the received oplock request replies to produce an aggregated oplock reply, such that the aggregated oplock reply is an oplock grant only when all the received oplock request replies are oplock grants; and sending the aggregated oplock reply to a sender of the user request, thereby enabling the sender to cache data from the subset of the specified user file only when the aggregate oplock reply is an oplock grant.