Patent ID: 7831623

Claim:
A computer readable storage medium storing code, wherein a computational device is coupled to a plurality of storage devices by a network, and wherein the code when executed causes operations, the operations comprising: storing, in a data structure implemented locally in the computational device, a plurality of references to a plurality of files corresponding to the plurality of storage devices, wherein the plurality of storage devices are divided into clusters; and accessing the data structure by a distributed application that executes over a cluster based operating system, wherein the distributed application uses a stored reference in the data structure to determine a file corresponding to a storage device included in the plurality of storage devices, wherein the distributed application performs data transfer operations with the storage device via the determined file, wherein the distributed application is configured to initiate the data transfer operations with the storage device faster by accessing the data structure implemented locally in the computational device in comparison to accessing the data structure implemented remotely from the computational device, wherein the distributed application is enabled to reduce a period of time needed to scan the plurality of devices during critical operations by scanning the plurality of devices when the critical operations are not being processed, and wherein the distributed application updates the data structure in response to receiving a message that includes a network location identifier of the storage device from another computational device, wherein the data structure is a device directory that is managed by the distributed application, wherein the files are device files, and wherein the device directory interacts with the device files that are managed by the cluster based operating system, and wherein an administrator logs on to an administrative server and adds new links to new devices in the device directory to indicate to the distributed application that the new devices are available for use by the distributed application.