Patent ID: 6889249

Claim:
A method of processing a user request for performing a transaction on a user file that is stored, along with other user files, 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 perform a specified transaction on a specified user file; identifying a subset of the file servers that store portions of the user file needed to perform the specified transaction; sending commands to each respective file server in the subset of file servers to perform the transaction on a respective portion of the user file, and receiving replies from the subset of file servers; aggregating the received replies to produce an aggregated reply; and sending the aggregated reply to a sender of the user request; wherein the method is performed in a manner that is transparent to both the sender and the file servers by using a respective network file protocol of the sender and a respective file network protocol of the file servers.