Patent ID: 7996421

Claim:
A method for coordinating access to locally and remotely exported file systems facilitated by a system including a plurality of computers acting together as a distributed file system, the distributed file system comprising a plurality of separate file systems each distributed to a different computer of the plurality of computers, and each computer of the plurality of computers including a local access routine and a remote access routine configured to promote access to both a local portion of the distributed file system and remote portions of the distributed file system, comprising: in response to a request for file system access at a first computer of the plurality of computers, determining whether the request relates to a locally exported file system local to the first computer or a remotely exported file system local to a second computer; if the request is requesting the locally exported file system, invoking the local access routine at the first computer to obtain local access permissions to the locally exported file system, and permitting a computer issuing the request access to the locally exported file system, wherein the local access routine provides tokens to allow access permissions to the locally exported file system based on existing requests requesting access to the locally exported file system by revoking tokens of the existing requests; or if the request is requesting the remotely exported file system, invoking the remote access routine to obtain remote access permissions to the remotely exported file system, the remote access routine requesting the remote access permissions from a local access routine existing on the second computer, and permitting the computer issuing the request access to the remotely exported file system.