Patent ID: 7962600

Claim:
An apparatus comprising a memory, one or more network interfaces, one or more processors; and logic encoded in one or more computer readable media, the logic comprising computer executable instructions operative to cause the one or more processors to implement: a connection state machine operative to monitor connectivity to one or more remote hosts; maintain state indications of the connectivity to the one or more hosts; a wide area file system module operative to emulate a file server to one or more client nodes; access, responsive to requests of the one or more client nodes, file objects and obtain corresponding leases from one or more remote hosts; store the file objects received from the one or more remote hosts in a local cache for access by the one or more client nodes; maintain a mapping of file objects stored in a local cache to corresponding remote hosts; transmit requests for file system operations based on requests from the one or more client nodes to corresponding remote hosts; wherein the wide area file system module is further operative to: responsive to a loss of connectivity to a first remote host, perform file system operations requested by the one or more client nodes locally in the local cache; track the file system operations in one or more data structures; and responsive to regaining connectivity to the first remote host, synchronize the file system operations tracked in the one or more data structures with the first remote host.