Patent ID: 6973455

Claim:
A method of operating a file server and a client in a data network, said method comprising: (a) the client sending to the file server at least one request for access to a file; (b) the file server receiving said at least one request for access to the file, granting to the client a lock on at least a portion of the file, and sending to the client metadata of the file including information specifying data storage locations in the file server for storing data of the file; (c) the client receiving from the file server the metadata of the file, using the metadata of the file to produce at least one data access command for accessing the data storage locations in the file server, and sending the data access command to the file server to access the data storage locations in the file server; and (d) the file server responding to the data access command by accessing the data storage locations in the file server: wherein the file server includes a data storage device including the data storage locations, and a data mover computer for managing locks on files having data stored in said data storage device, and wherein the client sends to the data mover computer said at least one request for access to the file, the data mover computer responds to said at least one request for access to the file by returning to the client the metadata of the file, and wherein the client sends the data access command to the data storage device over a data transmission path that bypasses the data mover computer.