Patent ID: 7606868

Claim:
An offloaded file processing software architecture comprising: a master system, the master system in communication with a plurality of client computers, the plurality of client computers include a virtual machine having a virtual disk, the virtual disk configured to store a file system of the virtual machine; a plurality of physical slave systems, each comprising different configurations and each are in communication with the master system; and a plurality of virtual slave systems, each comprising different configurations, each are in communication with the master system, and each includes a file driver to connect to the file system of the virtual machine, wherein said master system, in response to receiving a service request from a requester, is operable to execute a command issued by said service request, wherein said command involves operations performed by at least one of said plurality of slave systems and an offloaded file processing activity performed with respect to a disk set derived from said service request, wherein if the service request from the requester includes a request to access the file system of the virtual machine when the virtual machine is off, the master system uses one of the plurality of virtual slave systems to connect to the file system of the virtual machine through the file driver loaded in the one of the plurality of virtual slave systems to access the file system of the virtual machine.