Patent ID: 7451279

Claim:
A storage system coupled to at least one client, the storage system comprising: a storage device that stores data used by said client; first and second file server devices coupled together via a network, wherein the first file server device is coupled to said client, each file server device exclusively managing at least part of the data stored in said storage device, the data being organized as one or more file systems, each file server device accessing the data at the file system level; and a shared memory that is used in common by each of said file server devices, wherein said first file server device comprises: a determination unit that, when a write command is received from said client, determines whether said second file server device manages the data that is subject to the processing of the write command; and a data processing unit that, when said second file server device manages the data that is subject to the processing of the write command, transfers control data contained in the write command to said second file server device, wherein said second file server device reads data specified by the control data from said storage device and transfers the data to an address of a storage area specified within said shared memory, said first file server device specifying the address of said shared memory to which said second file server device transfers the data, wherein said first file server device updates the data transferred to said shared memory using write data included in the write command, wherein said second file server device transfers the updated data from said shared memory to said storage device, and wherein said first file server device sends a response to said client when processing of the data according to the write command is complete.