Patent ID: 7386674

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a read request at a local storage server, the read request indicating client-requested data for a storage operating system to retrieve the client-requested data from a data container; and responsive to the receiving of the read request, utilizing a readahead engine to issue a readahead request, wherein: a portion of the readahead request for a set of data blocks that can be read from a local storage system is delivered to the local storage system, and a portion of the readahead request for another set of data blocks that can be read from a remote storage system is delivered to the remote storage system; and wherein issuance of the readahead request includes communication of a hint from the local storage server to a remote storage server which manages the remote storage system, the hint including a data structure which includes a plurality of parameters and indicates a read access pattern; the hint for use at the remote storage system to identify data to retrieve in response to the readahead request.