Patent ID: 7788335

Claim:
A file switch for use in a computer network having a group of file servers and a plurality of client computers, wherein the file switch may be logically positioned between a client computer from which a user request is received and the group of file servers, the file switch comprising: at least one processing unit; at least one port for exchanging information with the file servers and client computers, the information exchanged including information concerning a specified user file; a file aggregation module including one or more stored computer programs for execution by the at least one processing unit, the computer programs including instructions for: receiving a user request to access a subset of a specified user file; identifying a subset of file servers that store portions of the user file that together comprise the subset of the specified user file; sending an oplock request to each file server in the subset of file servers, and receiving oplock request replies from the subset of file servers; aggregating the received oplock request replies to produce an aggregated oplock reply, such that the aggregated oplock reply is an oplock grant only when all the received oplock request replies are oplock grants; and caching data from the subset of the specified user file only when the aggregate oplock reply is an oplock grant.