Patent ID: 8650156

Claim:
A method, comprising: performing, by a computer system that stores a plurality of data objects in a distributed storage system: storing an instance of a data object, wherein storing the instance of the data object comprises: receiving, from an entity other than the distributed storage system, a request to store the instance of the data object in the distributed storage system, wherein the request comprises a user key for the data object and a version identifier for the instance of the data object; generating keymap information for the instance of the data object that maps the user key to a locator and the locator to the instance of the data object; caching the keymap information at a keymap coordinator in the distributed storage system; caching a latest symbolic key entry at the keymap coordinator, wherein the latest symbolic key entry comprises the version identifier for the instance of the data object and indicates that the instance of the data object is the latest version of the data object stored in the distributed storage system; providing, responsive to a request to retrieve the latest version of the data object, the latest version of the data object, wherein the request does not specify the version of the data object to be obtained, wherein providing the latest version of the data object comprises: receiving, from an entity other than the distributed storage system, the request to retrieve the latest version of the data object, wherein the request comprises the user key for the data object but does not include a version identifier of the latest version of the data object; determining the version identifier of the latest version of the data object dependent on the cached latest symbolic key entry; and returning, based on the determined version identifier, the latest version of the data object having the user key.