Systems and methods for managing data, such as metadata. In one exemplary method, metadata from files created by several different software applications are captured, and the captured metadata is searched. The type of information in metadata for one type of file differs from the type of information in metadata for another type of file. Other methods are described and data processing systems and machine readable media are also described.

Methods And Systems For Managing Data

Provided are a method, system, and program for managing multiple resources in a system at a service level, including at least one host, network, and a storage space comprised of at least one storage system that each host is capable of accessing over the network. A plurality of service level parameters are measured and monitored indicating a state of the resources in the system. A determination is made of values for the service level parameters and whether the service level parameter values satisfy predetermined service level thresholds. Indication is made as to whether the service level parameter values satisfy the predetermined service thresholds. A determination is made of a modification to one or more resource deployments or configurations if the value for the service level parameter for the resource does not satisfy the predetermined service level thresholds.

Method, system, and program for determining a modification of a system resource configuration

A client is permitted to send data access commands directly to network data storage of a network file server after obtaining a lock on at least a portion of the file and obtaining metadata indicating storage locations for the data in the data storage For example, the client sends to the file server at least one request for access to a file In response, the file server grants a lock to the client, and returns to the client metadata of the file including information specifying data storage locations in the network data storage for storing data of the file The client receives the metadata, and uses the metadata to produce at least one data access command for accessing the data storage locations in the network storage The client sends the data access command to the network data storage to read or write data to the file For a write operation, the client may modify the metadata When the client is finished writing to the file, the client returns any modified metadata to the file server

File server system providing direct data sharing between clients with a server acting as an arbiter and coordinator

A server system on a network such as the World Wide Web aggregates and stores information about the content of Web pages served by a server on a network. A server process receives one or more requests for Web pages from requesters connected to the network. Upon receiving the request, the server produces a requested Web page and serves the Web page to the requester. The Web pages have with one or more content elements in addition to one or more metadata entries. The metadata entries are associated with the content elements of the respective Web page produced. The system also creates and maintains a log having a plurality of records. Each record has requester fields and metadata fields. A logger process stores the metadata entries contained in each of the Web pages in one or more of the metadata fields, and stores a requester identification, associated with the requester, in the requester field of the record associated with the respective Web page.

System and method for collecting and analyzing information about content requested in a network (World Wide Web) environment

A shared storage distributed file system is presented that provides users and applications with transparent access to shared data stored on network attached storage devices by utilizing layering techniques to inherit file management functionality from existing file systems. The present invention stores meta-data for the shared data as real-data in a standard, non-modified, client-server distributed file system, such as NFS. In effect, the standard client-server file system acts as a meta-data server. The name space consisting of inode files stored as real-data on the meta-data server acts as the name space for the shared data. Similarly, file attributes of the inode files are utilized as the file attributes of the shared data. By utilizing an existing client-server system as the meta-data server, development time and complexity are greatly reduced, while speed advances in the underlying client-server system may be incorporated without alteration of the present invention. A method for communicating with network attached storage devices over layered file systems is also presented.

Shared file system

In a computer, a system and a method handle requests from a client for accessing metadata attributes from at least one file system having an associated format containing specific metadata attributes. A format agent manages the file system. A client's request is received at an interface and forwarded to a dispatcher. The dispatcher routes the request to the format agent. The format agent fulfills the portions of the client's request regarding metadata attributes included in the associated format of the file system. If the client's request contains a metadata attribute that is not part of the file system's associated format, the format agent accesses a metadata attribute store to retrieve the metadata attribute data needed to fulfill the request. The requested metadata attribute data is then returned to the client. Multiple instances of the metadata attribute data are accessible by the client, the instances selected and/or assigned by the client and/or the system.

Method and system for extending file system metadata

In a computer including at least one client and at least one file system having an associated format, a system and method are provided for filtering requests for metadata from the client in a manner which is transparent to the client. An interface receives the client's request for metadata from the file system and forwards the request to a dispatcher. The dispatcher forwards the request to a format agent which fulfills the request. A third party filter system filters the requested metadata. If the filter system requires metadata to perform the filtering, the filter system requests additional metadata, and the format agent fulfills the client's request and the filter system's request. The format agent fulfills portions of the client's request and the filter system's request regarding metadata which is contained in the associated format of the file system directly from the file system. The format agent accesses a storage means to fulfill portions of the client's request and the filter system's request regarding metadata which is not included in the associated format of the file system. If the client's request is to write or modify metadata, the filter system filters metadata to be written or modified by the format agent. If the client's request is to retrieve metadata, the filter system filters metadata retrieved by the format agent. In this manner, third parties can modify metadata which is requested by a client from a file system or compute metadata based on the client's request without altering the format of the file system and can benefit from the modification and/or computation of such metadata by other parties.

William P. Kain

Papers

Method and system for extending file system metadata

Method and system for filtering file manager attribute values