MASSIVELY SCALABLE OBJECT STORAGE SYSTEM

摘要

Several different embodiments of a massively scalable object storage system are described. The object storage system is particularly useful for storage in a cloud computing installation whereby shared servers provide resources, software, and data to computers and other devices on demand. In several embodiments, the object storage system includes a ring implementation used to associate object storage commands with particular physical servers such that certain guarantees of consistency, availability, and performance can be met. In other embodiments, the object storage system includes a synchronization protocol used to order operations across a distributed system. In a third set of embodiments, the object storage system includes a metadata management system. In a fourth set of embodiments, the object storage system uses a structured information synchronization system. Features from each set of embodiments can be used to improve the performance and scalability of a cloud computing object storage system.

主权项

1. A system for coordinating events in a distributed system, comprising:
a plurality of subsidiary nodes coupled to a network, each subsidiary node including at least one processor, a computer-readable medium, and a communications interface, wherein information in a first subsidiary node needs to be synchronized with information in a second subsidiary node in response to a time-varying series of requests; a first gateway including a first local clock and a first communications interface; a second gateway including a second local clock and a second communications interface; a timekeeping node coupled to the network, the timekeeping node including a master clock; and a synchronization rectifier coupled to the first and second subsidiary nodes; wherein the timekeeping node is coupled to the first and second gateways and reduces clock skew between the master clock, the first local clock, and the second local clock below a configurable threshold; wherein the first gateway timestamps a first request received over the first communications interface according to the time of the first local clock with a granularity at least equal to the configurable threshold; wherein the second gateway timestamps a second request received over the second communications interface according to the time of the second local clock with a granularity at least equal to the configurable threshold; wherein synchronization between the first subsidiary node and the second subsidiary node is controlled by the synchronization rectifier if the first request and the second request are separated by a time smaller than the configurable threshold; and wherein the configurable threshold is based on analyzing a pattern of accesses to the information in the first and second subsidiary nodes over time.