Mechanism for running parallel application programs on metadata controller nodes

摘要

The present invention is directed to a method for controlling file access in a multinode, shared storage, data processing system in which a one set of nodes is capable of acting as metadata controllers and a second set of nodes are tuned for running user applications. By providing two kinds of locks operative at the file level of granularity, a mechanism is produced which permits application programs to also run on their set of metadata controller nodes. One of the locks permits read and write access to existing data blocks but precludes operations such as file deletion or file truncation. The other lock is of lower authority and permits metadata controller nodes, which can provide time limited permissions to the application nodes, to withhold locks which authorize access when requests for access are made from application nodes.