File manager providing distributed locking and metadata management for shared data access by clients relinquishing locks after time period expiration
US6389420B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Sep 30, 1999 |
| Grant date | May 14, 2002 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 30, 2019 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
- CPC primaryY10S707/99952
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
File locks and file metadata are distributed from a file manager to clients in a data network to permit the clients to share access to file data in data storage. The file manager is permitted to grant a second lock upon the file data without necessarily receiving notification from a client that it has relinquished a first lock on the file data while ensuring that conflicting locks are never granted. The client sets the beginning of a first period of time over which the client may access the file data once the first lock on the file data has been granted by the file manager, and the client sends a lock request to the file manager. The file manager responds by setting the beginning of a second period of time such that the first period of time is certain to have expired once the second period of time has expired, granting the first lock upon the file data to the client, and transmitting a lock grant message to the client. The client receives the lock grant message, and accesses the file data so long as the client's access to the file data will be completed by expiration of the first period of time.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.