Abstract: Implementations are provided herein for a token to be generated on one node within the cluster of nodes, and then used on any of the nodes to authenticate future client requests that include the token. The basis of the token can be a set of name value pairs that include discriminative information related to the client's user name, access zones, token timestamp, etc. An additional name-value pair or set of pairs can included encryption salt for additional security. The set of name value pairs can then be encrypted, in one implementation, using Advanced Encryption Standard (“AES”) 256 bit key. Each node among the cluster of nodes can have access to the current encryption key. Thus, a single key, or in some implementations, past keys that are still valid, can be used to decrypt received tokens by any node among the cluster of nodes. Once decrypted, the name-value pairs of the decrypted token can be validated.

Abstract: A method for prefetching data in a file system includes detecting an access to a file in the file system, wherein an instance of file access information is generated upon each access to the file, placing a plurality of the instance of file access into an access history buffer, performing a collinear check between at least three of the plurality of the instance of file access information in the history buffer to determine a sequential access pattern, creating a prefetch stream based on the sequential access pattern if the collinear check succeeds, and placing the prefetch stream into the prefetch stream buffer.