Abstract: In one aspect this invention provides a computer program embodied on a computer readable medium that is executed by at least one data processor of a policy management system. The computer program includes first computer program instructions for implementing a user interface and second computer program instructions for implementing a policy manager that is coupled to the user interface via a policy repository for introducing a new attribute, using the first computer program instructions, into a policy for a policy-managed system, without requiring a change to (e.g., without having to re-write or re-compile) the second computer program instructions.

Abstract: In an exemplary aspect of the invention, a method is disclosed for lifecycle management for file systems. The method comprises the following steps. At least one storage container adapted to support a file system is allocated. The at least one storage container and the file system are associated with a service class. The file system is created in the storage container. The service class is used during lifecycle actions performed on the file system. Lifecycle actions may comprise, e.g., creating, extending, replicating, moving, or migrating a file system. The service class for the file system may also be maintained for a lifecycle of the file system.

Abstract: Goal-based availability and change management are handled over groups of heterogeneous storage controllers. Probabilistic and deterministic methods are employed to determine the allocation and placement of storage volumes to storage controllers, as well as the degree of data redundancy necessary to achieve data availability goals. The probabilistic methods can take into account past observations of controller availability, and operator beliefs, as well as the state of storage controller configuration, in coming up with a probabilistic estimate of future availability.

Abstract: Method and system are disclosed for automatically discovering associations between applications and data in multi-tiered distributed systems. The method in one aspect uses a machine-readable specification of a model or template that describes use and transformation of data by software components. The method additionally utilizes a model of system configuration and appropriate runtime support to mine information available from systems management software present in enterprise systems. The application-data association discovery process performs a traversal of the distributed system configuration graph with actions taken during this traversal driven by the contents of the templates for the software components present in the system. The results of the application-data association discovery process are stored in a database and may be used to specify application-specific information lifecycle management (ILM) policy or as input to impact analysis tools in access control and antivirus systems.

Abstract: Provided are data structures for use in storing data. A plurality of data structures are defined in a computer readable medium, wherein each data structure indicates a plurality of attributes and at least one function of a storage resource to store data. Policies are defined in the computer readable medium that associate data characteristics to data structures based on a correspondence of data characteristics and the attributes defined in the data structures, wherein each defined data structure is adapted to provide requirements to determine a storage resource to store associated data, and wherein the defined data structure is adapted to provide the storage resource with requirements for storing the data.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer product wherein means and mechanisms are provided whereby, in a distributed or clustered shared file system, (1) concurrency classes may be defined specifying granularity of locking, whether locks are cached, and whether modified data is written-through at the completion of updates, (2) certain files, file types, or files and/or file types as used by given applications or classes of applications, may be associated with concurrency classes, and (3) for each usage of a file by an application, the associated concurrency class determines a policy for choosing specific concurrency and coherency control mechanisms to be used for accessing the given file.

Abstract: System, apparatus and methods for allocation of storage resources, performance monitoring, and reallocation of resources to eliminate hot spots, by specifying high-level goals, rather than by means of low-level manual steps. Policies are specified as administrator specified constraints under which the resources are managed. Goals are specified in terms of performance, availability, and security requirements of the desired storage. As a part of the automation, this invention provides for analyzing capabilities of the computer storage system and forming analysis results, which are later used for determining an allocation of resources that will meet the high-level goals specified. This invention also provides automatic monitoring of performance, availability, and security goals for allocated resources. If goals are not met, resources are reallocated so that the goals can be met with the allocation.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer product wherein means and mechanisms are provided whereby, in a distributed or clustered shared file system, (1) concurrency classes may be defined specifying granularity of locking, whether locks are cached, and whether modified data is written-through at the completion of updates, (2) certain files, file types, or files and/or file types as used by given applications or classes of applications, may be associated with concurrency classes, and (3) for each usage of a file by an application, the associated concurrency class determines a policy for choosing specific concurrency and coherency control mechanisms to be used for accessing the given file.

Abstract: Provided are data structures for use in storing data. A plurality of data structures are defined in a computer readable medium, wherein each data structure indicates a plurality of attributes and at least one function of a storage resource to store data. Policies are defined in the computer readable medium that associate data characteristics to data structures based on a correspondence of data characteristics and the attributes defined in the data structures, wherein each defined data structure is adapted to provide requirements to determine a storage resource to store associated data, and wherein the defined data structure is adapted to provide the storage resource with requirements for storing the data.

Abstract: An affinity-based router and method for routing and load balancing in an encapsulated cluster of server nodes is disclosed. The system consists of a multi-node server, wherein any of the server nodes can handle a client request, but wherein clients have affinity to one or more of the server nodes that are preferred to handle a client request. Such affinity is due to state at the servers either due to previous routing requests, or data affinity at the server. At the multi-node server, a node may be designated as a TCP router. The address of the TCP router is given out to clients, and client requests are sent thereto. The TCP router selects one of the nodes in the multi-node server to process the client request, and routes the request to this server; in addition, the TCP router maintains affinity tables, containing affinity records, indicating which node a client was routed to.

Abstract: An affinity-based router and method for routing and load balancing in an encapsulated cluster of server nodes is disclosed. The system consists of a multi-node server, wherein any of the server nodes can handle a client request, but wherein clients have affinity to one or more of the server nodes that are preferred to handle a client request. Such affinity is due to state at the servers either due to previous routing requests, or data affinity at the server. At the multi-node server, a node may be designated as a TCP router. The address of the TCP router is given out to clients, and client requests are sent thereto. The TCP router selects one of the nodes in the multi-node server to process the client request, and routes the request to this server; in addition, the TCP router maintains affinity tables, containing affinity records, indicating which node a client was routed to.

Abstract: A system and method of implicitly localizing agent access to a network component located on a remote host includes the steps of determining a host location of the network component; automatically relocating an agent to the remote host; and incorporating the agent into an address space shared by the network component. The agent is preferably a script.

Abstract: In a fault-tolerant distributed file system, the server state needs to be reconstructed after the server restarts or when its function is taken over by another node. A crucial part of the server state is determining whether or not in-flight, directory-operations initiated by the clients have been completed. Described is a check-before-request scheme that solves this problem. A global lock is obtained on the directory or directories first. A check is made on the directories to see if the operation would succeed, and if so a request is made to the server for the operation. If the server were to fail during the execution of the operation, completion of the operation prior to failure can be determined by merely re-examining the directory contents.

Abstract: A system and method for non-disruptive recovery from a file server failure. State information for a file system managed by a server is maintained among a plurality of client nodes of a distributed system. When a failure of the server is detected, all ongoing requests to server are suspended. Then, the state information in each client node is transferred to an identified back-up server. Based on the state information, the file server state prior to the failure is reconstructed. After the reconstructing the file system, the suspended requests are restarted on the back-up server.

Abstract: A system and method for avoiding serialization on updating the modification time of files in a cluster system. In accordance with the method, the modification time field of a file can be accessed by multiple readers or multiple writers and each client in the cluster system can update their own copy of the modification time. Whenever a client requests to read the modification time, the copies of the modification time are reconciled. The copies of the modification times are also reconciled when a cache flush or synchronization operation forces such reconciliation. The present system and method supports the requirement (of certain operating systems such as UNIX) that an explicit user-issued command to set the modification time is accomplished by granting an exclusive-write mode for the modification field.