JPH07306839A - How to speed up access to network files - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] (Modified) [Objective] The object of the present invention is to make the write processing speed faster than the conventional method in the server machine, and to guarantee the operation of the entire server machine at the time of power failure. It is to submit a method for accelerating access to network files. [Configuration] A battery is installed in the server machine so that the entire server machine can be operated for a certain period of time when a power failure occurs, the contents of the main memory are saved in a non-volatile storage device during the certain period of time, and system stop processing is performed by software. I did it. Also, in normal operation, the software operates by considering main memory as a non-volatile memory, and when the server machine receives a request for a write process from the client, it does not wait for the process to be written to the non-volatile storage device. , The processing completion notification is sent to the client.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a LAN (local area network) of an information processing device such as a personal computer, a workstation or an office computer.
The present invention relates to a method for speeding up access to file resources such as files or databases via a network such as.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, in information processing systems, CS
With the spread of S (client server system), LA
There is a challenge to speed up access to file resources such as files or databases via a network such as N. In a system represented by the network file system of Sun Microsystems, Inc., which accesses a file resource such as a file or a database via a network such as a LAN, data is guaranteed in order to guarantee data integrity against power failure. In regard to write processing such as write of data and change of directory, writing to a non-volatile storage device such as a hard disk on the server machine side is a prerequisite for the processing completion notification to the client. That is, when the server machine receives a write processing request from the client, the server machine must write the processing to a non-volatile storage device such as a hard disk and then notify the client of the processing completion. At this time, since a non-volatile storage device such as a hard disk is generally much slower than a volatile storage device such as a main memory, processing such as data writing and directory change is always slow. This means that read processing such as data read and directory reference can be speeded up in many cases by a method such as caching the contents of the hard disk etc. in the main memory. Has become a bottleneck for performance.

In order to deal with this problem, as a conventional method for speeding up a server machine such as a file or a database, for example, "Prestoserve, NASF accelerator"; Sunworld (US version) 1992 1
Month issue, pages 74 to 76 ("Prestoserv
e, an NFS Accelerator ”; Su
nWorld, January, 1992, pp. 74
-76), a RAM (random access memory) device with a backup battery is installed as a high-speed non-volatile buffer storage device as an I / O device to write data or change a directory. A method is known in which a process is written in the buffer storage device, a process completion notification is given to the client, and then the server machine asynchronously writes to the hard disk or the like regardless of the client.

[0004]

The above-mentioned prior art contributes to the speeding up of the write processing in the server machine, but since the RAM device with the backup battery is used, the operation of the entire server machine is guaranteed at the time of power failure. Therefore, it is necessary to add equipment such as a non-stop power supply device, the hardware cost of the RAM device with a backup battery is high, and the writing speed is limited by the performance of the RAM device with a backup battery as an I / O device. There was a problem such as.

An object of the present invention is to speed up write processing as compared with the conventional method in a server machine without limiting the writing speed by the performance of a RAM device with a backup battery as an I / O device, and to perform a power failure. In order to guarantee the operation of the entire server machine at the time, it is to provide a low-priced method for accelerating network file access,
NF, which is a typical network file system
In S, the write processing is to be faster than the conventional method.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention mounts a battery on the server machine to ensure that the entire server machine can be operated for a fixed time such as 15 minutes when a power failure occurs. Thus, the portion of the contents of the main memory that needs to be saved is saved in a non-volatile storage device such as a hard disk during the fixed time, and system stop processing is performed by software. As the evacuation operation, generally, an operation of writing the portion of the contents of the main memory that needs to be saved in the file system on the hard disk by the file system software can be considered, but if the operation does not end within the above-mentioned fixed time, As the operation, a part or all of the content of the main memory is copied to an area prepared in advance on the hard disk so that the operation is completed within the fixed time.

Further, assuming that the above battery is mounted,
In normal operation, the software considers the main memory as a non-volatile memory and operates, and when the server machine receives a write processing request from the client, waits for the processing to be written to a non-volatile storage device such as a hard disk. Instead, the processing completion notification is sent to the client.

[0008]

According to the present invention, during normal operation of the server machine, the software operates by considering the main memory as a non-volatile memory,
When the server machine receives a write processing request from the client, it sends a process completion notification to the client without waiting for the write processing to be written to the non-volatile storage device, so that write processing such as data writing or directory change can be performed. , Can be completed only by writing to the main memory.
As a result, the write speed is not limited by the performance of the RAM device with the backup battery as the I / O device, and the write process can be performed faster than the conventional method.

According to the present invention, the entire server machine can be operated for a certain period of time, for example, 15 minutes when a power failure occurs,
During the fixed time, the portion of the main memory that needs to be saved is saved in a non-volatile storage device such as a hard disk, and system stop processing is performed by software, so the operation of the entire server machine at the time of power failure is guaranteed. It can provide a cheap and fast way to access network files.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a processing operation flow chart showing a write processing operation flow of a server machine according to the present invention and a write processing operation flow of a server machine according to the prior art, and FIG. 2 is a configuration showing a CSS environment including a server machine to which the present invention is applied. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a server machine according to the present invention and the conventional method,
FIG. 4 is an operation flow chart showing an operation at the time of a power failure of the server machine according to the present invention.

The present invention is applied to the server machine indicated by 22 in the CSS environment as shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 21 indicates, for example, CSMA / CD, Tokenrin.
LA such as g, FDDI, or ATM network
N and 22 are server machines for holding and managing network files or databases, and 23 is a plurality of clients such as PCs and workstations. In the CSS environment as shown in FIG. 2, a client generally accesses a file, a database or the like on a server machine by using a system such as NFS. In the CSS environment, there are configurations such as a case where a plurality of server machines of one LAN are connected, or a case where one server machine is connected to a plurality of LAN, and L
WAN (Wide Area Ne) instead of AN22
There is also a configuration using a public network such as a network) or ISDN, but the present invention is not limited to the server machine 2 in any configuration.
2 can be applied.

Next, the hardware configuration of the server machine 22 will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 3, (a) is an example of the configuration of the server machine according to the present invention, and (b) is an example of the configuration of the server machine according to the conventional method. Both (a) and (b) have a processor unit 31, a main memory 32, a hard disk 33, and a LAN interface unit 34 as basic constituent elements.
And these are connected by the system bus 35.

The processor unit 31 is a unit having a single or a plurality of CPUs and a CPU cache memory, and there is also a server machine having a plurality of processor units 31. The main memory 32 is a main memory unit configured by a DRAM or the like which is a volatile memory element as a device characteristic, and there is also a server machine in which the main memory 32 is configured by a plurality of units. Hard disk 33 is shown as a representative of non-volatile storage. Other non-volatile storage devices include optical disks, magneto-optical disks, magnetic tapes,
A configuration using a floppy disk or the like, or an array configuration using a plurality of hard disks or each of the above devices is also conceivable. The LAN interface unit 34 is
A network connection interface is shown, and as described above, a WAN, a public network, or the like may be used as the network. The system bus 35 represents a data transfer path interconnecting the processor unit 31, the main memory 32, the hard disk 33, and the LAN interface unit 34 as a representative, and there are also connection forms such as paths, channels, and rings other than the bus. The present invention can be applied to any of the above basic components.

In the configuration (b) of the server machine according to the conventional method, a RAM device (buffer RAM) 303 with a backup battery is connected to the system bus 35 in addition to the above basic components. In addition, power is directly supplied from the general AC power supply 36 to the entire server machine. In the configuration (b), in order to guarantee the operation of the entire server machine at the time of power failure, it is necessary to add a general non-stop power supply device 304 to the AC power supply 36. Therefore, in order to guarantee the operation of the entire server machine at the time of power failure, the buffer RA is configured in the configuration (b).
Hardware cost of M303 and non-stop power supply 30
A hardware cost of 4 is required.

On the other hand, in the configuration (a) according to the present invention, the buffer RAM 303 is unnecessary. The power source is
The power is supplied from the general AC power supply 36 to the entire server machine via the power supply control circuit 302. The battery 301 is connected to the power supply control circuit 302, and the AC power supply 3 is used in the event of a power failure.
When the power supply from 6 is interrupted, the power is supplied from the battery 301 to the entire server machine for a fixed time such as 15 minutes. Further, in the configuration (a), the power supply control circuit 302 is connected to the system bus 35, which means that the power supply control circuit 302 has a function of transmitting and receiving information to and from the processor unit 31. The power supply control circuit 302 can be easily configured by diverting a power supply control circuit or the like generally used in a battery-mounted personal computer. Configuration (a)
The hardware configurations of the battery 301 and the power supply control circuit 302 are substantially the same as the configuration when a general non-stop power supply device is incorporated. Therefore, the hardware cost of the battery 301 and the power supply control circuit 302 in the configuration (a) is almost equal to the hardware cost of the non-stop power supply device 304 in the configuration (b).
And the configuration (b) are compared, the buffer R is
It can be seen that the hardware cost of the AM303 is unnecessary and the server machine can be made low in price.

Next, the write processing operation of the server machine according to the present invention and the conventional method will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 1, (a) is a write processing operation flow of the server machine according to the present invention, and (b) is a write processing operation flow of the server machine according to the related art. In the server machine according to the conventional method having the configuration shown in FIG. 3B, as shown in FIG.
When a write request from a client is accepted via the AN (11), first, write processing such as change of write data or directory is written in the main memory 32 (12),
When the processing on the main memory 32 is completed, the written contents are written to the buffer RAM 303 (13), and when the writing is completed, the nonvolatile memory is written. Therefore, the write processing completion notification to the client is sent to the LAN. Via (14). Writing (15) from the buffer RAM 303 to the hard disk 33 is performed asynchronously after the write processing completion notification to the client.

On the other hand, in the server machine according to the present invention having the configuration shown in FIG. 3A, as shown in FIG.
When a write request from a client is accepted via the AN (11), first, write processing such as change of write data or directory is written in the main memory 32 (12),
In the present invention, the software operates by considering the main memory as a non-volatile memory, and therefore, when the processing on the main memory 32 is completed, it is considered that the writing to the non-volatile memory is performed, and the write process to the client is performed. A completion notification is given via the LAN (14). Writing (15) from the main memory 32 to the hard disk 33 is performed asynchronously after the write processing completion notification to the client.

As described above, according to the present invention, the writing (13) from the main memory 32 to the buffer RAM 303, which is required in the conventional method, is unnecessary. As a result, a RAM with a backup battery that has a writing speed as an I / O device
Without being limited by the performance of the device, the time from receiving a write request from the client (11) to the write processing completion notification (14) to the client is shortened to speed up the write processing of the server machine. You can

In the present invention, the software operates by considering the main memory as a non-volatile memory, but in order to perform the operation, it is necessary to provide a means for guaranteeing the data integrity against a power failure or the like. In the present invention, the existence of the battery 301 and the power supply control circuit 302 in FIG. 3A is a premise for guaranteeing the data integrity against a power failure or the like. The operation of the server machine according to the present invention during a power failure will be described below with reference to FIG.

FIG. 4 is an operation flow chart showing the operation at the time of power failure of the server machine according to the present invention. In the server machine according to the present invention having the configuration shown in FIG. 3A, when the power supply control circuit 302 detects that the supply from the AC power supply 26 is interrupted due to a power failure or the like (41), the power supply is switched to the battery 301 (4).
2) The entire server machine can be operated continuously for a fixed time such as 15 minutes. Further, the power supply control circuit 302
Notifies the processor unit 31 of the power interruption by means such as an interrupt, and the processor unit 31 starts the system stop processing by software (43). In the system stop process, the contents of the main memory 32 are saved in the hard disk 33 by writing (44). As the main saving operation, when a part or all of the changed portion on the main memory 32 is written to the file system on the hard disk 33 by the file system software, a part or all of the content of the main memory 32 is previously stored on the hard disk 33. It is conceivable that the data is copied to a prepared area, and in any case, it operates so as to guarantee the integrity of the data written in the main memory 32 in the write processing during the normal operation. Further, in the system stop processing, the entire server machine can be continuously operated by the battery 301.
For example, it is designed to finish within the fixed time such as 15 minutes. When the system stop processing is completed, the processor unit 31 issues a system stop instruction to the power supply control circuit 302, and the power supply control circuit 302 stops the power supply from the battery 301 and stops the system (45). With the above operation, the server machine according to the present invention can guarantee the data integrity against a power failure or the like, so that the software can operate by considering the main memory as a non-volatile memory during normal operation.

[0021]

According to the present invention, the writing speed in the server machine is not limited by the performance of the RAM device with the backup battery as the I / O device, and the write processing is made faster than the conventional method. You can
In addition, it guarantees the operation of the entire server machine at the time of power failure, and there is no limitation of non-volatility due to the life of the backup battery.
It is possible to provide an inexpensive method for accelerating access to network files.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a processing operation flow chart showing a write processing operation flow of a server machine according to the present invention and a write processing operation flow of a server machine according to a conventional technique.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing a CSS environment including a server machine to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a server machine according to the present invention and a conventional method.

FIG. 4 is an operation flow chart showing an operation at the time of a power failure of the server machine according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 21 ... LAN, 22 ... Server machine, 23 ... Client, 31 ... Processor unit, 32 ... Main memory, 33 ... Hard disk, 34 ... LAN interface, 35 ... System bus, 36 ... AC power supply, 301 ... Battery, 302 ... Power supply control Circuit, 303 ... RAM device with backup battery.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A client-server system for accessing a file resource via a network,
In a server machine having battery means for allowing the entire server machine to operate for a certain period of time when a power failure occurs, when the server machine receives a request for a write process from a client, the process is performed on a main memory, which is a volatile storage device. A method for accelerating access to a network file, characterized in that a processing completion notification is sent to a client after completion of the processing and before writing to the nonvolatile storage device. 2. The system according to claim 1, wherein a portion of the contents of the main memory that needs to be saved is saved in a non-volatile storage device during the above-mentioned certain time when a power failure occurs, and system stop processing is performed by software. How to speed up access to network files. 3. The non-volatile memory device according to claim 2, wherein a part of the main memory that needs to be saved is written into the file system on the non-volatile memory device as a saving operation to the non-volatile memory device. How to speed up access to network files. 4. The non-volatile memory device according to claim 2, wherein part or all of the contents of the main memory are copied to an area prepared in advance in the non-volatile memory device. How to speed up access to network files. 5. A file via a network, characterized in that the method for speeding up access according to claim 1, 2, 3, or 4 is implemented and has battery means for operating for a certain period of time when a power failure occurs. A server machine in a system that accesses resources.