Granted Patent B2

US 8,275,744 · App. 12/764,873 · Granted Sep 25, 2012

Abstract

Claims (56)

1. A dispersed storage device for use within a dispersed storage network, comprising:

an interface; and

a processing module operable to:

slice a data segment of a data object into data slices, a number of the data slices corresponding to a number of pillars for storing the data object, each of the pillars corresponding to a particular data slice of each data segment of each data object written to a vault, the vault being associated with at least one user;

create a slice name for each of the data slices, the slice name including:

routing information containing:

a vault identifier that identifies the vault associated with the data object; and

a slice index based on the vault identifier and a pillar identifier that identifies a pillar associated with the data slice; and

a source data name containing an identifier of the data object; and

output, via the interface, a data slice of the data slices and the respective slice name to a corresponding storage unit for storage therein.

2. The dispersed storage device of claim 1 , wherein the routing information comprises a vault generation identifier that identifies a generation of the vault, the generation indicating a virtual address range assigned to the pillar.

3. The dispersed storage device of claim 2 , wherein the routing information comprises a reserved field, and wherein the slice index comprises two bytes, the vault identifier comprises sixteen bytes, the vault generation identifier comprises two bytes and the reserved field comprises four bytes.

4. The dispersed storage device of claim 1 , wherein the processing module comprises a gateway module operable to:

receive a user identity (ID) and object name associated with the data object;

determine the vault identifier and user information associated with the at least one user from the user ID; and

determine the source data name from the object name.

5. The dispersed storage device of claim 4 , wherein the source data name comprises the vault identifier, the vault generation identifier and a data name associated with the object name.

6. The dispersed storage device of claim 4 , wherein the user information comprises user attributes of the user and operational parameters, the operational parameters including one or more of an error coding algorithm, a read threshold of the error coding algorithm, the number of pillars for the vault, an encryption algorithm, a slicing parameter, a compression algorithm, an integrity check method, caching settings and parallelism settings.

7. The dispersed storage device of claim 4 , wherein the processing module further comprises an access module operable to:

receive the data object, the source data name and the user information from the gateway module; and

segment the data object into data segments based on the user information; and

a grid module operable to:

receive the data segments, the source data name and the user information from the access module;

slice each of the data segments into respective error coded data slices;

create the respective slice name for each of the error coded data slices; and

determine the corresponding storage unit for each of the error coded data slices.

8. The dispersed storage device of claim 7 , wherein the grid module further comprises:

a slice index generator for receiving the pillar identifier, reversing the pillar identifier to create a reversed pillar identifier and performing an XOR on the reversed pillar identifier and least significant bits of the vault identifier to generate the slice index.

9. The dispersed storage device of claim 4 , wherein the source data name comprises, in a first format, a type field indicating a file format of the data object, a file identifier that is linked to the object name and a segment identifier that identifies the data segment, and in a second format, a type field indicating a block format of the data object, a filler field and a block identifier that is linked to the object name.

10. The dispersed storage device of claim 1 , wherein the data object comprises at least one of a data file, a data block and a real time data stream.

11. A method for storage of a data object, comprising:

slicing a data segment of the data object into data slices a number of the data slices corresponding to a number of pillars for storing the data object, each of the pillars corresponding to a particular data slice of each data segment of each data object written to a vault, the vault being associated with at least one user;

creating a slice name for each of the data slices, the slice name including:

routing information containing:

a vault identifier that identifies the vault associated with the data object; and

a slice index based on the vault identifier and a pillar identifier that identifies a pillar associated with the data slice; and

a source data name containing an identifier of the data object; and

outputting, via the interface, a data slice of the data slices and the respective slice name to a corresponding storage unit for storage therein.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the routing information comprises a vault generation identifier that identifies a generation of the vault, the generation indicating a virtual address range assigned to the pillar.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the routing information comprises a reserved field, and wherein the slice index comprises two bytes, the vault identifier comprises sixteen bytes, the vault generation identifier comprises two bytes and the reserved field comprises four bytes.

14. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

receiving a user identity (ID) and object name associated with the data object;

determining the vault identifier and user information associated with the at least one user from the user ID; and

determining the source data name from the object name.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the source data name comprises the vault identifier, the vault generation identifier and a data name associated with the object name.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the user information comprises user attributes of the user and operational parameters, the operational parameters including one or more of an error coding algorithm, a read threshold of the error coding algorithm, the number of pillars for the vault, an encryption algorithm, a slicing parameter, a compression algorithm, an integrity check method, caching settings and parallelism settings.

17. The method of claim 14 , wherein the slicing further comprises:

receiving the data object and the user information;

segmenting the data object into data segments based on the user information; and

slicing each of the data segments into respective error coded data slices.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the creating the slice name further comprises:

receiving the pillar identifier;

reversing the pillar identifier to create a reversed pillar identifier; and

performing an XOR on the reversed pillar identifier and least significant bits of the vault identifier to generate the slice index.

19. The method of claim 14 , wherein the source data name comprises, in a first format, a type field indicating a file format of the data object, a file identifier that is linked to the object name and a segment identifier that identifies the data segment, and in a second format, a type field indicating a block format of the data object, a filler field and a block identifier that is linked to the object name.

20. The method of claim 11 , wherein the data object comprises at least one of a data file, a data block and a real time data stream.

Assignments (8)