- ON-DEMAND STORAGE PROVISIONING USING DISTRIBUTED AND VIRTUAL NAMESPACE MANAGEMENT

摘要

The present invention relates to an on-demand storage provisioning using dispersed virtual name space management. According to an embodiment of the present invention, a storage node comprises: one or more local storage apparatuses; and a storage node controller. The storage node controller includes: a host interface formed to be connected to an application driving on a host computer; a storage manager formed to manage one or more virtual name spaces; and a storage apparatus controller formed to manage each of the name spaces relevant to one or more storage apparatuses. The storage manager is additionally formed to, when the storage node includes a sufficient storage space, extend the storage space relevant to the virtual name space in accordance with a demand on one or more local storage apparatuses of the storage node in a request of the application driving on the host computer. When the storage node includes an insufficient storage space, the storage manager is formed to communicate with a peer storage manager of a second storage node on the network and to extend a storage space relevant to the virtual name space in accordance with a demand on the local storage apparatus of the second storage node from a request of the application driving on the host computer.