File analytics systems and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12248435-B2
Application number	US-202117304096-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 14, 2021
Priority date	Mar 31, 2021
Publication date	Mar 11, 2025
Grant date	Mar 11, 2025

Abstract

Examples of file analytics systems are described that may obtain metadata data and events data from a virtualized file server. The metadata may be obtained by scanning one or more snapshots of the virtualized file server. The metadata and event data may be used to report various metrics relating to the virtualized file server.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A non-transitory computer readable media encoded with executable instructions which, when executed, cause a computing system to:
access a sharded share distributed across a first file server virtual machine or container and a second file server virtual machine or container of a distributed file server hosted by a plurality of file server virtual machines or containers including the first and second file server virtual machines or containers;
scan at least two snapshots of the sharded share to identify in a first snapshot, a first top-level directory hosted by the first file server virtual machine or container and to identify in a second snapshot, a second top-level directory hosted by the second file server virtual machine or container, wherein the first top-level directory and the second top-level directory together comprise metadata associated with the sharded share;
collect metadata from the at least two snapshots to obtain the metadata associated with the sharded share;
receive event data through an events pipeline, the event data based on events in the distributed file server; and
provide metrics based on the metadata and the event data.

2. The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 1 , wherein the scan is performed without using a distributed file system (DFS) referral.

3. The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 1 , wherein the sharded share is a server message block (SMB) share, and wherein the sharded share is hosted by multiple file server virtual machines or containers of the plurality of file server virtual machines or containers.

4. The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the computing system to:
obtain the metadata associated with the sharded share.

5. The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 4 , wherein the instructions further cause the computing system to:
store the metadata;
store the event data corresponding to certain events that occurred on the distributed file server; and
provide analytics relating to the distributed file server based on the metadata and the event data.

6. The computer readable media encoded of claim 5 , wherein the instructions further cause the computing system to:
providing one or more recommendations based on the analytics associated with the file server, wherein the one or more recommendations comprise a recommendation to change an access control list (ACL) for a share based on a comparison of an access history for that share with the ACL assigned to that share.

7. The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 1 , wherein the sharded share corresponds with a snapshot of a file system provided by the plurality of file server virtual machines or containers.

8. The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the computing system to:
identify a subset of the plurality of file server virtual machines or containers hosting the sharded share, including the first file server virtual machine or container and the second file server virtual machine or container.

9. The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 1 , wherein the sharded share corresponds to a first folder and one or more files, additional folders, or both, within the first folder are stored across multiple ones of the file server virtual machines or containers.

10. The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 1 , wherein the first file server virtual machine or container comprises an indicator indicating a presence of the second top-level directory in the second file server virtual machine or container such that the first top-level directory and the second top-level directory together comprise metadata associated with the sharded share.

11. The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 10 , wherein the indicator is a pointer, a file server virtual machine or container identifier, or a combination thereof.

12. A system comprising:
a distributed file server, hosted by a plurality of file server virtual machines or containers including a first file server virtual machine or container and a second file server virtual machine or container, configured to host files across multiple computing nodes; and
an analytics system comprising at least one processor and memory storing instructions, which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the analytics system to perform operations comprising:
access a sharded share distributed across the first file server virtual machine or container and the second file server virtual machine or container of the distributed file server;

scan at least two snapshots of the sharded share to identify in a first snapshot, a first top-level directory hosted by the first file server virtual machine or container and to identify in a second snapshot, a second top-level directory hosted by the second file server virtual machine or container, wherein the first top-level directory and the second top-level directory together comprise metadata associated with the sharded share;
collect metadata from the at least two snapshots to obtain the metadata associated with the sharded share;
receive event data through an events pipeline, the event data based on events in the distributed file server; and
provide metrics based on the metadata and the event data.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the sharded share comprises a server message block (SMB) share.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein the analytics system is provided at least in part using a LINUX client.

15. The system of claim 12 , wherein the distributed file server comprises the plurality of file server virtual machines or containers, and wherein the analytics system is configured to identify multiple file server virtual machines or containers hosting the sharded share, including the first file server virtual machine or container and the second file server virtual machine or container.

16. The system of claim 12 , wherein the analytics system is further configured to scan the at least two snapshots without using a distributed file system (DFS) referral.

17. The system of claim 12 , wherein the metrics provided based on the metadata and the event data correspond to analytics relating to the file server.

18. The system of claim 12 , wherein the first file server virtual machine or container comprises an indicator indicating a presence of the second top-level directory in the second file server virtual machine or container such that the first top-level directory and the second top-level directory together comprise metadata associated with the sharded share.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the indicator is a pointer, a file server virtual machine or container identifier, or a combination thereof.

20. A system comprising:
a distributed file server configured to host files across multiple computing nodes; and
an analytics system comprising at least one processor and memory storing instructions, which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the analytics system to perform operations comprising:
access a sharded share of the distributed file server;
scan at least two snapshots of at least a portion of the distributed file server to identify at least one top-level directory hosted by a group of computing nodes;
collect metadata from the at least two snapshots to obtain metadata associated with the sharded share;
receive event data through an events pipeline, the event data based on events in the distributed file server; and
provide a r

Assignees

• Nutanix Inc

Inventors

• SINHA Pankaj Kumar
• Kotwal Ketan
• Gupta Sagar
• Tripathi Deepak
• Nayak Partha Pratim

Classifications

• G06F16/182

  Distributed file systems · CPC title

• G06F16/188

  Virtual file systems · CPC title

• G06F16/1734 Primary

  Details of monitoring file system events, e.g. by the use of hooks, filter drivers, logs · CPC title