US 6,983,465 B2
Method and apparatus for managing data caching in a distributed computer system
Chhandomay Mandal, Nashua, N.H. (US); Mark J. Musante, Westford, Mass. (US); Peter J. Wagener, Somerville, Mass. (US); Jillian I. Dacosta, Nashua, N.H. (US); Roberta A. Pokigo, Billerica, Mass. (US); and Melora L. Goosey, Andover, Mass. (US)
Assigned to Sun Microsystems, Inc., Santa Clara, Calif. (US)
Filed on Oct. 11, 2001, as Appl. No. 9/975,485.
Prior Publication US 2003/0088713 A1, May 08, 2003
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. G06F 9/46 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 719—320 25 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for managing a data caching service from a management terminal in a distributed computer system having a host computer system with a host memory and at least one storage device connected to the computer system by driver software, the method comprising:
(a) inserting an interface layer between the driver software and the storage device, the interface layer exporting a platform dependent API comprising a plurality of API methods that can be called to control data passing between the driver software and the storage device;
(b) running, in the host computer system, management facade software that receives calls to platform-independent methods and generates at least one API method call to the interface layer in order to execute the platform-independent method calls;
(c) running, in the host computer system, a federated bean that generates platform-independent method calls to the management facade software to control the interface layer via the plurality of API methods; and
(d) controlling the federated bean to enable a data read cache by instructing the interface layer to intercept requests for data from the storage device and, if the data is in the host memory, to retrieve the data from the host memory, and to retrieve the data from the storage device if the data is not in the host memory.