James A Cowling

US Patent:

20190205457, Jul 4, 2019

Filed:

Jan 17, 2018

Appl. No.:

15/873693

Inventors:

- San Francisco CA, US
David Wetterau - San Francisco CA, US
Braden Walker - San Francisco CA, US
James Cowling - San Francisco CA, US
Sujay Jayakar - San Francisco CA, US

International Classification:

G06F 17/30
H04L 29/08
G06F 1/04

Abstract:

A system can serialize moves and mounts across namespaces based on lamport clocks. In some examples, the system obtains a request to move a content item from a source namespace to a destination namespace. The system processes an incoming move at the destination and an outgoing move at the source. The system processes for the content item a delete at the source and an add at the destination. The system assigns a first clock to the incoming move and a second clock to the outgoing move, the first clock being lower than the second clock. The system assigns a third clock to the delete and a fourth clock to the add, the third clock being higher than the second clock and lower than the fourth clock. The system serializes the incoming and outgoing moves, the delete and the add based on the first, second, third and fourth clocks.

US Patent:

20150254320, Sep 10, 2015

Filed:

Mar 25, 2014

Appl. No.:

14/224786

Inventors:

- San Francisco CA, US
James Cowling - San Francisco CA, US

Assignee:

Dropbox, Inc. - San Francisco CA

International Classification:

G06F 17/30

Abstract:

The disclosed embodiments relate to a system that uses colocation hints to facilitate storing data blocks in a distributed data storage system, which includes a plurality of data centers. During operation, the system receives a write request from a client to write a data block to the distributed data storage system, wherein the write request includes a colocation hint that identifies a colocation group associated with the data block. In response to the write request, the system uses the colocation hint to identify one or more data centers associated with the colocation group. Next, the system writes copies of the data block to the one or more identified data centers. In this way, the system situates copies of data blocks associated with the colocation group in the same data centers when possible.