US 7,478,400 B1
Efficient distributed transaction protocol for a distributed file sharing system
Anindya Banerjee, West Bengal (India); Sivaramakrishna Ramadugu Venkata, Hyderabad (India); Navin Kabra, Pune (India); Kai Wong, Saratoga, Calif. (US); and Bijaya Laxmi Nanda, Orissa (India)
Assigned to Symantec Operating Corporation, Cupertino, Calif. (US)
Filed on Dec. 31, 2003, as Appl. No. 10/749,300.
Int. Cl. G06F 3/00 (2006.01); G06F 15/16 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 719—313  [709/201] 15 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A first node comprising:
one or more processors; and
memory;
wherein the memory stores program instructions executable by the one or more processors to implement:
receiving a request from a client application, wherein the request requires a transaction; in response to the request, sending a first message to a plurality of participant nodes participating in the transaction;
in response to receiving a reply to the first message from at least a quorum of the participant nodes, sending a second message to the plurality of participant nodes;
in response to receiving a reply to the second message from at least a quorum of the participant nodes:
returning an indication to the client application that the request was successfully processed; and
sending a third message to the plurality of participant nodes, wherein the third message instructs the participant nodes to commit the transaction;
wherein the first message comprises a message requesting each of the participant nodes to reply by indicating whether they can commit the transaction;
wherein said receiving the reply to the first message from at least a quorum of the participant nodes comprises receiving a reply indicating an ability to commit the transaction from at least a quorum of the participant nodes;
wherein the second message comprises a message requesting each of the participant nodes to enter a state indicating that the transaction is to be committed; wherein said receiving the reply to the second message from at least a quorum of the participant nodes comprises receiving a reply indicating entrance into the state indicating that the transaction is to be committed from at least a quorum of the participant nodes.