Dell DX6004S DX Object Storage Application Guide - Page 12

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7

Version 5.0

December 2010

doesn’t help to describe it or name it, because these can be ambiguous. No one else can retrieve

your coat, unless they have the coat check.

A DX Storage UUID is a 128-bit, 16-octet, case-insensitive, opaque sequence of bits. In text-based

languages and protocols, notably the Simple Content Storage Protocol discussed in

Chapter 4,

Introduction to the Simple Content Storage Protocol (SCSP)

, a UUID is represented as a sequence

of 32 hexadecimal digits.

It has no internal structure and cannot be parsed in any way to yield meaningful information about

where or when the associated object was stored. An object’s UUID is not derived from the contents

of the object.

UUIDs are always assigned by a DX Storage node at the time an object is first stored. DX Storage

can produce copies or

replicas

of an object to facilitate fault-tolerance, integrity, and/or speed of

access, but every replica of a given object has exactly the same UUID as the original object. In fact,

there is no external way to distinguish an original from a replica. For all practical purposes, each

replica of an object is identical to every other replica of that object.

Note

If there is one replica of an object in a cluster, then there is only one instance of that

object in the cluster. Replica, instance, and object are all synonymous in this usage. It

would also be correct to say that there is one instance of the object in the cluster.

1.9.2. About Immutable Objects

By default, after an unnamed object is stored in DX Storage, it can be changed in only one way, and

that is to delete it. There is no way to open an existing object for updates or to extend an object by

adding more data to the end of it. At the time an object is first stored, the application must provide

a size, in bytes, for the object. DX Storage will allocate exactly enough space to store the given

number of bytes.

Subsequently, every replica of the object, if any, has precisely the same byte size. There can be no

chance that some replica will be updated or changed in some way while others are not changed. If

an application must update an object with a new version of the content, it is the responsibility of the

application developer to store a new DX Storage object containing the updated data, or delete it if

necessary, and to modify any references to the old UUID to point to the new one.

Likewise, DX Storage maintains no association between the old object and the new revision

because it is the responsibility of the application to make this association if necessary. In some of

these use cases it might be appropriate to use

anchor streams

as discussed in

Section 1.9.3, “About

Anchor Streams”

.

1.9.3. About Anchor Streams

Anchor streams are a special kind of unnamed object in DX Storage whose content can be

replaced, but whose UUID remains constant or "anchored." An anchor stream is created in much

the same way as a regular object, but using an

alias=yes

query argument on the WRITE request.

Unlike an immutable object whose contents can never change, the contents of an anchor stream

can be replaced using a COPY, APPEND, or UPDATE request. When reading an anchor stream,

DX Storage always returns the most recent data associated with the anchor stream's UUID.

Anchor streams serve a very specific and useful purpose for applications using DX Storage to

store fixed content data. Many such applications must associate a symbolic name of some kind (for

example, a URI or a file path name) to an object UUID as returned from DX Storage.

Section	Page
DX Object Storage Application Guide	1
Table of Contents	3
Chapter 1. Introduction to DX Storage Objects	6
1.1. Introducing Named Objects	6
1.2. Summary of Named Objects and Unnamed Objects	7
1.3. Common Named Object Terminology	7
1.4. About DX Storage Object Types	8
1.5. Bucket and Object Naming Rules	8
1.6. Simple Examples of Creating Buckets and Named Objects	8
1.7. Universal Resource Identifiers (URIs)	9
1.8. About Objects and Security	10
1.8.1. The Basics of DX Storage Security	10
1.8.2. Commonly Used Security Terminology	11
1.8.3. Basic Security Guidelines	11
1.9. Concepts for Unnamed Objects	11
1.9.1. Universally Unique Identifiers (UUIDs)	11
1.9.2. About Immutable Objects	12
1.9.3. About Anchor Streams	12
1.10. Document Typographical Conventions	13
Chapter 2. Connecting to a DX Storage Cluster	14
2.1. About the Primary Access Node (PAN)	14
2.2. Requirements for Node Accessibility	14
2.2.1. Using the DX Storage Software Development Kit (SDK)	14
2.2.2. Using Multicast-DNS (mDNS)	15
2.2.3. Using DNS Round Robin	15
2.2.4. Using a Pool of Static IP Addresses	16
2.2.5. Using a Single Static IP Address	16
Chapter 3. Application Best Practices	17
3.1. Using the Software Development Kit (SDK)	17
3.2. Dynamically Locating DX Storage Nodes	17
3.3. Optimizing Bucket and Domain Operations	17
3.4. Using HTTP Client Libraries	17
3.5. Handling Redirects	18
3.6. Using Range Headers	18
3.7. Multi-Threading	19
3.8. Using Persistent Connections	19
Chapter 4. Introduction to the Simple Content Storage Protocol (SCSP)	20
4.1. Mapping SCSP Operations to HTTP Methods	20
4.2. HTTP Overview	21
4.3. Requests and Responses	21
4.3.1. HTTP Response Codes	21
4.3.2. Redirect Responses	22
4.4. Formatting SCSP Commands for Named and Unnamed Objects	22
4.5. Undefined Responses from DX Storage	23
4.6. Normal Response Headers	24
Chapter 5. SCSP READ	27
5.1. Introduction to READ	27
5.1.1. Reading With Content Validation	27
5.1.2. Requestion Node Status and Cluster Capacity	27
5.2. Unnamed Object READ Details	28
5.3. Normal Responses to READ	28
5.3.1. Normal READ Responses for Named Objects	28
5.3.1.1. Normal READ Response for a Domain	28
5.3.1.2. Normal READ Response for a Bucket	29
5.3.1.3. Normal READ Response for a Named Object	29
5.3.2. Normal READ Response for Unnamed Objects	29
5.3.3. Other Normal READ Responses	30
5.4. Error Responses to READ	30
Chapter 6. SCSP WRITE	32
6.1. Introduction to WRITE	32
6.1.1. About the Expect: 100-continue Header and WRITE	33
6.1.2. About Replicate On Write	33
6.2. Named Object WRITE Details	33
6.3. Unnamed Object WRITE Details	33
6.4. Normal Responses to WRITE	33
6.5. Error Responses to WRITE	34
Chapter 7. SCSP DELETE	36
7.1. Introduction to DELETE	36
7.2. Unnamed Object DELETE Details	37
7.3. Named Object DELETE Details	37
7.4. Normal Responses to DELETE	37
7.5. Error Responses to DELETE	38
Chapter 8. SCSP UPDATE	39
8.1. Introduction to UPDATE	39
8.2. Unnamed Object UPDATE Details	39
8.3. Normal Responses to UPDATE	40
Chapter 9. SCSP COPY	41
9.1. Introduction to COPY	41
9.2. Unnamed Object COPY Details	41
9.3. Normal Responses to COPY	41
Chapter 10. SCSP APPEND	42
10.1. Introduction to APPEND	42
10.2. Unnamed Object APPEND Details	43
10.3. Normal Responses to APPEND	43
Chapter 11. SCSP INFO	44
11.1. Introduction to INFO	44
11.1.1. Getting Replica Counts	44
11.1.2. Getting Node Status and Cluster Capacity	44
11.2. Unnamed Object INFO Details	45
11.3. Normal Responses to INFO	45
11.3.1. Normal INFO Responses for Named and Unnamed Objects	45
11.3.2. Normal INFO Responses for Named Objects	46
11.3.3. Normal INFO Responses for Unnamed Objects	47
11.4. Error Responses to INFO	47
Chapter 12. Introduction to Object Security	48
12.1. About Security Roles	48
12.2. Security Realm Overview	49
12.2.1. Common Security Terminology	49
12.2.2. About Security Realms	49
12.2.3. About Realm Caching and Security	49
12.3. About Authorization Header Syntax	50
12.3.1. About Realm Names	51
12.3.1.1. About Realms and Buckets	51
12.3.1.2. About owner@ and @owner Syntax	51
12.3.1.3. About user@realm Syntax	51
12.4. Authorization Specification Examples	51
12.5. About Authorization Header Evaluation	52
12.6. Creating Realms	53
12.7. Updating the Realm on a Bucket	54
12.8. Administrative Override and Security	54
Chapter 13. Managing Security for Application Developers	55
13.1. What Application Developers Need to Know	55
13.2. About Bucket Authorization	55
13.3. Example: Creating Bucket Owners	56
13.4. Examples of Creating Buckets and Named Objects	56
Chapter 14. Managing Security for Domain Managers	59
14.1. What Domain Managers Need to Know	59
14.2. About Domain Manager Tasks and Responsibilities	59
14.3. Examples of Updating Domain and Administrator User Lists	59
14.3.1. Updating the Domain Realm	60
14.3.2. Updating the Domain Manager Realm	61
14.3.3. Updating a Realm Using PUT	62
Chapter 15. Using the Content-MD5 Metadata Header	64
Chapter 16. Using Lifepoint Metadata Headers	65
16.1. About Storage Policies	65
16.2. A Simple Lifecycle Example	65
16.3. Lifepoint/Lifecycle Specification	66
16.4. Constraint Types	66
16.4.1. Replication	67
16.4.2. Deletion	67
Chapter 17. Using the Allow Metadata Header	69
17.1. Overview of the Allow Header	69
17.2. Administrative Override	69
Chapter 18. Using Caching Metadata Headers	71
18.1. About Caching Headers	71
18.2. Using HTTP/1.0 Caching Headers	71
18.2.1. Last-Modified	71
18.2.2. If-Modified-Since	71
18.2.3. If-Unmodified-Since	71
18.2.4. Expires	72
18.3. Using HTTP/1.1 Caching Headers	72
18.3.1. ETag	72
18.3.2. If-Match	72
18.3.3. If-None-Match	73
18.3.4. If-Range	73
Chapter 19. Using Custom Metadata Headers	75
Chapter 20. Basic Content Integrity Assurance	76
20.1. Integrity Seals	76
20.2. Validating Reads	76
20.3. Application Initiated Hash Upgrading	77
Appendix A. Content Header Metadata	78
Appendix B. Sample Code and Client Library Behaviors with 100-Continue	80

Dell DX6004S DX Object Storage Application Guide - Page 12

About Immutable Objects, 9.3. About Anchor Streams

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