Lightning Talk given at OwnCloud Contributor Conference 2015 Berlin. OwnCloud has some design constraints that limits the scalability of the product when is being used in huge deployments. One component that limits this scalability is the oc_filecache. This talk will propose a new architecture for the handling of the metadata in OwnCloud.

1. From oc_filecache to a
flexible and scalable
OC namespace
OCC 2015
Hugo González Labrador IT-DSS-FDO

2. About me

3. About me
Technical student

4. About me
Technical student
CERNBox project

5. About me
Technical student
CERNBox project
Integration (OC with EOS)
Scalability (DAS, HASD)

6. What is a cache ?

7. What is a cache ?
A cache is a place to store something temporarily in a
computing environment.
A cache is controlled by a cache algorithm that provides
instructions for how the cache should be maintained (LRU,
MRU …)

8. What is a namespace ?

9. What is a namespace ?
A namespace uniquely identifies a name so that there is
no ambiguity when files having different origins but the
same names are mixed together

10. What is oc_filecache ?

11. What is oc_filecache ?
Is it a cache ?

12. What is oc_filecache ?
Is it a cache ? No

13. What is oc_filecache ?
Is it a cache ? No
Is it a namespace ?

14. What is oc_filecache ?
Is it a cache ? No
Is it a namespace ? Not when sharing is enabled

15. No user namespace when
sharing is enabled

16. What is oc_filecache ?
Is it a cache ?
Is it a namespace ?
So, what is oc_filecache ?
No
Not when sharing is enabled

17. What is oc_filecache ?
Is it a cache ?
Is it a namespace ?
So, what is oc_filecache ?
No
An ad-hoc component which is the foundation of
OwnCloud.
Not when sharing is enabled

18. What does oc_filecache ?

19. What does oc_filecache ?
1. Provides a hierarchical structure for the files within all the
storages

20. What does oc_filecache ?
1. Provides a hierarchical structure for the files within all the
storages
2. Assigns a unique ID to all the files in all the storages

21. What does oc_filecache ?
1. Provides a hierarchical structure for the files within all the
storages
2. Assigns a unique ID to all the files in all the storages
3. Propagates changes to the top level directory

22. What components are using
oc_filecache directly?

23. What components are using
oc_filecache directly?
1. Core apps Files, Files External, Files Sharing …

24. What components are using
oc_filecache directly?
1. Core apps
2. Core library
Files, Files External, Files Sharing …
Cache, Storage, Share, Repair …

25. What components are using
oc_filecache directly?
1. Core apps
2. Core library
Files, Files External, Files Sharing …
Cache, Storage, Share, Repair …
3. Probably 3rd apps

26. SCALING
OWNCLOUD:
A suggestion

27. 1st
Let’s call things by their name
Cache Namespace

28. 2nd
OCFilesCache
to
OCFilesNSDispatcher

29. 3rd
Create public interface
OCPFilesNSINamespace

30. 4th
Implement
different namespaces plugins
OCFilesNSLocalNS OCFilesNSEosNS OCFilesNSSwiftNS

31. 5th
Replace
direct calls to oc_filecache
with
OCPFilesNSDispatcher

32. Architecture
Eos
Swift
Local
NSDispatcher
EosNS
SwiftNS
LocalNS
Requests

33. Benefits

34. Benefits
Flexibility:
Namespace in different technologies

35. Benefits
Flexibility:
Namespace in different technologies
Scalability:
A namespace per user and not a global one
Take advantage of the storage (geo replication,
checksums, built-in versions and trashbin)

36. Benefits
Flexibility:
Namespace in different technologies
Avoid patching the core. Go upstream!!!
Scalability:
A namespace per user and not a global one
Take advantage of the storage (geo replication,
checksums, built-in versions and trashbin)

37. Benefits
Move responsibility from the core to NS plugin
developer
Flexibility:
Namespace in different technologies
Scalability:
A namespace per user and not a global one
Take advantage of the storage (geo replication,
checksums, built-in versions and trashbin)
Avoid patching the core. Go upstream!!!

38. Drawbacks
Might (it shouldn’t) break backward compatibility

40. Robustness and Scalability
are the most important aspects.
We would like to help improve OwnCloud by
rethinking core architecture based on a scalable
design.
We think that scalable OwnCloud architecture will
benefit all users and all market segments.
The message

41. Danke!