US Patent 11947510 System and method for clustering distributed hash table entries

A distributed storage system may store data object instances in persistent storage and may store keymap information for those data object instances in a distributed hash table on multiple computing nodes. Each data object instance may include a composite key containing a user key. The keymap information for each data object instance may map the user key to a locator and the locator to the data object instance. A request to store or retrieve keymap information for a data object instance may be routed to a particular computing node based on a consistent hashing scheme in which a hash function is applied to a portion of the composite key of the data object instance. Thus, related entries may be clustered on the same computing nodes. The portion of the key to which the hash function is applied may include a pre-determined number of bits or be identified using a delimiter.