Accessing a file system using tiered deduplication

• US 10,474,638 B2
• Filed: 02/20/2018
• Issued: 11/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2014
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Mitkar, Amit, Kumarasamy, Paramasivam, Kottomtharayil, Rajiv
• Primary Examiner(s): Bansal, Gurtej
• Application Number:
  US15/899,699
• Publication Number:
  US 20180189314A1
• Time in Patent Office: 630 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/102 where the programme performs an interfacing function, e.g. device driver G06F13/105 takes precedence; scheduling within device drivers G06F9/52; contention policies within device drivers G06F9/4881
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1727 Details of free space management performed by the file system saving storage space on storage systems G06F3/0608; management of blocks in storage devices G06F3/064
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1734 Details of monitoring file system events, e.g. by the use of hooks, filter drivers, logs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1748 De-duplication implemented within the file system, e.g. based on file segments de-duplication techniques in storage systems for the management of data blocks G06F3/0641
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/196 Specific adaptations of the file system to access devices and non-file objects via standard file system access operations, e.g. pseudo file systems dedicated interfaces to storage systems G06F3/0601
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0608 Saving storage space on storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0641 De-duplication techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0664 at device level, e.g. emulation of a storage device or system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0667 at data level, e.g. file, record or object virtualisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0683 Plurality of storage devices

Abstract

An illustrative pseudo-file-system driver uses deduplication functionality and resources in a storage management system to provide an application and/or a virtual machine with access to a locally-stored file system. From the perspective of the application/virtual machine, the file system appears to be of virtually unlimited capacity. The pseudo-file-system driver instantiates the file system in primary storage, e.g., configured on a local disk. The application/virtual machine requires no configured settings or limits for the file system'"'"'s storage capacity, and may thus treat the file system as “infinite.” The pseudo-file-system driver intercepts write requests and may use the deduplication infrastructure in the storage management system to offload excess data from local primary storage to deduplicated secondary storage, based on a deduplication database. The pseudo-file-system driver also intercepts read requests and in response may restore data from deduplicated secondary storage to primary storage, also based on the deduplication database.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a computing device having one or more processors and corresponding computer-readable memory, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

hosting a virtual machine and an associated data agent component of a storage management system;

executing a pseudo-file-system driver that instantiates a file system based on exposing a first mount point for the file system,

wherein the file system resides in a primary storage device in communication with the computing device;

configuring, by the pseudo-file-system driver, an association between the file system and a deduplication database component of the storage management system;

executing the virtual machine with access to the file system;

wherein the pseudo-file system driver invokes at least one deduplication job, which;

(i) moves some data from the file system in the primary storage device to a secondary storage device component of the storage management system, and

(ii) stores the moved data in deduplicated form thereto based at least in part on the deduplication database; and

wherein based on the at least one deduplication job, the pseudo-file-system driver provides the virtual machine with access to the file system configured without a storage-capacity limit.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein executing the pseudo-file-system driver renders unnecessary configuring the file system with a storage-capacity limit for the virtual machine.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein executing the at least one deduplication job invoked by the pseudo-file-system driver renders unnecessary configuring the file system with a storage-capacity limit for the virtual machine.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein executing the pseudo-file-system driver renders unnecessary configuring the virtual machine with a storage-capacity limit for the file system.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein executing the at least one deduplication job invoked by the pseudo-file-system driver renders unnecessary configuring the virtual machine with a storage-capacity limit for the file system.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the pseudo-file-system driver identifies excess data in the file system before invoking the at least one deduplication job, which is applicable to the excess data.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the at least one deduplication job is performed at least in part by a media agent component of the storage management system, and wherein the media agent component maintains the deduplication database.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the data agent performs the at least one deduplication job in conjunction with a media agent component of the storage management system, and wherein the media agent component maintains the deduplication database.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein when the pseudo-file-system driver identifies data requested by the virtual machine that is not available from the file system in the primary storage device, the pseudo-file-system driver invokes a restore job that uses the deduplication database to retrieve the unavailable data from at least one of the deduplication database and a secondary storage device associated with a media agent component of the storage management system.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 wherein the restore job is performed at least in part by the media agent component of the storage management system, and wherein the media agent maintains the deduplication database.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 wherein the data agent performs the restore job in conjunction with the media agent component of the storage management system, and wherein the media agent maintains the deduplication database.

12. A method comprising:

hosting, by a computing device comprising one or more processors and computer-readable memory, a virtual machine and an associated data agent, which is a component of a storage management system;

executing a pseudo-file-system driver that instantiates a file system based on exposing a first mount point for the file system,

wherein the file system resides in a primary storage device in communication with the computing device;

configuring, by the pseudo-file-system driver, an association between the file system and a deduplication database component of the storage management system;

executing the virtual machine with access to the file system;

invoking, by the pseudo-file-system driver, at least one deduplication job for excess data identified in the file system by the pseudo-file-system driver based on the deduplication database; and

wherein based on the at least one deduplication job, the pseudo-file-system driver provides the virtual machine with access to the file system configured without a storage-capacity limit.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the at least one deduplication job for the excess data:

(i) moves the excess data from the file system in the primary storage device to a secondary storage device, and

(ii) stores the moved data in deduplicated form thereto based at least in part on the deduplication database.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein executing the at least one deduplication job invoked by the pseudo-file-system driver renders unnecessary configuring the file system with a storage-capacity limit for the virtual machine.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein executing the at least one deduplication job invoked by the pseudo-file-system driver renders unnecessary configuring the virtual machine with a storage-capacity limit for the file system.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the pseudo-file-system driver identifies excess data in the file system before invoking the at least one deduplication job applicable to the excess data.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the at least one deduplication job is performed at least in part by a media agent component of the storage management system associated with the secondary storage device, and wherein the media agent maintains the deduplication database.

18. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

when the pseudo-file-system driver identifies data requested by the virtual machine that is not available from the file system in the primary storage device, invoking by the pseudo-file-system driver a restore job that uses the deduplication database to retrieve the unavailable data from at least one of;

the deduplication database and a secondary storage device.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the restore job is performed at least in part by a media agent component of the storage management system associated with the secondary storage device, and wherein the media agent maintains the deduplication database.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the data agent performs the restore job in conjunction with a media agent component of the storage management system associated with the secondary storage device, and wherein the media agent maintains the deduplication database.