SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR RESTORING DATA ON DEMAND FOR INSTANT VOLUME RESTORATION
First Claim
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1. A computer method, comprising:
- executing a storage operating system on a storage system serving a volume;
replacing the volume with a sparse volume served by the storage system, the sparse volume comprising a tree structure with at least one pointer referencing data that is not stored locally in the tree structure;
storing, within the sparse volume, volume infrastructure metadata of the volume served by the storage system; and
receiving a request for the data referenced by the at least one pointer and copying the data referenced by the at least one pointer to the sparse volume in response to receiving the request.
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Abstract
A technique is disclosed for restoring data of sparse volumes, where one or more block pointers within the file system structure are marked as ABSENT, and fetching the appropriate data from an alternate location on demand. Client data access requests to the local storage system initiate a restoration of the data from a backing store as required. A demand generator can also be used to restore the data as a background process by walking through the sparse volume and restoring the data of absent blocks. A pump module is also disclosed to regulate the access of the demand generator. Once all the data has been restored, the volume contains all data locally, and is no longer a sparse volume.
134 Citations
28 Claims
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1. A computer method, comprising:
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executing a storage operating system on a storage system serving a volume; replacing the volume with a sparse volume served by the storage system, the sparse volume comprising a tree structure with at least one pointer referencing data that is not stored locally in the tree structure; storing, within the sparse volume, volume infrastructure metadata of the volume served by the storage system; and receiving a request for the data referenced by the at least one pointer and copying the data referenced by the at least one pointer to the sparse volume in response to receiving the request. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A computer data storage system, comprising:
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a processor configured to execute a storage operating system of a storage system serving a volume; the storage system configured to create a sparse volume to replace the volume, the sparse volume comprising a tree structure with at least one pointer configured to reference data that is not stored locally in the tree structure; the sparse volume configured to store volume infrastructure metadata of the volume served by the storage system; and the storage system further configured to receive a request for the data referenced by the at least one pointer and further configured to copy the data referenced by the at least one pointer to the sparse volume in response to receiving the request. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A computer readable storage medium configured to store executable program instructions to be executed by a processor, the computer readable storage medium comprising:
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program instructions that execute a storage operating system on a storage system serving a volume; program instructions that replace the volume with a sparse volume served by the storage system, the sparse volume comprising a tree structure with at least one pointer referencing data that is not stored locally in the tree structure; program instructions that store, within the sparse volume, volume infrastructure metadata of the volume served by the storage system; and program instructions that receive a request for the data referenced by the at least one pointer and program instructions that copy the data referenced by the at least one pointer to the sparse volume in response to receiving the request. - View Dependent Claims (28)
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Specification