SNAPSHOTTING OF A PERFORMANCE STORAGE SYSTEM IN A SYSTEM FOR PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT OF A CAPACITY OPTIMIZED STORAGE SYSTEM

• US 20110072226A1
• Filed: 09/21/2010
• Published: 03/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Patterson, R. Hugo
• Granted Patent: US 8,677,052 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/162
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/121 using replacement algorithms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0607 by facilitating the process of upgrading existing storage systems, e.g. for improving compatibility between host and storage device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0608 Saving storage space on storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0611 in relation to response time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/064 Management of blocks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0641 De-duplication techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• 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 3/0679 Non-volatile semiconductor memory device, e.g. flash memory, one time programmable memory [OTP]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0685 Hybrid storage combining heterogeneous device types, e.g. hierarchical storage, hybrid arrays

Abstract

A system for storing data comprises a performance storage system for storing one or more data items. A data item of the one or more data items comprises a data file or a data block. The system further comprises a segment storage system for storing a snapshot of a stored data item of the one or more data items in the performance storage system. The taking of the snapshot of the stored data item enables recall of the stored data item as stored at the time of the snapshot. At least one newly written segment is stored as a reference to a previously stored segment.

Claims

1. A system for storing data, comprising:

a performance storage system for storing one or more data items, wherein a data item of the one or more data items comprises a data file or a data block; and

a segment storage system for storing a snapshot of a stored data item of the one or more data items in the performance storage system, wherein the taking of the snapshot of the stored data item enables recall of the stored data item as stored at the time of the snapshot, and wherein at least one newly written segment is stored as a reference to a previously stored segment.

2. A system as in claim 1, wherein the performance storage system comprises one or more of the following:

a flash memory, a fiber channel storage device, a persistent memory, a block addressable memory, a file system organized memory, or a random access memory.

3. A system as in claim 1, wherein the snapshot is created according to a snapshot protocol.

4. A system as in claim 1, wherein the snapshot is created in response to an external signal.

5. A system as in claim 1, wherein a second stored data item of the one or more data items is not captured using any snapshot.

6. A system as in claim 1, wherein the snapshot is taken using a log of changes to the one or more data items stored by the performance storage system.

7. A system as in claim 1, wherein the performance storage system removes the stored data item after the stored data item is stored by taking the snapshot on the segment storage system.

8. A system as in claim 1, wherein the segment storage system stores the snapshot using variable length segments.

9. A system as in claim 1, wherein the segment storage system has content addressable segments.

10. A system as in claim 9, wherein the content addressable segments are addressed using a fingerprint of a segment.

11. A system as in claim 1, wherein the segment storage system is replicated using a replica segment storage system.

12. A system as in claim 11, wherein the replica stores a copy of the snapshot of the stored data item.

13. A system as in claim 11, wherein the replication of the segment storage system occurs according to a replication protocol.

14. A system as in claim 1, wherein a data representation in at least a portion of the performance storage system is not the same as the data representation in the segment storage system.

15. A system as in claim 14, wherein the data representation in at least a portion of the performance storage system comprises an uncompressed data representation.

16. A system as in claim 14, where the data representation in the segment storage system comprises a compressed data representation.

17. A system as in claim 1, wherein the performance storage system includes data stored using both a compressed data representation and an uncompressed data representation.

18. A system as in claim 1, wherein the segment storage system includes a complete copy of all data items comprising a snapshot, wherein the segment storage system replicates all the data items in capacity optimized form using the complete copy of all data items.

19. A method for storing data, comprising:

storing one or more data items in a performance storage system, wherein a data item of the one or more data items comprises a data file or a data block; and

storing in segment storage system a snapshot of a stored data item of the one or more data items in the performance storage system, wherein the taking of the snapshot of the stored data item enables recall of the stored data item as stored at the time of the snapshot, and wherein at least one newly written segment is stored as a reference to a previously stored segment.

20. A computer program product for storing data, the computer program product being embodied in a computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:

storing one or more data items in a performance storage system, wherein a data item of the one or more data items comprises a data file or a data block; and

storing in segment storage system a snapshot of a stored data item of the one or more data items in the performance storage system, wherein the taking of the snapshot of the stored data item enables recall of the stored data item as stored at the time of the snapshot, and wherein at least one newly written segment is stored as a reference to a previously stored segment.