ENHANCED RELIABILITY IN DEDUPLICATION TECHNOLOGY OVER STORAGE CLOUDS

• US 20130290274A1
• Filed: 04/25/2012
• Published: 10/31/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AirBNB Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: PATIL, Sandeep R., RAMANATHAN, Sri, TREVATHAN, Matthew B., SHIRAGUPPI, Riyazahamad M., SODHIYA, Prashant
• Granted Patent: US 8,903,764 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/690
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1453 using de-duplication of the data
• 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 16/24556 Aggregation; Duplicate elimination
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking

Abstract

Methods and systems for enhancing reliability in deduplication over storage clouds are provided. A method includes: determining a weight for each of a plurality of duplicate files based on parameters associated with a respective storage device of each of the plurality of duplicate files; and designating one of the plurality of duplicate files as a master copy based on the determined weight.

Claims

1. A method implemented in a computer infrastructure comprising a combination of hardware and software, the method comprising:

determining a weight for each of a plurality of duplicate files based on parameters associated with a respective storage device of each of the plurality of duplicate files; and

designating one of the plurality of duplicate files as a master copy based on the determined weight.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the parameters comprise at least one of static parameters and dynamic parameters.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the parameters comprise at least one of vendor weight, mean time between failure, read performance, write performance, availability, and durability of a respective said storage device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the parameters comprise at least one of head flying height, remapped sector, error counts, spin up time, temperature, and data throughput of a respective said storage device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the weight is additionally based on a respective weighting factor associated with each one of the parameters.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising obtaining numerical values for the each one of the parameters and the respective weighting factors.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the weight of a particular one of the plurality of files is determined according to:

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising replacing remaining ones of the plurality of duplicate files, other than the master copy, with respective pointers pointing to the master copy.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing the determining and the designating as part of a post deduplication process in a cloud environment.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing the determining and the designating as part of an inline deduplication process in a cloud environment.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein a service provider at least one of creates, maintains, deploys and supports the computer infrastructure.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein steps of claim 1 are provided by a service provider on a subscription, advertising, and/or fee basis.

13. A system implemented in hardware and comprising a computer infrastructure operable to:

identify duplicate files stored at different storage devices;

determine a weight for each one of the duplicate files based on parameters associated with the storage devices; and

designate one of the duplicate files as a master copy based on the determined weights.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the parameters are related to at least one of reliability, health, and user preference of the storage devices on which the duplicate files are stored.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein:

the parameters include at least one of vendor weight, mean time between failure, read performance, write performance, availability, and durability of the storage devices; and

the parameters include at least one of head flying height, remapped sector, error counts, spin up time, temperature, and data throughput of the storage devices.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the determining the weight for each one of the duplicate files is additionally based on weighting factors defined for the parameters.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein:

two of the duplicate files have an equal highest weight; and

the designating one of the duplicate files as the master copy comprises selecting one of the two based on a tie-breaker parameter.

18. A computer program product comprising a computer usable storage medium having readable program code embodied in the storage medium, wherein the computer program product includes at least one component operable to:

determine a hash value for each of a plurality of files;

determine a set of duplicate files based on the hash values;

determine a weight for each one of the duplicate files, wherein the weight is based on parameters associated with storage devices; and

designate a master copy of the set based on the weight of each one of the duplicate files; and

nominate remaining files in the set, other than the master copy, for deletion.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the parameters are related to at least one of reliability, health, and user preference of the storage devices.

20. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the storage devices are different nodes in a cloud environment.

21. A method of deduplication, comprising:

providing a computer infrastructure operable to;

determine a hash value for each of a plurality of files;

define sets of the plurality files based on the hash values; and

for each respective one of the sets;

determine a highest weight file in the respective set, wherein the weight is based on parameters associated with storage devices;

designate the highest weight file as a master copy for the respective set; and

nominate remaining files in the respective set, other than the master copy, for deletion.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the parameters are related to at least one of reliability, health, and user preference of the storage devices.

23. A computer system for file deduplication, the system comprising:

a CPU, a computer readable memory and a computer readable storage media;

first program instructions to identify a set of duplicate files;

second program instructions to determine a weight for each one of the duplicate files; and

third program instructions to designate a master copy of the set based on the weight of each one of the duplicate files; and

fourth program instructions to delete remaining files of the set, other than the master copy, and replace the remaining files with respective pointers pointing to the master copy,

wherein the first, second, third, and fourth program instructions are stored on the computer readable storage media for execution by the CPU via the computer readable memory;

the weight is based on parameters associated with storage devices and weighting factors defined for the parameters; and

the parameters are related to at least one of reliability, health, and user preference of the storage devices.

24. The computer system of claim 23, wherein:

the parameters include at least one static parameter comprising at least one of vendor weight, mean time between failure, read performance, write performance, availability, and durability of the storage devices;

the parameters include at least one dynamic parameter comprising at least one of head flying height, remapped sector, error counts, spin up time, temperature, and data throughput of the storage devices; and

the weight of a particular one of the duplicate files is determined according to;

25. The computer system of claim 23, wherein the storage devices are different nodes in a cloud environment.