SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EFFICIENTLY DUPLICATING DATA IN A STORAGE SYSTEM, ELIMINATING THE NEED TO READ THE SOURCE DATA OR WRITE THE TARGET DATA

• US 20140324791A1
• Filed: 06/21/2013
• Published: 10/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: GreenBytes, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Petrocelli, Robert
• Granted Patent: US 10,642,795 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/692
• 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

Abstract

A method for copying data efficiently within a deduplicating storage system eliminates the need to read or write the data per se within the storage system. The copying is accomplished by creating duplicates of the metadata block pointers only. The result is a process that creates and arbitrary number of copies using minimal time and bandwidth.

Claims

1. A method of making a copy of data having metadata in a data deduplication system, comprising:

reading the metadata of the data to be copied from the deduplication system;

creating a copy of the metadata; and

incrementing the reference counts of the data copied.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the data is a data file.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the data is a range of blocks within a data file.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata is traversed sequentially.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata comprises a logical block pointer addressing a physical data block, a reference to the next logical block pointer in the data, and a fingerprint of the physical data block the logical block pointer references.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the fingerprint is derived from the physical data block via a cryptographic hash function.

7. A method of making a copy of data in a data deduplication system, comprising:

providing data to be copied, the data comprising a plurality of physical data blocks and metadata for each of physical data blocks;

providing a deduplication table having a reference count for each physical data block;

traversing the metadata of the data;

incrementing a reference count of each physical data block being copied in the deduplication table; and

creating a copy of the metadata;

whereby the copy of the metadata references the same plurality of physical data blocks of the data to be copied.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the data is a data file.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the data is a range of blocks within a data file.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the metadata is traversed sequentially.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the metadata comprises a logical block pointer addressing a physical data block, a reference to the next logical block pointer in the data, and a fingerprint of the physical data block the logical block pointer references.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the finger print is derived from the physical data block via a cryptographic hash function.

13. A method of making a copy of data in a data deduplication system, comprising:

providing data to be copied, the data comprising a plurality of physical data blocks and metadata for each of physical data blocks, the metadata comprising a logical block pointers addressing a physical data block, a reference to the next logical block pointer, and a finger print of the physical data block the logical block pointer references;

providing a deduplication table having a reference count for each physical data block;

traversing the metadata of the data;

incrementing a reference count of each physical data block being copied in the deduplication table; and

creating a copy of the metadata;

whereby the copy of the metadata references the same plurality of physical data block via a copy of the block pointer list.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the data is a data file.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the data is a range of blocks within a data file.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the logical block pointers of the block pointer list form a sequential chain.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the finger print is derived from the physical data block via a cryptographic hash function.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the metadata is traversed sequentially.