Method and apparatus for reducing the amount of data in a storage system
First Claim
1. A method for storing data in a storage system comprising:
- determining a group of volumes having a commonality of data;
defining a base volume for the group;
extracting differential data between the base volume and each other volume in said group;
saving said differential data in a pool volume;
updating a mapping table regarding a location of the differential data in said pool volume.
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Abstract
Groups of volumes having a certain amount of commonality of data are identified within a storage system. For each group, the process defines a base volume, such as the volume containing the most commonality with the other volumes. For each volume in the group, the process extracts differential data between the base volume and each other volume, saves the differential data in a pool volume, and updates a mapping table. Commonality between volumes in the group is managed in the base volume, the pool volume, and the mapping table. Then the original volumes except the base volume and the pool volume may be deleted, and the original volumes are replaced with virtual volumes accessible through the mapping table. As a result, the amount of data in a storage system can be reduced while maintaining data integrity and accessibility.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. A method for storing data in a storage system comprising:
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determining a group of volumes having a commonality of data; defining a base volume for the group; extracting differential data between the base volume and each other volume in said group; saving said differential data in a pool volume; updating a mapping table regarding a location of the differential data in said pool volume. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A method for reducing the amount of stored data in a storage system comprising:
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determining a group of volumes having a commonality of data; extracting differential data between a pool volume and each volume in said group; saving said differential data in the pool volume; updating a mapping table regarding the location of the differential data in said pool volume; and deleting the volumes of the group while maintaining the pool volume and the mapping table. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17)
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18. A method of reducing an amount of data stored in a storage system comprising the steps of:
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selecting a first set volumes in which an amount of data is to be reduced; defining a group of volumes in the first set of volumes, said group of volumes having a determined degree of redundant data; within said group, defining a base volume and storing differential data in a differential volume for each other volume in said group relative to said base volume, the differential data representing a difference between the base volume and each other volume; storing a mapping relationship of each other volume, wherein the mapping relationship points to data of each other volume as being stored in either the base volume or the differential volume; and deleting the other volumes while retaining the base volume and the differential volume. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A system comprising:
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at least one storage system having a plurality of volumes containing data; a virtual volume providing module; a mapping table; and a data reduction module, wherein for a group of said volumes having a commonality of data, the data reduction module; defines a base volume for the group, divides the base volume and other volumes in said group into chunks of a predetermined size, extracts differential data between the base volume and each other volume in said group for each said chunk, saves each chunk having said differential data in a pool volume, and updates the mapping table regarding a location of chunks containing the differential data in said pool volume or a location of chunks not containing differential data in said base volume. - View Dependent Claims (25)
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Specification