Data replication method over a limited bandwidth network by mirroring parities
First Claim
1. A storage architecture for mirroring data comprising:
- (a) a network;
(b) a primary storage system for serving storage requests and storing data blocks, wherein the primary storage system hasi) a central processing unit (CPU),ii) a random access memory (RAM) operatively connected to the CPU and segmented into a parity cache for storing a difference between an old parity and a new parity of each data block until the difference is mirrored to a remote site,iii) a log-structured disk as a secondary level mirroring cache, andiv) a parity computation engine for determing the difference; and
(c) a mirror storage system in communication with the primary storage system via the network, wherein the mirror storage system provides data mirroring storage for the primary storage system for data recovery and business continuity, wherein the mirror storage system derives and stores a mirrored copy of data of the primary storage system that is computed based on the difference transferred from the primary storage system.
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Abstract
A method dramatically reduces the amount of data to be stored and transferred in a networked storage system. Preferably, the network storage system provides continued data protection through mirroring/replication, disk-to-disk backup, data archiving for future retrieval, and Information Lifecycle management (ILM). The idea is to leverage the parity computation that exists in RAID systems. By caching, transferring, and storing data parity or delta bytes of changes on a block as opposed to data block itself, substantial data reduction is possible without using sophisticated compression algorithms at the production side to minimize performance impacts upon production servers. Data can be computed using the parity/delta and previously existing data at mirror side, replication side, backup storage, or at retrieval time upon events such as failures or ILM operations.
101 Citations
15 Claims
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1. A storage architecture for mirroring data comprising:
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(a) a network; (b) a primary storage system for serving storage requests and storing data blocks, wherein the primary storage system has i) a central processing unit (CPU), ii) a random access memory (RAM) operatively connected to the CPU and segmented into a parity cache for storing a difference between an old parity and a new parity of each data block until the difference is mirrored to a remote site, iii) a log-structured disk as a secondary level mirroring cache, and iv) a parity computation engine for determing the difference; and (c) a mirror storage system in communication with the primary storage system via the network, wherein the mirror storage system provides data mirroring storage for the primary storage system for data recovery and business continuity, wherein the mirror storage system derives and stores a mirrored copy of data of the primary storage system that is computed based on the difference transferred from the primary storage system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A storage architecture for data mirroring/replication, disk-to-disk backup, archiving, or ILM (information lifecycle management) comprising:
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(a) a network; (b) a primary storage system for serving storage requests and storing data blocks, wherein the primary storage system has i) a central processing unit (CPU), ii) a random access memory (RAM) operatively connected to the CPU and segmented into a parity cache for storing a difference between an old parity and a new parity of each data block until the difference is replicated to a remote site, stored in an archiving storage, or moved to an ILM storage, and iii) a parity computation engine for determining the difference; and (c) a secondary storage system in communication with the primary storage system via the network, wherein the secondary storage system provides data mirroring storage for the primary storage system for data recovery and business continuity, a backup storage, archiving storage, or ILM storage, wherein the secondary storage system stores mirrored copy of data of the primary storage or a delta-parity of changed data blocks for saving storage space, wherein the secondary storage system is a disk-to-disk backup and data stored thereon is either directly mirrored from the primary storage system or computed based on the difference when transferred from the primary storage system such that the difference can be used to recompute data back upon retrieval using successive EX-OR functions. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A system for storing data in a network comprising:
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first means for calculating a delta_parity at a primary storage system; second means for caching the delta_parity and data at the primary storage system; third means for transmitting the delta_parity; and a secondary storage system for receiving the delta_parity, the secondary storage system being operative to perform the step of computing parity based upon the delta_parity, wherein the secondary storage system being operative to perform the following step of deriving new data based upon the computed parity and data present at the secondary storage system. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15)
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Specification