Mechanism for converting one type of mirror to another type of mirror on a storage system without transferring data
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- converting an existing mirror relationship between an original dataset stored at a source storage system and a mirror of the original dataset stored at a destination storage system to a new mirror relationship, a dataset including one or more data containers, the existing mirror relationship converted by;
transferring, from a source conversion module on the source storage system, a first plurality of data container attributes contained on the source storage system'"'"'s active file system in a directory structure, each attribute within the first plurality of data container attributes associated with a data container'"'"'s properties, the first plurality data container attributes transferred to the destination storage system rather than the files themselves;
receiving the first plurality of data container attributes at a destination conversion module on the destination storage system;
comparing, by the destination conversion module on the destination storage system, the first plurality of data container attributes received in the directory structure to the attributes on the destination storage system'"'"'s active file system to find common data container attributes contained on both the source storage system and the destination storage system;
for each matching attribute found in both the first plurality of data container attributes and the second plurality of data container attributes, creating a mapping of an associated inode number on the source storage system to an associated inode number on the destination storage system of each data container associated with the matched attribute; and
establishing a new mirror relationship using the mapping without discarding the mirror and without transferring data from the source storage system to create a new mirror to replace the existing mirror at the destination storage system.
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Abstract
Embodiments of the present invention provide a mechanism for converting an existing mirror relationship between an original dataset at a source storage system and a copy of the original dataset at a destination system to a new mirror without discarding the existing copy of the original dataset and without transferring data to create a new dataset to replace the copy of the original dataset at the destination storage system. Rather, a directory structure (including file attributes) of the source storage system is transferred to the destination storage system and a comparison is made to identify file attributes at the destination system that match the transferred file attributes. If a match is found, a mapping between the matched file attributes is created. Subsequent updates to the destination storage system can be done using a technique other than the one that was used to create a copy of the source dataset.
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Citations
16 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
converting an existing mirror relationship between an original dataset stored at a source storage system and a mirror of the original dataset stored at a destination storage system to a new mirror relationship, a dataset including one or more data containers, the existing mirror relationship converted by; transferring, from a source conversion module on the source storage system, a first plurality of data container attributes contained on the source storage system'"'"'s active file system in a directory structure, each attribute within the first plurality of data container attributes associated with a data container'"'"'s properties, the first plurality data container attributes transferred to the destination storage system rather than the files themselves; receiving the first plurality of data container attributes at a destination conversion module on the destination storage system; comparing, by the destination conversion module on the destination storage system, the first plurality of data container attributes received in the directory structure to the attributes on the destination storage system'"'"'s active file system to find common data container attributes contained on both the source storage system and the destination storage system; for each matching attribute found in both the first plurality of data container attributes and the second plurality of data container attributes, creating a mapping of an associated inode number on the source storage system to an associated inode number on the destination storage system of each data container associated with the matched attribute; and establishing a new mirror relationship using the mapping without discarding the mirror and without transferring data from the source storage system to create a new mirror to replace the existing mirror at the destination storage system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method comprising:
converting an existing mirror relationship between an original dataset stored at a source storage system and a copy of the original dataset stored at a destination storage system to a new mirror relationship, each dataset including one or more data containers, the existing mirror relationship converted by; transferring, from a source conversion module on the source storage system, a first plurality of data container attributes contained on the source storage system'"'"'s active file system in a directory structure, each attribute within the first plurality of data container attributes associated with a data container'"'"'s properties, the first plurality data container attributes transferred to the destination storage system rather than the files themselves; receiving the first plurality of data container attributes at a destination conversion module on the destination storage system; finding attributes of data containers at the destination storage system matching attributes of data containers at the source storage system by comparing the attributes received in the directory structure to the attributes on the destination storage systems active file system; for each matching attribute found in both the first plurality of data container attributes and the second plurality of data container attributes, changing identifiers of the data containers at the destination storage system having attributes that match the attributes of the data containers at the source storage system; and establishing the new mirror relationship between the original dataset and the copy of the original dataset without discarding the copy of the original dataset and without transferring data to create a new dataset to replace the copy of the original dataset at the destination storage system. - View Dependent Claims (8)
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9. A system for converting an existing mirror relationship between an original dataset stored at a source storage system and a copy of the original dataset stored at a destination storage system to a new mirror relationship, each dataset including one or more data containers, the system comprising:
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a first conversion module executed at the source storage system configured to transfer a first plurality of data container attributes contained on the source storage system'"'"'s active file system in a directory structure, each attribute within the plurality of attributes associated with a data container'"'"'s properties, the first plurality data container attributes transferred to the destination storage system rather than the files themselves; a second conversion module executed at the destination storage system configured to receive the first plurality of data container attributes at a destination conversion module on the destination storage system, to find attributes of data containers at the destination storage system matching the received attributes of data containers by comparing the first plurality of data container attributes received in the directory structure to attributes on the destination storage system'"'"'s active file system, and for each matching attribute found in both the first plurality of data container attributes and the second plurality of data container attributes, to create a mapping between the data containers having matching attributes; and a first mirroring module at the destination storage system configured to provide updates to the copy of the original dataset to reflect changes in the original dataset using the mapping without discarding the copy of the original dataset and without transferring data from the source storage system to create a new dataset to replace the copy of the original dataset at the destination storage system. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A computer-program product containing executable program instructions executed by a processor, comprising:
a computer-readable medium having computer program code embodied thereon for converting an existing mirror relationship between an original dataset stored at a source storage system and a copy of the original dataset stored at a destination storage system to a new mirror relationship, each dataset including one or more data containers, the computer program code configured to; transfer, from a source conversion module on the source storage system, a first plurality of data container attributes contained on the source storage system'"'"'s active file system in a directory structure, each attribute within the first plurality of data container attributes associated with a data container'"'"'s properties, the first plurality data container attributes transferred to the destination storage system rather than the files themselves; receive the first plurality of data container attributes at a destination is conversion module on the destination storage system; compare, by the destination conversion module on the destination storage system, the first plurality of data container attributes received in the directory structure to attributes on the destination storage system'"'"'s active file system to find common data container attributes contained on both the source storage system and the destination storage system; for each matching attribute found in both the first plurality of data container attributes and the second plurality of data container attributes, create a mapping of an associated inode number on the source storage system to an associated inode number on the destination storage system of each data container associated with the matched attribute; and establish a new mirror relationship using the mapping without discarding the copy of the original dataset and without transferring data from the source storage system to create a new dataset to replace the copy of the original dataset at the destination storage system. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16)
Specification