System and method of storage optimization
First Claim
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1. A storage system, the system comprising:
- a storage optimization (SO) module operatively coupled to a physical storage space storing a plurality of data units, each data unit of said plurality of data units comprising a data art and a metadata part, wherein said metadata part is added to the data unit by an application that is external to the SO module and wherein the SO module is configured to deduplicate data units that differ only in metadata parts comprised therein, by;
differentiate a first data part from a first metadata part, wherein said first data part and said first metadata part are sequentially comprised within a first data unit; and
identify a second data unit among said plurality of data units that is partly identical to said first data unit, said second data unit comprises a second data part, which is identical to said first data part, and a second metadata part, which is different from said first metadata part;
associate a logical address corresponding to said first data part with a physical address corresponding to said second data part;
store said first metadata part in a designated area in said physical storage space and associate a logical address corresponding to said first metadata part with a physical address corresponding to said designated area; and
discard said first data part of said first data unit, thereby reducing volume of stored data in said physical storage space.
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Abstract
A method and system are disclosed for storage optimization. Data parts and metadata within a source data unit are identified and the data parts are compared with data which is already stored in the physical storage space. In case identical data parts are found within the physical storage, the data parts from the source data unit are linked to the identified data, while the data parts can be discarded, thereby reducing the required storage capacity. The metadata parts can be separately stored in a designated storage area.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. A storage system, the system comprising:
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a storage optimization (SO) module operatively coupled to a physical storage space storing a plurality of data units, each data unit of said plurality of data units comprising a data art and a metadata part, wherein said metadata part is added to the data unit by an application that is external to the SO module and wherein the SO module is configured to deduplicate data units that differ only in metadata parts comprised therein, by; differentiate a first data part from a first metadata part, wherein said first data part and said first metadata part are sequentially comprised within a first data unit; and identify a second data unit among said plurality of data units that is partly identical to said first data unit, said second data unit comprises a second data part, which is identical to said first data part, and a second metadata part, which is different from said first metadata part; associate a logical address corresponding to said first data part with a physical address corresponding to said second data part; store said first metadata part in a designated area in said physical storage space and associate a logical address corresponding to said first metadata part with a physical address corresponding to said designated area; and discard said first data part of said first data unit, thereby reducing volume of stored data in said physical storage space. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. An SO (storage optimization) module operatively connectable to a storage control layer in a storage system and coupled to a physical storage space storing a plurality of data units, each data unit of said plurality of data units comprising a data part and a metadata part, wherein said metadata part is added to the data unit by an application that is external to the SO module and wherein the SO module is configured to deduplicate data units that differ only in metadata parts comprised therein, by:
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differentiate a first data part from a first metadata part, wherein said first data part and said first metadata part are sequentially comprised within a first data unit; and identify a second data unit among said plurality of data units that is partly identical to said first data unit, said second data unit comprises a second data part, which is identical to said first data part, and a second metadata part, which is different from said first metadata part; associate a logical address corresponding to said first data part with a physical address corresponding to said second data part; store said first metadata part in a designated area in said physical storage space and associate a logical address corresponding to said first metadata part with a physical address corresponding to said designated area; and discard said first data part of said first data unit, thereby reducing volume of stored data in said physical storage space.
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12. A method of allocating data to a physical data storage in a storage system comprising a storage optimization (SO) module operatively coupled to a physical storage space storing a plurality of data units, each data unit of said plurality of data units comprising a data part and a metadata part, the method comprising:
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differentiating, by the SO module, a first data part from a first metadata part, wherein said first data part and said first metadata part are sequentially comprised within a first data unit, and wherein said first metadata part is added to said first data unit by an application that is external to the SO module prior to the step of differentiating; identifying, by the SO module, a second data unit among said plurality of data units that is partly identical to said first data unit, said second data unit comprises a second data part, which is identical to said first data part, and a second metadata part, which is different from said first metadata part; associating a logical address corresponding to said first data part with a physical address corresponding to said second data part; storing said first metadata part in a designated area in said physical storage space and associate a logical address corresponding to said first metadata part with a physical address corresponding to said designated area; and discarding said first data part of said first data unit, thereby reducing volume of stored data in said physical storage space. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps of allocating data to a physical data storage associated with a storage system comprising a storage optimization (SO) module operatively coupled to a plurality of physical storage devices storing a plurality of data units, each data unit of said plurality of data units comprising a data part and a metadata part, the method comprising:
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differentiating, by the SO module, a first data part from a first metadata part, wherein said first data part and said first metadata part are sequentially comprised within a first data unit, and wherein said first metadata part is added to said first data unit by an application that is external to the SO module prior to the step of differentiating; identifying, by the SO module, a second data unit among said plurality of data units that is partly identical to said first data unit, said second data unit comprises a second data part, which is identical to said first data part, and a second metadata part, which is different from said first metadata part; associating a logical address corresponding to said first data part with a physical address corresponding to said second data part; storing said first metadata part in a designated area in said physical storage space and associate a logical address corresponding to said first metadata part with a physical address corresponding to said designated area; and discarding said first data part of said first data unit, thereby reducing volume of stored data in said physical storage space.
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Specification