Systems and methods for reclaiming storage space from deleted volumes on thin-provisioned disks

• US 8,635,422 B1
• Filed: 10/29/2009
• Issued: 01/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Veritas Technologies, LLC (Whitehouse Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Symantec Corporation (NortonLifeLock Inc.)
• Inventors: Kaliannan, Kirubakaran, Root, Michael E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bradley, Matthew
• Assistant Examiner(s): GOLDSCHMIDT, CRAIG S
• Application Number:
  US12/608,766
• Time in Patent Office: 1,545 Days
• Field of Search: 711/170
• US Class Current: 711/170
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0608 Saving storage space on storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0652 Erasing, e.g. deleting, data cleaning, moving of data to a wastebasket
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0665 at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for reclaiming storage space from deleted volumes on thin-provisioned disks may include: 1) identifying a deleted volume, 2) identifying storage space on a thin-provisioned disk that was allocated to the deleted volume, 3) saving information that identifies the storage space, 4) identifying a policy that specifies reclaiming the storage space asynchronously with respect to the deleted volume, and then 5) reclaiming the storage space asynchronously with respect to deletion of the volume in accordance with the policy. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for reclaiming storage space from thin-provisioned storage systems, at least a portion of the method being performed by a computing device comprising at least one processor, the method comprising:

identifying a deleted volume;

identifying a plurality of disks within a thin-provisioned storage system that allocated storage space to the deleted volume;

in response to the deleted volume being deleted, identifying reclaimable storage space made available by the deletion of the deleted volume by, for each disk within the plurality of disks, saving information on the disk that;

indicates that the disk contains reclaimable storage space;

identifies which locations of the storage space were allocated by the disk to the deleted volume before it was deleted;

identifying a policy that specifies reclaiming the storage space that was allocated to the deleted volume before it was deleted asynchronously with respect to the deletion of the deleted volume;

using the information saved on each disk to reclaim the storage space that was allocated to the deleted volume before it was deleted asynchronously with respect to the deletion of the deleted volume in accordance with the policy.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the policy comprises a policy to reclaim the storage space at a predetermined time of day.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the policy comprises a policy to reclaim the storage space when an input/output system that includes the storage space is idle.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, further comprising at least one of:

monitoring the input/output system to determine when the input/output system is idle;

monitoring applications that use the input/output system to determine when the applications are idle.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein reclaiming the storage space asynchronously comprises launching a daemon for reclaiming storage space.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein reclaiming the storage space asynchronously comprises:

identifying a request to create a new volume;

reallocating at least a part of the storage space for the new volume.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising deleting the information from each disk after reclaiming the storage space that was allocated to the deleted volume.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein reclaiming the storage space asynchronously comprises:

prior to reclaiming the storage space, receiving a request to recover data from the storage space;

delaying the reclamation of the storage space until after the data has been recovered from the storage space.

9. A system for reclaiming storage space from thin-provisioned storage systems, the system comprising:

an identification module programmed to identify a deleted volume;

a saving module programmed to;

identify a plurality of disks within a thin-provisioned storage system that allocated storage space to the deleted volume;

in response to the deleted volume being deleted, identify reclaimable storage space made available by the deletion of the deleted volume by, for each disk within the plurality of disks, saving information on the disk that;

indicates that the disk contains reclaimable storage space;

identifies which locations of the storage space were allocated by the disk to the deleted volume before it was deleted;

a policy module programmed to identify a policy that specifies reclaiming the storage space that was allocated to the deleted volume before it was deleted asynchronously with respect to the deletion of the deleted volume;

a reclamation module programmed to use the information saved on each disk to reclaim the storage space that was allocated to the deleted volume before it was deleted asynchronously with respect to the deletion of the deleted volume in accordance with the policy;

at least one hardware processor configured to execute the identification module, the saving module, the policy module, and the reclamation module.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the policy comprises a policy to reclaim the storage space at a predetermined time of day.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the policy comprises a policy to reclaim the storage space when an input/output system that includes the storage space is idle.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the policy module is further programmed to monitor at least one of:

the input/output system to determine when the input/output system is idle;

applications that use the input/output system to determine when the applications are idle.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the reclamation module is programmed to reclaim the storage space asynchronously by:

identifying a request to create a new volume;

reallocating at least a part of the storage space for the new volume.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the reclamation module is further programmed to delete the information from each disk after reclaiming the storage space that was allocated to the deleted volume.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the reclamation module is programmed to reclaim the storage space asynchronously by:

prior to reclaiming the storage space, receiving a request to recover data from the storage space;

delaying the reclamation of the storage space until after the data has been recovered from the storage space.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable-storage medium comprising one or more computer-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a computing device, cause the computing device to:

identify a deleted volume;

identify a plurality of disks within a thin-provisioned storage system that allocated storage space to the deleted volume;

in response to the deleted volume being deleted, identify reclaimable storage space made available by the deletion of the deleted volume by, for each disk within the plurality of disks, saving information on the disk that;

indicates that the disk contains reclaimable storage space;

identifies which locations of the storage space were allocated by the disk to the deleted volume before it was deleted;

identify a policy that specifies reclaiming the storage space that was allocated to the deleted volume before it was deleted asynchronously with respect to the deletion of the deleted volume;

use the information saved on each disk to reclaim the storage space that was allocated to the deleted volume before it was deleted asynchronously with respect to the deletion of the deleted volume in accordance with the policy.