×

Systems and methods for instantaneous cloning

  • US 8,812,450 B1
  • Filed: 02/28/2013
  • Issued: 08/19/2014
  • Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2011
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
Patent Images

1. A method comprising:

  • storing a writeable data object in a non-persistent memory of a storage system;

    cloning the writeable data object in the non-persistent memory without having to wait until the writeable data object is saved to a persistent storage and without having to pause incoming write operations on the writeable data object during said cloning; and

    whereby cloning without having to pause the incoming write operations comprises;

    receiving a client request for a write operation at the storage system to modify a first dirty portion of an in-memory version of a data object represented by a first reference pointer tree;

    marking a node in the first reference pointer tree as a dirty node, wherein the dirty node represents the first dirty portion;

    allocating a replacement pointer for the dirty node in response to receiving the client request, wherein allocating the replacement pointer includes allocating the replacement pointer from a per-processor cache bucket, the per-processor cache bucket including freed reference pointers spatially co-located in a reference pointer space of the storage system; and

    creating a first clone of the data object, the first clone represented by a second reference pointer tree, the second reference pointer tree having the replacement pointer as a node.

View all claims
  • 1 Assignment
Timeline View
Assignment View
    ×
    ×