Accelerating file system recovery by storing file system metadata on fast persistent storage during file system recovery

• US 9,069,682 B1
• Filed: 06/29/2012
• Issued: 06/30/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Veeraswamy, Sairam
• Primary Examiner(s): Thai, Tuan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Gossage, Glenn
• Application Number:
  US13/538,104
• Time in Patent Office: 1,096 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1435 using file system or storage system metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0866 for peripheral storage systems, e.g. disk cache
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0888 using selective caching, e.g. bypass
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/10 File systems; File servers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/172 Caching, prefetching or hoarding of files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/466 Metadata, control data

Abstract

A system and method for providing a faster disk recovery is provided by bypassing the file system cache temporarily holding a sub set of metadata objects of the file system and instead using a persistent fast storage that can be accessed at deterministic speeds to hold all the metadata objects of the file system. The system speeds recovery by only writing updated metadata objects to the persistent disk storage when file system recovery is complete.

Claims

1. A method of accelerating recovery of a file system in a multi-tiered storage system, the multi-tiered storage system including a volatile cache memory, persistent fast storage and persistent disk storage, the persistent disk storage storing a set of metadata objects of the file system, the volatile cache memory temporarily storing a subset of the set of metadata objects of the file system, the method comprising:

configuring the persistent fast storage to store the set of metadata objects stored on the persistent disk storage;

disabling the subset of the set of metadata objects from being accessed via the volatile cache memory;

updating inconsistent metadata objects of the set of metadata objects stored on the persistent fast storage during the recovery of the file system; and

configuring the persistent disk storage to store the set of metadata objects of the file system stored on the persistent fast storage.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein configuring the persistent fast storage to store the set of metadata objects stored on the persistent disk storage includes:

flushing dirty metadata objects of the subset of metadata objects from the volatile cache memory; and

copying the set of metadata objects from the persistent disk storage to the persistent fast storage.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein updating the inconsistent metadata objects of the set of metadata objects stored on the persistent fast storage during the file system recovery includes:

detecting an existence of a particular metadata object of the set of metadata objects being updated in the volatile cache memory and the persistent fast storage;

upon determining that the particular metadata object exists in the volatile cache memory but not the persistent fast storage;

copying the particular metadata object from the volatile cache memory to the persistent fast storage;

upon determining that the particular metadata object does not exist in the volatile cache memory and the persistent fast storage;

copying the particular metadata object from the persistent disk storage to the persistent fast storage; and

allowing update of the particular metadata object on the persistent fast storage.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises replacing the subset of the set of metadata objects in the volatile cache memory with user data objects.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises, after disabling the subset of the set of metadata objects from being accessed via the volatile cache memory, bypassing the volatile cache memory in favor of the persistent fast storage.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein configuring the persistent disk storage to store the set of metadata objects of the file system stored on the persistent fast storage includes:

copying the set of metadata objects from the persistent fast storage to the persistent disk storage.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

enabling the set of metadata objects in persistent disk storage to be accessed via the subset of the set of metadata objects in the volatile cache memory.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein each metadata object of the set of metadata objects is copied back to a same location in the persistent disk storage that the metadata object occupied prior to being copied to the persistent fast storage.

9. A storage system configured to accelerate recovery of a file system, the storage system comprising:

a persistent disk storage storing a set of metadata objects of the file system;

a persistent fast storage storing the set of metadata objects of the file system during the recovery of the file system;

a volatile cache memory configured to cache a subset of the set of metadata objects of the file system during normal file system processing;

a controller including controlling circuitry, the controlling circuitry being constructed and configured to perform the recovery of the file system upon the file system moving from a normal processing state to a recovery state, the controlling circuitry configured to;

configure the persistent fast storage to store the set of metadata objects stored on the persistent disk storage;

disable the subset of the set of metadata objects from being accessed via the volatile cache memory;

update inconsistent metadata objects of the set of metadata objects in the persistent fast storage during the recovery of the file system; and

configure the persistent disk storage to store the set of metadata objects of the file system stored on the persistent fast storage.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the controlling circuitry that is configured to configure the persistent fast storage to store the set of metadata objects is further configured to:

flush dirty metadata objects of the subset of metadata objects from the volatile cache memory to the persistent disk storage; and

copy the set of metadata objects from the persistent disk storage to the persistent fast storage.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the controlling circuitry that is configured to update the inconsistent metadata objects of the set of metadata stored in the persistent fast storage is further configured to:

detect an existence of a particular metadata object of the set of metadata objects being updated in the volatile cache memory and the persistent fast storage;

upon determining that the particular metadata object exists in the volatile cache memory but not the persistent fast storage;

copy the particular metadata object from the volatile cache memory to the persistent fast storage;

upon determining that the particular metadata object does not exist in the volatile cache memory and persistent fast storage;

copy the particular metadata object from the persistent disk storage to the persistent fast storage; and

allow update of the particular metadata object in the persistent fast storage.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the controlling circuitry that is configured to configure the persistent fast storage to store the set of metadata objects in the persistent disk storage is further configured to:

copy the metadata objects from the persistent fast storage to the persistent disk storage.

13. The system of claim 12, the controlling circuitry being further configured to:

enable the set of metadata objects in persistent disk storage to be accessed via the subset of the set of metadata objects in the volatile cache memory.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein each metadata object of the set of metadata objects is copied back to a same location in the persistent disk storage that the metadata object occupied prior to being copied to the persistent fast storage.

15. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium with a computer program stored thereon, the computer program executed by a processor causing the processor to perform a method of accelerating recovery of a file system in a multi-tiered storage system, the multi-tiered storage system including a volatile cache memory, persistent fast storage and persistent disk storage, the persistent disk storage storing a set of metadata objects of the file system, the volatile cache memory temporarily storing a subset of the set of metadata objects of the file system, the method comprising:

configuring the persistent fast storage to store the set of metadata objects stored on the persistent disk storage;

disabling the subset of the set of metadata objects from being accessed via the volatile cache memory;

updating inconsistent metadata objects of the set of metadata objects stored on the persistent fast storage during the recovery of the file system; and

configuring the persistent disk storage to store the set of metadata objects of the file system stored on the persistent fast storage.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein configuring the persistent fast storage to store the set of metadata objects stored on the persistent disk storage includes:

flushing dirty metadata objects of the subset of metadata objects from the volatile cache memory; and

copying the set of metadata objects from the persistent disk storage to the persistent fast storage.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein updating the inconsistent metadata objects of the set of metadata objects stored on the persistent fast storage during the file system recovery includes:

detecting an existence of a particular metadata object of the set of metadata objects being updated in the volatile cache memory and the persistent fast storage;

upon determining that the particular metadata object exists in the volatile cache memory but not the persistent fast storage;

copying the particular metadata object from the volatile cache memory to the persistent fast storage;

upon determining that the particular metadata object does not exist in the volatile cache memory and the persistent fast storage;

copying the particular metadata object from the persistent disk storage to the persistent fast storage; and

allowing update of the particular metadata object on the persistent fast storage.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein configuring the persistent disk storage to store the set of metadata objects of the file system stored in the persistent fast storage includes:

copying the set of metadata objects from the persistent fast storage to the persistent disk storage.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the method further comprises:

enabling the set of metadata objects in persistent disk storage to be accessed via the subset of the set of metadata objects in the volatile cache memory.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein each metadata object of the set of metadata objects is copied back to a same location in the persistent disk storage that the metadata object occupied prior to being copied to the persistent fast storage.