Accessing a file system using tiered deduplication
First Claim
1. A method for using deduplication in a storage management system to provide an application executing in the storage management system with access to a file system that appears to be of virtually unlimited capacity, the method comprising:
- executing a pseudo-file-system driver on a client computing device that hosts a data agent component of the storage management system, wherein the data agent is associated with the application, which is installed on the client computing device;
instantiating the file system, by the pseudo-file-system driver, based on exposing a first mount point for the file system, wherein the file system is stored to a primary storage device associated with the client computing device;
configuring, by the pseudo-file-system driver, an association between the file system and a corresponding deduplication database component of the storage management system; and
executing the application, by the client computing device,wherein the pseudo-file-system driver provides the application with access to the file system characterized by virtually unlimited capacity based at least in part on the pseudo-file-system driver invoking at least one deduplication job, andwherein the at least one deduplication job (i) moves some data from the file system in the primary storage device to a secondary storage device component of the storage management system, and (ii) stores the moved data in deduplicated form thereto based at least in part on the deduplication database.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An illustrative pseudo-file-system driver uses deduplication functionality and resources in a storage management system to provide an application and/or a virtual machine with access to a locally-stored file system. From the perspective of the application/virtual machine, the file system appears to be of virtually unlimited capacity. The pseudo-file-system driver instantiates the file system in primary storage, e.g., configured on a local disk. The application/virtual machine requires no configured settings or limits for the file system'"'"'s storage capacity, and may thus treat the file system as “infinite.” The pseudo-file-system driver intercepts write requests and may use the deduplication infrastructure in the storage management system to offload excess data from local primary storage to deduplicated secondary storage, based on a deduplication database. The pseudo-file-system driver also intercepts read requests and in response may restore data from deduplicated secondary storage to primary storage, also based on the deduplication database.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for using deduplication in a storage management system to provide an application executing in the storage management system with access to a file system that appears to be of virtually unlimited capacity, the method comprising:
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executing a pseudo-file-system driver on a client computing device that hosts a data agent component of the storage management system, wherein the data agent is associated with the application, which is installed on the client computing device; instantiating the file system, by the pseudo-file-system driver, based on exposing a first mount point for the file system, wherein the file system is stored to a primary storage device associated with the client computing device; configuring, by the pseudo-file-system driver, an association between the file system and a corresponding deduplication database component of the storage management system; and executing the application, by the client computing device, wherein the pseudo-file-system driver provides the application with access to the file system characterized by virtually unlimited capacity based at least in part on the pseudo-file-system driver invoking at least one deduplication job, and wherein the at least one deduplication job (i) moves some data from the file system in the primary storage device to a secondary storage device component of the storage management system, and (ii) stores the moved data in deduplicated form thereto based at least in part on the deduplication database. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method for using deduplication in a storage management system to provide a virtual machine executing in the storage management system with access to a file system, the method comprising:
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executing a pseudo-file-system driver on a client computing device that hosts a data agent component of the storage management system, wherein the data agent is associated with the virtual machine, which is installed on the client computing device; exposing to the virtual machine, by the pseudo-file-system driver, a first mount point for the file system; instantiating the file system based on the exposing of the first mount point, wherein the file system is stored to a primary storage device associated with the client computing device; configuring an association between the file system and a corresponding deduplication database component of the storage management system; and invoking, by the pseudo-file-system driver, at least one deduplication job that moves some data from the file system in the primary storage device to a secondary storage device component of the storage management system, and stores the moved data in deduplicated form thereto based at least in part on the deduplication database. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A storage management system for using deduplication to provide an application in the storage management system with access to a file system, the storage management system comprising:
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a client computing device comprising the application, a pseudo-file-system driver, and a mount point exposed by the pseudo-file-system driver to the application; a primary storage device in communication with the client computing device, wherein the primary storage device comprises the file system; a secondary storage computing device comprising a media agent and a deduplication database that is associated with the file system; a secondary storage device in communication with the secondary storage computing device, wherein the secondary storage device stores data in deduplicated form based on the deduplication database; wherein the pseudo-file-system driver is configured to provide the application with access to the file system characterized by virtually unlimited capacity, based on a restore job invoked by the pseudo-file-system driver to retrieve data requested by the application which data is not available from the primary storage device, wherein the requested data is retrieved, based on the deduplication database, from a secondary storage component, wherein the secondary storage component is at least one of the media agent and the secondary storage device. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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Specification