Method and system for automatic management of storage space

• US 20060282485A1
• Filed: 09/28/2005
• Published: 12/14/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Network Appliance Incorporated (NetApp, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Network Appliance Incorporated (NetApp, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hamilton, Eric, Aggarwal, Himanshu
• Granted Patent: US 7,933,936 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/128 Details of file system snapshots on the file-level, e.g. snapshot creation, administration, deletion use of snapshots for error detection or correction G06F11/14, G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1727 Details of free space management performed by the file system saving storage space on storage systems G06F3/0608; management of blocks in storage devices G06F3/064
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2003/0697 device management, e.g. handlers, drivers, I/O schedulers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0601 Interfaces specially adapted for storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0608 Saving storage space on storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0614 Improving the reliability of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

Abstract

A system and method are provided to manage storage space. The method comprises detecting a free storage space threshold condition for a storage volume and automatically applying a space management technique to achieve a free storage space threshold condition. Space management techniques comprise deleting selected backup data (e.g., persistent consistency point images) and automatically increasing the size of the storage volume.

Claims

1. A method to automatically manage storage space, the method comprising:

detecting a trigger condition for a storage volume; and

automatically applying a space management technique to achieve a free storage space threshold.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the space management technique comprises deleting selected backup data.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the space management technique comprises automatically increasing the size of the storage volume.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the applying of the space management technique comprises automatically selecting the space management technique based on a user preference.

5. A method to manage storage space, the method comprising:

automatically detecting a trigger condition for a storage volume

responsive to the detecting of the trigger condition, automatically identifying backup data to be deleted; and

deleting the identified backup data.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the identifying of the backup data to be deleted comprises applying commitment level criteria to backup data.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the identifying of the backup data to be deleted comprises determining that no backup data is in the process of being deleted.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising, responsive to the deleting of the backup data, determining whether a target storage space has been achieved.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the target storage space is a percent value of storage space available in the volume.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the trigger condition is associated with a percentage of the target storage space.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein backup data is a plurality of persistent consistency point images of the file system associated with the storage volume.

12. The method of claim 5, wherein the storage volume is a flexible volume.

13. The method of claim 5, wherein the storage volume is a traditional volume.

14. A system to automatically manage storage space, the system comprising:

a repository to store backup data;

a space management module;

a detector to detect a trigger condition for a storage volume associated with the repository;

a filter to identify a subset of backup data to be deleted; and

a remover to delete the subset of backup data.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the filter is to apply commitment level criteria to backup data in order to identify the subset of backup data to be deleted.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the filter is to identify the backup data to be deleted responsive to a determination that no backup data is in the process of being deleted.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the detector is to determine whether a target storage space has been achieved responsive to the deleting of the subset of backup data.

18. A method to automatically manage storage space, the method comprising:

detecting a trigger condition for a storage volume; and

automatically increasing the size of the storage volume responsive to the free storage space threshold.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the increasing of the size of the storage volume comprises increasing the size of the storage volume in user-specified increments.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the storage volume is a flexible volume.

21. An apparatus to automatically manage storage space, the apparatus comprising:

a detector to detect a trigger condition for a storage volume; and

an autosize component to automatically increase the size of the storage volume responsive to the trigger condition.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the storage volume is a flexible volume.

23. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the trigger condition is associated with a free storage space threshold.