Simplivity Corporation

Emc Corporation

Digital Equipment Corporation

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company

Cacheio, LLC

Orca Data Technology (xi'an) Co., Ltd

Other

Stratus Computer, Inc.

Arthur James Beaverson

Paul Bowden

Sowmya Manjanatha

John Michael Czerkowicz

Steven Bagby

Kishore Chitrapu

Bang Chang

Michael W Healey, Jr

Bin Yang

Jamie Pocas

James E King, Iii

Charles J DeVane

David Peter Cordella

Jinsong Huang

Matthew R McDaniel

Michael T Stack

Stephen F Shirron

Charles J Horvath

John A DeNisco

John D Service

Michael W Healy, Jr

Jie Zhong

Ken Chiquoine

Paul E LaRochelle

Jeffrey D Carter

John T Vachon

Matthew A Trask

Richard Urmston

Walter A Jones, Jr

Harold Canute Buckingham, Iii

John D Cooper

James E King

Michael W Healey

Aspects of disclosure provide methods, systems, and computer-readable media for direct data displacement. The methods include in view of a write request pertaining to a first object, determining, based on a first signature of the first object, whether an index of a storage system comprises an existing object record pertaining to the first object; and in response to determining that the index of the storage system does not include an existing object record pertaining to the first signature, creating a first object record in the index comprising the first signature and a reference count. The methods further include in response to determining that the index of the storage system includes an existing object record pertaining to the first signature, updating a reference count associated with the first object stored in the existing object.

Direct data placement

A method for managing metadata in a scale out storage system is disclosed. The system includes a plurality of nodes, a storage pool, first metadata that maps logical addresses of logical data blocks to corresponding content identifiers, and second metadata that maps content identifiers to corresponding physical addresses of physical data blocks in the storage pool and maintains a reference count. During an add-a-node operation, the processors are configured to move from the existing nodes to the new node some of its physical data blocks, their content identifiers and reference counts in the second metadata without accessing or altering the first metadata. A method is disclosed to move a logical device from one node to another by de-activating the logical device's first metadata on the first node and activating and retrieving the logical device's first metadata on the second node.

Device access point mobility in a scale out storage system

A digitally signed file system in which data, metadata and files are objects, each object having a globally unique and content-derived fingerprint and wherein object references are mapped by the fingerprints; the file system has a root object comprising a mapping of all object fingerprints in the file system, such that a change to the file system results in a change in the root object, and tracking changes in the root object provides a history of file system activity.

Method and apparatus for content derived data placement in memory

A method for managing metadata in a scale out storage system is disclosed. The system includes a plurality of nodes, a storage pool, first metadata that maps logical addresses of logical data blocks to corresponding content identifiers, and second metadata that maps content identifiers to corresponding physical addresses of physical data blocks in the storage pool and maintains a reference count. During an add-a-node operation, the processors are configured to move from the existing nodes to the new node some of its physical data blocks, their content identifiers and reference counts in the second metadata without accessing or altering the first metadata. A method is also disclosed to move a logical device from one node to another by de-activating the logical device's first metadata on the first node and activating and retrieving the logical device's first metadata on the second node.

Metadata management in a scale out storage system

Method and apparatus for replicating data structures over a network in which each data structure is assigned an owner node among a plurality of networked peer nodes. Preferably that owner can be ascertained through information in the data structure. When an update to the data structure is desired by a non-owner, a request to modify the data structure is sent out on the network and when received by the owner, the owner performs the modification. The owner node can then notify the other nodes regarding the update. The method, implemented through a single-writer, multiple-reader paradigm, insures availability, partition tolerance and eventual consistency; it avoids the high overhead costs and single point of failure drawbacks of the prior art centralized management and locking protocols. Administrators can connect to any peer node in the network to manage, monitor and request modifications to a data structure.

Method and apparatus for distributed configuration management

A method for managing metadata in a storage system is disclosed. The system includes a processor, a storage medium, a first metadata table that maps every data block's LBN to its unique content ID, and a second metadata table that maps every content ID to its PBN on the storage medium. During a data movement process, the processor is configured to determine the content ID of the data block and update its entry in the second metadata table without accessing the first metadata table. A method is also disclosed to reduce the size of the first metadata table. Only content ID is stored in the first metadata table and its LBN is determined by the metadata entry's relative position in the table. Metadata entries are stored in metadata blocks and deduplicated.

Efficient metadata in a storage system

Method and apparatus for constructing an index that scales to a large number of records and provides a high transaction rate. New data structures and methods are provided to ensure that an indexing algorithm performs in a way that is natural (efficient) to the algorithm, while a non-uniform access memory device sees IO (input/output) traffic that is efficient for the memory device. One data structure, a translation table, is created that maps logical buckets as viewed by the indexing algorithm to physical buckets on the memory device. This mapping is such that write performance to non-uniform access SSD and flash devices is enhanced. Another data structure, an associative cache is used to collect buckets and write them out sequentially to the memory device as large sequential writes. Methods are used to populate the cache with buckets (of records) that are required by the indexing algorithm. Additional buckets may be read from the memory device to cache during a demand read, or by a scavenging process, to facilitate the generation of free erase blocks.

Scalable indexing

A digitally signed file system in which data, metadata and files are objects, each object having a globally unique and content-derived fingerprint and wherein object references are mapped by the fingerprints; the file system has a root object comprising a mapping of ail object fingerprints in the file system, such that a change to the file system results in a change in the root object, and tracking changes in the root object provides a history of file system activity.

File system

Method and apparatus for locating data on disk storage, wherein multiple instances of data can be stored at different locations to satisfy different use requirements such as read access, write access, and data security. The method allows a data storage system, such as a file system, to provide both read optimized and write optimized performance on disk storage of different types (e.g., sizes and speed).

Method and apparatus for differentiated data placement

Method and apparatus for storing records in non-uniform access memory. In various embodiments, the placement of records is localized in one or more regions of the memory. This can be accomplished utilizing different ordered lists of hash functions to preferentially map records to different regions of the memory to achieve one or more performance characteristics or to account for differences in the underlying memory technologies. For example, one ordered list of hash functions may localize the data for more rapid access. Another list of hash functions may localize the data that is expected to have a relatively short lifetime. Localizing such data may significantly improve the erasure performance and/or memory lifetime, e.g., by concentrating the obsolete data elements in one location. Thus, the two or more lists of ordered hash functions may improve one or more of access latency, memory lifetime, and/or operation rate.

Method and apparatus utilizing non-uniform hash functions for placing records in non-uniform access memory

File system accessing an object store

Methods and systems are provided for tracking object instances stored on a plurality of network nodes, which tracking enables a global determination of when an object has no references across the networked nodes and can be safely de-allocated. According to one aspect of the invention, each node has a local object store for tracking and optionally storing objects on the node, and the local object stores collectively share the locally stored instances of the objects across the network. One or more applications, e.g., a file system and/or a storage system, use the local object stores for storing all persistent data of the application as objects.

Reference count propagation

Growing community of inventors

Boxborough, MA, United States of America

Arthur James Beaverson