Netapp, Inc.

Network Appliance, Inc.

Ashish Prakash

David A Grunwald

Robert M English

Kartik Ayyar

Emmanuel Ackaouy

Jeffrey S Kimmel

Eric C Hamilton

Matthew Benjamin Amdur

Brian Mederic Quirion

Robert L Fair

Blake H Lewis

Sandeep Yadav

Rickard Edward Faith

Subramaniam Periyagaram

Paul Christopher Eastham

John K Edwards

Jason Ansel Lango

Robert Lieh-Yuan Tsai

Ram Kesavan

Qinghua Zheng

Peter Griess

J Chris Wagner

Ananthan Subramanian

Rajesh Sundaram

Douglas P Doucette

Ling Zheng

Steve Miller

Devang Kundanlal Shah

David Brittain Bolen

Szu-Wen Kuo

James J Voll

Sriram S Rao

J Christopher Wagner

Stephen William Daniel

Amber M Palekar

Jeff Kimmel

Steve Daniel

Jeffrey Pfau

Subramaniam Perivagaram

Christopher J Wagner

Robert Leih-Yuan Tsai

Partially overwriting a compression group without decompressing compressed data can consumption of resources for the decompression. A storage server partially overwrites the compression group when a file block identifier of a client's write request resolves to the compression group. The compression group remains compressed while the partial overwriting is performed.

Overwriting part of compressed data without decompressing on-disk compressed data

Among other things, one or more techniques and/or systems are provided for storing data within a hybrid storage aggregate comprising a lower-latency storage tier and a higher-latency storage tier. In particular, frequently accessed data, randomly accessed data, and/or short lived data may be stored (e.g., read caching and/or write caching) within the lower-latency storage tier. Infrequently accessed data and/or sequentially accessed data may be stored within the higher-latency storage tier. Because the hybrid storage aggregate may comprise a single logical container derived from the higher-latency storage tier and the lower-latency storage tier, additional storage and/or file system functionality may be implemented across the storage tiers. For example, deduplication functionality, caching functionality, backup/restore functionality, and/or other functionality may be provided through a single file system (or other type of arrangement) and/or a cache map implemented within the hybrid storage aggregate.

Data storage within hybrid storage aggregate

A network caching system has a multi-protocol caching filer coupled to an origin server to provide storage virtualization of data served by the filer in response to data access requests issued by multi-protocol clients over a computer network. The multi-protocol caching filer includes a file system configured to manage a sparse volume that 'virtualizes' a storage space of the data to thereby provide a cache function that enables access to data by the multi-protocol clients. To that end, the caching filer further includes a multi-protocol engine configured to translate the multi-protocol client data access requests into generic file system primitive operations executable by both the caching filer and the origin server.

System and method for caching network file systems

Many applications and computing environments allow users to migrate data from a source object to a target object (e.g., a file may be cut/pasted, copied, etc.). It may be advantageous to provide users with access to the data (e.g., migrated data at the target object and/or data that has yet to be migrated from the source object) before all of the data is completely migrated (e.g., a user may otherwise have to wait hours for a 2 TB file to be copied between various data volumes). Accordingly, as provided herein, migration of a source object to a target object may be declared as completed, even though the target object may not comprise all of the data that is to be migrated. In this way, an I/O request may be satisfied based upon migrated data within the target object and/or data, not yet migrated, retrieved on-demand from the source object.

On-demand operations

It is determined that a first data block contains the same data as a second data block. The first data block is associated with a first extent and the second data block is associated with a second extent. In response to determining that the first data block contains the same data as the second data block, the second data block is associated with the first extent and the first data block is disassociated with the second extent.

Deduplication in an extent-based architecture

An extent-based storage architecture is implemented by a storage server receiving a read request for an extent from a client, wherein the extent includes a group of contiguous blocks and the read request includes a file block number. The storage server retrieves an extent identifier from a first sorted data structure, wherein the storage server uses the received file block number to traverse the first sorted data structure to the extent identifier. The storage server retrieves a reference to the extent from a second sorted data structure, wherein the storage server uses the retrieved extent identifier to traverse the second sorted data structure to the reference, and wherein the second sorted data structure is global across a plurality of volumes. The storage server retrieves the extent from a storage device using the reference and returns the extent to the client.

Extent-based storage architecture

An extent-based storage architecture is implemented by a storage server. The storage server generates a new extent identifier for cloning a source extent identified by a source extent identifier and stored at a source data structure that includes a length value providing a length of the source extent, an offset value and a reference count value that provides a number of data containers that reference the source extent identifier. The storage server updates a data structure for a cloned version of the data container for storing the new extent identifier that points to the source extent identifier and includes an extent length value and offset value different from length value and the offset value of the source data structure.

Cloning using an extent-based architecture

Overwriting part of compressed data without decompressing on-disk compressed data is implemented by receiving a write request for a block of data in a compression group from a client, wherein the compression group comprises a group of data blocks that is compressed, wherein the block of data is uncompressed. The storage server partially overwrites the compression group, wherein the compression group remains compressed while the partial overwriting is performed. The storage server determines whether the partially overwritten compression group including the uncompressed block of data should be compressed. The storage server defers compression of the partially overwritten compression group if the partially overwritten compression group should not be compressed. The storage server compresses the partially overwritten compression group if the partially overwritten compression group should be compressed.

A request is received to remove duplicate data. A log data container associated with a storage volume in a storage server is accessed. The log data container includes a plurality of entries. Each entry is identified by an extent identifier in a data structures stored in a volume associated with the storage server. For each entry in the log data container, a determination is made if the entry matches another entry in the log data container. If the entry matches another entry in the log data container, a determination is made of a donor extent and a recipient extent. If an external reference count associated with the recipient extent equals a first predetermined value, block sharing is performed for the donor extent and the recipient extent. A determination is made if the reference count of the donor extent equals a second predetermined value. If the reference count of the donor extent equals the second predetermined value, the donor extent is freed.

The data path in a network storage system is streamlined by sharing a memory among multiple functional modules (e.g., N-module and D-module) of a storage server that facilitates symmetric access to data from multiple clients. The shared memory stores data from clients or storage devices to facilitate communication of data between clients and storage devices and/or between functional modules, and reduces redundant copies necessary for data transport. It reduces latency and improves throughput efficiencies by minimizing data copies and using hardware assisted mechanisms such as DMA directly from host bus adapters over an interconnection, e.g. switched PCI-e 'network'. This scheme is well suited for a 'SAN array' architecture, but also can be applied to NAS protocols or in a unified protocol-agnostic storage system. The storage system can provide a range of configurations ranging from dual module to many modules with redundant switched fabrics for I/O, CPU, memory, and disk connectivity.

Method and system for using shared memory with optimized data flow to improve input/output throughout and latency

A technique uniquely identifies block context signatures in a storage volume hierarchy of a storage system. In particular, the technique assigns unique volume identifiers ('IDs,' e.g., buffer tree or 'bufftree' IDs) to volumes of the storage volume hierarchy, and allows clone volumes to determine that data blocks belong to an appropriate ancestor volume (e.g., and were written by the ancestor volume prior to creation of the clone). In this manner, the novel technique may uniquely identify and accurately determine whether an accessed data block is a correct data block (e.g., alleviating occurrences of data ID aliasing).

Uniquely identifying block context signatures in a storage volume hierarchy

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Morrisville, NC, United States of America

Ashish Prakash