Symantec Corporation

Veritas Operating Corporation

Veritas Technologies LLC

Symantec Operating Corporation

Samir Desai

Niranjan Sanjiv Pendharkar

Milind Vithal Borate

Aalop Suresh Shah

Shriram Wankhade

Ganesh Varadarajan

John Colgrove

Murali Nagaraj

Ravideep Singhvi

Kedar Shrikrishna Patwardhan

Prasanta Ranjan Dash

A method for implementing continuous data replication in a distributed computer system. The method includes receiving a forwarded data object write I/O from a data server. The method further includes examining attribute information of the data object to determine a consistency group for the data object. A replication policy is examined in view of the consistency group of the data object to determine a destination redundancy server. The data object write I/O is forwarded to the destination redundancy server for storage. An acknowledgment is then sent to the data server upon storage of the data object in the destination redundancy server.

Continuous replication in a distributed computer system environment

An exemplary method for efficiently backing up data in thin-provisioned environments may include: 1) identifying a volume to be backed up, 2) identifying a thin-provisioned storage system that contains storage space allocated to the volume, 3) obtaining information from the thin-provisioned storage system that identifies portions of the volume for which storage space has been allocated on the thin-provisioned storage system, and then 4) creating a backup of the volume by invoking read operations only for those portions of the volume for which storage space has been allocated on the thin-provisioned storage system. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Systems and methods for efficiently backing up data in thin-provisioned environments

Incremental checkpoint, for use in data replication, track the changes made to a file system after a point in time at which the incremental checkpoint is created. Data replication techniques using the incremental checkpoints may include taking a regular checkpoint of the file system and creating the first time full copy on remote node using the regular checkpoint. Changes made to the file system are then tracked in an incremental checkpoint that are stored on the remote node. The processes of taking the incremental checkpoint and storing the incremental checkpoint are iteratively performed. The first time fully copy and the incremental checkpoints may then be used for data replication, backup, continuous data protection (CDP), or the like.

Data replication techniques using incremental checkpoints

A method and apparatus for coordinating service execution within a shared storage cluster file system environment to optimize cluster performance is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes accessing host information in memory comprising mappings between file data and a plurality of nodes, wherein the mappings indicate at least one portion of the file data that is accessed by at least one node of the plurality of nodes on behalf of at least one application and executing at least one service on the at least one node of the plurality of nodes using at least one processor, wherein the at least one service accesses the at least one portion of the file data in the memory.

Method and apparatus for coordinating service execution within a shared file system environment to optimize cluster performance

A method for providing data protection in object-based storage environments may include: 1) taking a first snapshot, at a first time, of a set of partitions that store data of a file system on a set of object storage devices; 2) using the first snapshot to sync the data of the file system with a data protection node; 3) taking a second snapshot, at a second time, of the set of partitions; 4) using information from the set of object storage devices to identify at least one object that changed between the first and second times; 5) using object identification information to deduce file identification information that identifies a file that comprises the changed object; and 6) sending the changed object and the file identification information to the data protection node. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Systems and methods for providing data protection in object-based storage environments

Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a method and system for managing resources. The method includes receiving a request, within an electronic system, which corresponds to an object of a file system and accessing a local data structure. The data structure comprises information corresponding to a plurality of inode numbers. The method further includes performing the request and updating the local data structure based on the request. The updating of the local data structure is independent of a plurality of data structures of a cluster of servers.

System and method for efficient resource management

A method, in one embodiment, can include allowing storage allocation of data of a file system within an object based storage system. Furthermore, the method can include determining if storage allocation usage for the file system is below a threshold. If the storage allocation usage for the file system is not below the threshold, a client is requested to flush its dirty data associated with the file system. After requesting a client flush, the method can include determining the storage allocation usage for the file system. In addition, the method can include determining periodically if the storage allocation usage has reached a quota. If the quota is reached, the quota is enforced for the data of the file system.

File system quota and reservation

A method and system for multi-staged recovery of a distributed computer system. The method includes receiving a failure event notification from at least one node of the distributed computer system and executing a plurality of recovery stages upon receiving the failure event notification by using a recovery manager, wherein each of the plurality of recovery stages performs a defined recovery task. The progress of recovery is tracked by using at least one state machine executed by the recovery manager, wherein the state machine reflects progress of each of the recovery stages. The progress of recovery is monitored to a completion by using the state machine and the recovery manager.

Multistage system recovery framework

A client computer system of a cluster may send a request to create a file in a cluster file system. A server may create a file in response to the information and allocate space in a storage to the file. If a request to write to the file is received within a predetermined amount of time, the write may complete without requiring that additional operations be performed to allocate space to the file. If a write to the file is not received within the predetermined amount of time, the space allocated to the file when it was created may be de-allocated. The file system may additionally or alternatively perform a method for opening a file while delaying an associated truncation of space allocated to the file. If a request to write to the file is received within a predetermined amount of time, the write may be performed in the space already allocated to the file.

File system and methods for performing file create and open operations with efficient storage allocation

A method, system, and apparatus to encapsulate one or more file systems in a union of file systems without modifying or copying information in each file directory entry in each file system are presented. In one embodiment, this is accomplished in part by linking an inode list file from the file system to be encapsulated with an inode list file of the union of file systems, and merging a free extent map of the to-be-encapsulated file system with the free extent map file of the union file system.

File system encapsulation

System and method for partial file migration in file systems by Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM) applications. Embodiments may provide an automated mechanism for HSM applications to partially migrate files by migrating the inactive parts of the files to offline storage while leaving the active parts of the files on disk and active in the file system. In embodiments, access information including timestamps may be recorded and maintained at the subfile level to enable detection of inactivity at the subfile level and hence partial file migration by migrating only the inactive parts of files. The parts of files may be extents, blocks, or ranges. The access information may be recorded and maintained in-memory only, in a separate file on disk, or in extent descriptors for the files.

Partial file migration mechanism

A computer system includes a read ahead engine that receives a sequence of read requests and performs read ahead operations in accordance with various patterns detected within the sequence of read requests. The prefetch engine may implement the method of storing a first run value indicative of the run size of a first plurality of sequential read requests, and storing a first skip value indicative of a non-sequential skip associated with a subsequent read request. The method may further include determining whether a second run value indicative of the sequential run size of a second plurality of read requests equals the first run value, and whether a second skip value indicative of another non-sequential skip associated with an additional read request equals the first skip value. If the first run value equals the second run value, and the first skip value equals the second skip value, a stride pattern is indicated, and one or more read ahead operations according to the detected stride pattern may be initiated.

Growing community of inventors

Pune, India

Samir Desai