Small in-memory cache to speed up chunk store operation for deduplication

Abstract

The present disclosure provides techniques for deduplicating files. The techniques include creating a cache or subset of a large data structure. The large data structure organizes information by random hash values. The random hash values result in a random organization of information within the data structure, with the information spanning a large number of storage blocks within a storage system. The cache, however, is within memory and is small relative to the data structure. The cache is created so as to contain information that is likely to be needed during deduplication of a file. Having needed information within memory rather than in storage results in faster read and write operations to that information, improving the performance of a computing system.