Efficient space reclamation in deduplication systems

A computer program product comprising:

• a plurality of instructions, comprising
• a first set of instructions, executable on a computer system, configured to designate an existing de-duplicated storage construct of a plurality of existing de-duplicated storage constructs, wherein each of the existing de-duplicated plurality of storage constructs comprises
• metadata,
• a plurality of units of data, and
• the metadata includes a signature construct uniquely identifying the data contained in each of the plurality of units of data, and
• the first set of instructions identifies the existing de-duplicated storage construct that is to be reclaimed, at least in part, by
• determine a portion of the plurality of units of data of the existing de-duplicated storage construct that is in a given state,
• wherein
• the given state is one of in-use or unused, and
• the determining is based, at least in part, on at least a portion of the metadata of the existing de-duplicated storage construct, and
• compare an amount of data to a threshold value, wherein
• the amount of data represents the portion of the plurality of units of data of the existing de-duplicated storage construct in the given state, and
• a second set of instructions, executable on the computer system, configured to, in response to the comparing, generate an indication that a reclamation operation is to be performed with respect to the existing de-duplication storage construct, wherein
• the reclamation operation comprises re-deduplicating data;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, wherein the first and second sets of instructions are encoded in the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium.

A computer system comprising:

• one or more processors;
• a computer-readable storage medium coupled to the one or more processors;
• and
• a plurality of instructions, encoded in the computer-readable storage medium and configured to cause the one or more processors to
• designate an existing de-duplicated storage construct of a plurality of existing de-duplicated storage constructs that should be reclaimed, wherein
• each of the plurality of existing de-duplicated storage constructs comprises metadata,
• a plurality of units of data, and
• the metadata includes a signature construct uniquely identifying the data contained in each of the plurality of unites of data, and
• the instructions configured to cause the one or more processors to identify the existing de-duplicated storage construct that is to be reclaimed comprise one or more instructions configured to
• determine a portion of the plurality of units of data of the existing de-duplicated storage construct that is in a given state, wherein the given state is one of in-use or unused,
• the one or more instructions configured to determine use at least a portion of the metadata of the de-duplicated storage construct, and
• compare an amount of data to a threshold value, wherein
• the amount of data represents the portion of the plurality of units of data of the existing de-duplicated storage construct in the given state, and
• in response to an indication that the existing de-duplicated storage construct should be reclaimed, generate an indication that a reclamation operation is to be performed with respect to the existing de-duplicated storage construct, wherein
• the reclamation operation reclaims comprises re-deduplicating the units of data of the existing de-duplication storage construct to another de-duplicated storage construct.