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US 2014/0324791 A1Published application
System and method for efficiently duplicating data in a storage system, eliminating the need to read the source data or write the target data
AssigneeGreenbytes, Inc.
InventorRobert Petrocelli
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for copying data efficiently within a deduplicating storage system eliminates the need to read or write the data per se within the storage system. The copying is accomplished by creating duplicates of the metadata block pointers only. The result is a process that creates and arbitrary number of copies using minimal time and bandwidth.
Claims18
A method of making a copy of data having metadata in a data deduplication system, comprising:
- reading the metadata of the data to be copied from the deduplication system;
- creating a copy of the metadata;
- and
- incrementing the reference counts of the data copied.
1 more element
A method of making a copy of data in a data deduplication system, comprising:
- providing data to be copied, the data comprising a plurality of physical data blocks and metadata for each of physical data blocks;
- providing a deduplication table having a reference count for each physical data block;
- traversing the metadata of the data;
- incrementing a reference count of each physical data block being copied in the deduplication table;
- and
- creating a copy of the metadata;
- whereby the copy of the metadata references the same plurality of physical data blocks of the data to be copied.
4 more elements
A method of making a copy of data in a data deduplication system, comprising:
- providing data to be copied, the data comprising a plurality of physical data blocks and metadata for each of physical data blocks, the metadata comprising a logical block pointers addressing a physical data block, a reference to the next logical block pointer, and a finger print of the physical data block the logical block pointer references;
- providing a deduplication table having a reference count for each physical data block;
- traversing the metadata of the data;
- incrementing a reference count of each physical data block being copied in the deduplication table;
- and
- creating a copy of the metadata;
- whereby the copy of the metadata references the same plurality of physical data block via a copy of the block pointer list.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.