System and method for retaining deduplication in a storage object after a clone split operation

A method for managing data on a storage system, the storage system providing data storage for at least one storage object, and a clone of the storage object the method comprising:

• using computer hardware for performing:
• receiving a write allocation for a data block of the clone of the storage object, the clone comprises a plurality of data blocks and is based on the storage object, each data block comprises a physical address pointer to a location within a storage aggregate and a virtual address pointer to a location within an address space of the clone of the storage object;
• determining if the data block of the clone is shared with at least one data block of the storage object;
• and
• assigning a new pointer to the physical address pointer of the data block of the clone if the data block is shared with at least one data block of the storage object and if a write allocation of another data block of the clone comprising the same virtual address pointer has not been received.

A system, comprising at least one processor and memory, for managing data on a storage system, the storage system providing data storage for at least one deduplicated storage volume comprising a plurality of shared data blocks, each data block comprising a virtual address and a physical address, the system comprising:

• the storage system configured for:
• creating a clone of the deduplicated storage volume, the clone comprising a plurality of data blocks comprising at least one data block shared with at least one data block of the deduplicated storage volume;
• receiving a split operation for the clone, the split operation comprising a write allocation for each data block of the clone that is shared with at least one data block of the deduplicated storage volume;
• and
• retaining deduplication of the data blocks of the clone by assigning a new physical address only once for each virtual address of the data blocks of the clone.

A non-transitory computer readable medium carrying one or more instructions for managing data on a storage system providing data storage for at least one deduplicated storage volume comprising a plurality of shared data blocks, each data block comprising a virtual address and a physical address, wherein the one or more instructions, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

• creating a clone of the deduplicated storage volume, the clone comprising a plurality of data blocks comprising at least one data block shared with at least one data block of the deduplicated storage volume;
• receiving a split operation for the clone, the split operation comprising a write allocation for each data block of the clone that is shared with at least one data block of the deduplicated storage volume;
• and
• retaining deduplication of the data blocks of the clone by assigning a new physical address only once for each virtual address of the data blocks of the clone.