US 2017/0285994 A1Published application

Maintenance of cloned computer data

AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation

InventorsBlaine H. Dolph, Dean Hildebrand, Sandeep R. Patil, Riyazahamad M. Shiraguppi

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

A method and associated systems for efficient management of cloned data. One or more processors create a “child” clone of a “parent” software image. The child and parent contain identical information organized into identical sets of file blocks. To conserve storage, each child block initially points to a physical storage location already in use by a corresponding parent block, rather than requiring additional storage of its own. The first time a child block is updated, however, it will require additional physical storage. At the time of the child's creation, the processors reserve a number of physical blocks sufficient to store the contents of all child file blocks likely to be updated. A child file block is identified as likely to be updated by analyzing past volatility of a corresponding file block of the parent or of corresponding file blocks of other children of the same parent.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method for maintenance of cloned computer data, the method comprising:

one or more processors of a computer system receiving a request to update a first data element of a first child clone,
where the first child clone is a cloned copy of a parent clone,
where the parent clone is a cloned copy of a source software image,
where information comprised by the first child clone is organized into a set of child file blocks and information comprised by the parent clone is organized into a set of parent file blocks,
where a first child file block of the set of child file blocks identifies the first data element and further identifies that the first data element is stored in a first block of physical storage of a set of physical blocks, and
where a first parent file block of the set of parent file blocks identifies a second data element that is not distinct from the first data element and that is stored in a second block of physical storage of the set of physical blocks that is not distinct from the first block of physical storage;
the one or more processors identifying a first preallocated block of physical storage of the set of physical blocks that is large enough to store the updated first data element;
the one or more processors storing the updated first data element in the first preallocated block of physical storage;
and
the one or more processors updating the first child file block to identify that the updated first data element is stored in the first preallocated block of physical storage.

7 more elements

A computer program product, comprising a computer-readable hardware storage device having a computer-readable program code stored therein, said program code configured to be executed by one or more processors of a computer system to implement a method for allocating storage for cloned data, the method for maintenance of cloned computer data, the method comprising:

one or more processors of a computer system receiving a request to update a first data element of a first child clone,
where the first child clone is a cloned copy of a parent clone,
where the parent clone is a cloned copy of a source software image,
where information comprised by the first child clone is organized into a set of child file blocks and information comprised by the parent clone is organized into a set of parent file blocks,
where a first child file block of the set of child file blocks identifies the first data element and further identifies that the first data element is stored in a first block of physical storage of a set of physical blocks, and
where a first parent file block of the set of parent file blocks identifies a second data element that is not distinct from the first data element and that is stored in a second block of physical storage of the set of physical blocks that is not distinct from the first block of physical storage;
the one or more processors identifying a first preallocated block of physical storage of the set of physical blocks that is large enough to store the updated first data element;
the one or more processors storing the updated first data element in the first preallocated block of physical storage;
and
the one or more processors updating the first child file block to identify that the updated first data element is stored in the first preallocated block of physical storage.

7 more elements

A computer system comprising a processor, a memory coupled to said processor, and a computer-readable hardware storage device coupled to said processor, said storage device containing program code configured to be run by said processor via the memory to implement a method for allocating storage for cloned data, the method for maintenance of cloned computer data, the method comprising:

one or more processors of a computer system receiving a request to update a first data element of a first child clone,
where the first child clone is a cloned copy of a parent clone,
where the parent clone is a cloned copy of a source software image,
where information comprised by the first child clone is organized into a set of child file blocks and information comprised by the parent clone is organized into a set of parent file blocks,
where a first child file block of the set of child file blocks identifies the first data element and further identifies that the first data element is stored in a first block of physical storage of a set of physical blocks, and
where a first parent file block of the set of parent file blocks identifies a second data element that is not distinct from the first data element and that is stored in a second block of physical storage of the set of physical blocks that is not distinct from the first block of physical storage;
the one or more processors identifying a first preallocated block of physical storage of the set of physical blocks that is large enough to store the updated first data element;
the one or more processors storing the updated first data element in the first preallocated block of physical storage;
and
the one or more processors updating the first child file block to identify that the updated first data element is stored in the first preallocated block of physical storage.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 15/627,798Filed 20 Jun 2017
Priority: 18 Nov 2014
Published: 5 Oct 2017
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification9 codes

G06F 3/0631
Configuration or reconfiguration of storage systems: by allocating resources to storage systems
G06F 3/0604
Specifically adapted to achieve a particular effect: improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management
G06F 3/0608
Specifically adapted to achieve a particular effect: saving storage space on storage systems
G06F 3/0619
Improving the reliability of storage systems: in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors

Family

Application14/546,606Continuation · filed 18 Nov 2014
Application15/396,853Continuation · filed 3 Jan 2017
Application15/627,798Continuation
US 2016/0139809 A1Published application
US 2017/0147250 A1Published application
US 9,569,110 B2Related patent
US 9,720,614 B2Related patent
US 9,965,207 B2Related patent
US 2017/0285994 A1This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

Timeline

Citations

Open elsewhere

Building an agent or pulling many patents? Use the API or MCP server instead of scraping pages. Get an API key