File system support for file-level ghosting
AssigneeMicrosoft Technology Licensing, LLC
InventorsPING XIE, RAN KALACH, RAJ DAS, TOM JOLLY, ARUSHI AGGARWAL
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
File system-awareness of ghosting performed by one or more tiering engines allows a file system to receive and store metadata indicating an identifier of the tiering engine ghosting the file extents and a storage location of the ghosted file extents for later use by the tiering engine. The file system is able to receive and process requests to read and write to a file having ghosted extents.
Claims20
In a computer system comprising a file system and storage local to the file system, the file system managing the storage and retrieval of files and storing the data of each file in one or more data streams, a method comprising:
- maintaining, by the file system, for each of a plurality of files managed by the file system, metadata concerning one or more ranges of data of the file, the metadata including, for each range of data stored within the storage local to the file system, an indication of the storage location of the range of data within the local storage;
- receiving, by the file system, from a tiering engine, a request indicating that a range of data of one of the files managed by the file system is stored by the tiering engine, not within the one or more data streams of the file, in a location known and managed by the tiering engine, the request comprising an identification of the range of the data and an identifier associated with the tiering engine;
- and
- in response to the request, storing within the metadata maintained by the file system, for the identified range of data, an indication that the range of data is not stored within the one or more data streams of the file and the identifier associated with the tiering engine.
A computing device comprising a processing unit, a memory, and a file system executing on the processing unit, the file system managing the storage and retrieval of files and storing the data of each file in one or more data streams, the file system when executing on the processing unit performing operations comprising:
- maintaining for each of a plurality of files managed by the file system, metadata concerning one or more ranges of data of the file, the metadata including, for each range of data stored within a storage local to the file system, an indication of the storage location of the range of data within the local storage;
- receiving, from a tiering engine, a request indicating that a range of data of one of the files managed by the file system is stored by the tiering engine, not within the one or more data streams of the file, in a location known and managed by the tiering engine, the request comprising an identification of the range of the data and an identifier associated with the tiering engine;
- and
- in response to the request, storing within the maintained metadata, for the identified range of data, an indication that the range of data is not stored within the one or more data streams of the file and the identifier associated with the tiering engine.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.