Global de-duplication of virtual disks in a storage platform

A system comprising:

• a data storage platform in communication with a computer server, wherein the storage platform comprises computer nodes, and wherein each computer node comprises a computer and storage devices;
• wherein a controller virtual machine that is hosted by the computer server is configured to intercept write requests issued by software applications hosted by the computer server, and wherein each write request is addressed to one of a plurality of virtual disks configured on the storage platform;
• wherein a system deduplication virtual disk, distinct from the plurality of virtual disks, is configured on the data storage platform, is partitioned across some of the computer nodes, and is not accessible as a storage target to the software applications hosted by the computer server;
• wherein the controller virtual machine is configured to:
• receive from a software application executing at the computer server, a write request to write data onto a first virtual disk among the plurality of virtual disks at the data storage platform, wherein the first virtual disk is configured with deduplication enabled,
• calculate a hash value for each block within the data in the write request,
• determine whether each hash value is present in a table that includes hash values of blocks that have been written to the system deduplication virtual disk in the data storage platform;
• based on the controller virtual machine determining that the table comprises a first hash value calculated for a first block within the data in the write request, (i) retrieving from the table a first offset indicating where a data block having the first hash value is stored in the system deduplication virtual disk, and (ii) writing an identifier of the data block and the first offset to metadata in the data storage platform that is associated with the first virtual disk, wherein the first block is not written to the first virtual disk indicated in the write request,
• based on the controller virtual machine determining that the table does not comprise a second hash value calculated for a second block within the data in the write request, (iii) writing the second block to the system deduplication virtual disk at a second offset, and (iv) writing an identifier of the second block and the second offset to metadata in the data storage platform associated with the first virtual disk, wherein the second block is not written to the first virtual disk indicated in the write request;
• and
• wherein the controller virtual machine executing at the computer server is further configured to:
• determine whether each hash value is present in the table only if the first virtual disk is configured with deduplication enabled.