US 2021/0064522 A1 · EFFICIENT GARBAGE COLLECTION OF VARIABLE SIZE CHUNKING DEDUPLICATION

Abstract

The present disclosure provides techniques for deallocating previously allocated storage blocks. The techniques include obtaining a list of chunk IDs to analyze, choosing a chunk ID, and determining the storage blocks spanned by the chunk corresponding to the chosen chunk ID. The technique further includes determining whether any file references any storage blocks spanned by the chunk. The determining may be performed by comparing an internal reference count to a total reference count, where the internal reference count is the number of reference to the storage block by a chunk ID data structure. If no files reference any of the storage blocks spanned by the chunk, then all the storage blocks of the chunk can be deallocated.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method of deallocating storage blocks of a storage system storing a plurality of files, the method comprising:

determining a list of chunk identifiers to be analyzed for deallocation, wherein each chunk identifier is associated with a file chunk, and wherein each file chunk is at least of a size of a storage block of the storage system;
choosing a first chunk identifier from the list, wherein the first chunk identifier identifies a first chunk;
determining whether any storage blocks spanned by the first chunk are referenced by any file of the plurality of files;
determining that no file of the plurality of files references the any storage blocks spanned by the first chunk;
and
deallocating all storage blocks spanned by the first chunk.

3 more elements

A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions to be executed in a processor of a computer system, the instructions when executed in the processor cause the computer system to carry out a method of deallocating storage blocks of a storage system storing a plurality of files, the method comprising:

determining a list of chunk identifiers to be analyzed for deallocation, wherein each chunk identifier is associated with a file chunk, and wherein each file chunk is at least of a size of a storage block of the storage system;
choosing a first chunk identifier from the list, wherein the first chunk identifier identifies a first chunk;
determining whether any storage blocks spanned by the first chunk are referenced by any file of the plurality of files;
determining that no file of the plurality of files references the any storage blocks spanned by the first chunk;
and
deallocating all storage blocks spanned by the first chunk.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Efficient garbage collection of variable size chunking deduplication

Life of this patent

Efficient garbage collection of variable size chunking deduplication

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20