Method and system for managing point-in-time images

A method to manage storage space in a storage system, the method comprising:

• receiving at the storage system a request to delete from a storage space a point-in-time image of a data set stored in the storage system;
• in response to the request, identifying dependencies of the point-in-time image in the storage system, wherein at least one of the dependencies is associated with a feature dependent on the point-in-time image;
• generating a graph in a storage system to represent relationships between the point-in-time image and said at least one of the dependencies;
• presenting the graph to a user;
• in response to input from the user, breaking the dependencies in an order in a storage system;
• and
• deleting from the storage space the point-in-time image after the dependencies are broken in the storage system.

A storage system comprising:

• a machine readable storage medium having stored therein
• a point-in-time image generation module to generate point-in-time images of data in a data set stored in the storage system;
• an access module to create dependencies on a point-in-time image to provide access to the point-in-time image;
• and
• deletion module to identify the dependencies, to break the dependencies in an order, and to delete the point-in-time image.

A storage server comprising:

• a network interface through which to communicate with one or more clients over a network;
• a storage interface through which to communicate with an array of storage devices;
• a processor to implement a file system to store data in the array of storage devices;
• and
• a memory storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the server to perform a set of operations comprising:
• identifying dependencies of a first point-in-time image;
• if the dependencies include a LUN clone, generating a first graph mapping the LUN clone to the first point-in-time image;
• if the dependencies include a volume clone, generating a second graph mapping the volume clone to the first point-in-time image;
• if the dependencies include a second point-in-time image, generating a third graph mapping the second point-in-time image to the first point-in-time image;
• for each graph, breaking the mapped dependencies in an order;
• and
• deleting the first point-in-time image after the dependencies in each graph are broken.

A processing system comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processing system to perform a set of operations including:
• identifying dependencies of a point-in-time image of a set of data in a storage system, wherein at least one of the dependencies is associated with a feature that is dependent on the point-in-time image;
• generating a graph to represent relationships between the point-in-time image and said at least one of the dependencies;
• presenting the graph to a user;
• in response to input from the user, breaking the dependencies in a determined order;
• and
• deleting the point-in-time image from a storage space after the dependencies are broken.