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US 7,734,887 B1Granted
Relocation tracking during write operation
AssigneeSymantec Corporation
InventorRussell R. Stringham
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Tracking of memory block relocation when write occur to memory blocks. After detecting a write operation to be performed on a particular target memory block, it is identified whether the write operation is due to a relocation of data from another memory block. Depending at least in part on this result, the modified data may not need to be included in a subsequent incremental backup. If appropriate, relocation data is included instead. This may potentially reduce the size of the incremental backup, especially in cases in which there were many memory block movements since the last backup, as is the case with defragmentation.
Claims18
A method for a computing system to track memory block relocation comprising:
- detecting a write operation to perform a write to a target memory block of the computing system;
- implementing the write operation on the target memory block;
- identifying the write operation to be due to a relocation of data from a source memory block to the target memory block;
- determining that the data from the source memory block had been previously relocated from another source memory block since the time that that data was last backed up;
- recording the target memory block as representing relocated data from the another source memory block;
- detecting a second write operation to perform a write to a second target memory block of the computing system;
- implementing the second write operation on the second target memory block;
- identifying the second write operation to be due to a relocation of data from a second source memory block to the second target memory block;
- determining that the data from the second source memory block has not been previously relocated from another source memory block since the time that that data was last backed up;
- determining that the data from the second source memory block has been previously modified since the time that the data from the second source memory block was last backed up;
- and
- recording that the data in the second target memory block is modified, but not relocated.
9 more elements
A method for a computing system to track memory block relocation comprising:
- detecting a write operation to perform a write to a target memory block of the computing system;
- implementing the write operation on the target memory block;
- identifying the write operation to be due to a relocation of data from a source memory block to the target memory block;
- determining that the data from the source memory block has not been previously relocated from another source memory block since the time that that data was last backed up;
- determining whether or not the data from the source memory block had been previously modified since the time that the data from the source memory block was last backed up;
- wherein if the act of determining whether or not the data from the source memory block had been previously modified determines that the data from the source memory block has been previously modified since the time that the data from the source memory block was last backed up, recording that the data in the target memory block is modified, but not relocated.
3 more elements
A computing system comprising:
- one or more processors;
- memory including a source memory block and a target memory block;
- wherein the one or more processors execute computer-executable instructions to:
- detect a write operation to perform a write to the target memory block, identify the write operation to be due to a relocation of data from the source memory block to the target memory block, determine that the data from the source memory block had been previously relocated from another source memory block since the time that that data was last backed up, record the target memory block as representing relocated data from the another source memory block, detect a second write operation to perform a write to a second target memory block of the computing system, identify the second write operation to be due to a relocation of data from a second source memory block to the second target memory block, determine that the data from the second source memory block has not been previously relocated from another source memory block since the time that that data was last backed up, determine that the data from the second source memory block has been previously modified since the time that the data from the second source memory block was last backed up, and record that the data in the second target memory block is modified, but not relocated.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.