Elimination of redundant objects in storage systems

A storage system coupled to a plurality of client nodes, the storage system comprising:

• a storage unit;
• and
• a server node including a memory, wherein the server node is coupled to the storage unit, the server node configured to perform operations, the operations comprising:
• storing, in a data structure in storage included in the storage unit, common objects from a selected set of client nodes of the plurality of client nodes, wherein the common objects are shared by the selected set of client nodes, wherein insertion times for the common objects and a number of client nodes that share the common objects are stored;
• determining that an object corresponding to a client node of the selected set of client nodes has to be stored;
• storing the object in the data structure, in response to determining that the object has not already been stored in the data structure by any client node of the selected set of client nodes;
• initiating a process for maintaining limits on a number of common objects stored in the data structure;
• and
• eliminating one object from the data structure in response to determining that the one object in the data structure is referenced by only one client node and was stored prior to an insertion time.

A computer readable storage medium comprising at least one of a memory device, a magnetic storage device, and an optical storage device, wherein code stored in the computer readable storage medium when executed by a server node coupled to a storage and a plurality of client nodes performs operations, the operations comprising:

• storing, in a data structure in the storage, common objects from a selected set of client nodes of the plurality of client nodes, wherein the common objects are shared by the selected set of client nodes, wherein insertion times for the common objects and a number of client nodes that share the common objects are stored;
• determining that an object corresponding to a client node of the selected set of client nodes has to be stored;
• storing the object in the data structure, in response to determining that the object has not already been stored in the data structure by any client node of the selected set of client nodes;
• initiating a process for maintaining limits on a number of common objects stored in the data structure;
• and
• eliminating one object from the data structure in response to determining that the one object in the data structure is referenced by only one client node and was stored prior to an insertion time.