System and method for thin provisioning

A computer program product residing on a non-transitory computer readable medium having a plurality of instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

• grouping storage blocks within a file system into a plurality of storage pools including a free-backed storage pool, a free-unbacked storage pool, and an allocated-backed storage pool, wherein:
• the free-backed storage pool identifies unused storage blocks within the file system that are already associated with physical storage space within a backend storage system,
• the free-unbacked storage pool identifies unused storage blocks within the file system that are not yet associated with physical storage space within the backend storage system, and
• the allocated-backed storage pool identifies used storage blocks within the file system that are already associated with physical storage space within the backend storage system;
• receiving a request for one or more unused storage blocks within the file system;
• and
• fulfilling the request by selecting one or more unused storage blocks identified within the storage pools while prioritizing the selection of physically sequential unused storage blocks identified within the backend storage system, wherein the selection of the unused storage blocks within the backend storage system is based, at least in part, upon a weighting, wherein the weighting identified with unused storage blocks that enhance a level of sequentiality is higher than the weighting identified with unused storage blocks that are not yet associated with physical storage space within the backend storage system, wherein the selection of unused storage blocks identified with higher weightings is prioritized over unused storage blocks identified with lower weightings.

A computing system including at least one processor and at least one memory architecture coupled with the at least one processor, wherein the computing system is configured to perform operations comprising:

• grouping storage blocks within a file system into a plurality of storage pools including a free-backed storage pool, a free-unbacked storage pool, and an allocated-backed storage pool, wherein:
• the free-backed storage pool identifies unused storage blocks within the file system that are already associated with physical storage space within a backend storage system,
• the free-unbacked storage pool identifies unused storage blocks within the file system that are not yet associated with physical storage space within the backend storage system, and
• the allocated-backed storage pool identifies used storage blocks within the file system that are already associated with physical storage space within the backend storage system;
• receiving a request for one or more unused storage blocks within the file system;
• and
• fulfilling the request by selecting one or more unused storage blocks identified within the storage pools while prioritizing the selection of physically sequential unused storage blocks identified within the backend storage system, wherein the selection of the unused storage blocks within the backend storage system is based, at least in part, upon a weighting, wherein the weighting identified with unused storage blocks that enhance a level of sequentiality is higher than the weighting identified with unused storage blocks that are not yet associated with physical storage space within the backend storage system, wherein the selection of unused storage blocks identified with higher weightings is prioritized over unused storage blocks identified with lower weightings.