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US 9,792,316 B1Granted
System and method for efficient data removal in a deduplicated storage system
AssigneeVeritas Technologies LLC
InventorNick Cremelie
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system, method, and medium for detecting expired data in a data deduplicated storage system are disclosed. The system receives a request to insert a file into the deduplicated storage system. In response, the system determines a unique identifier for the file and stores the unique identifier in a list of unique identifiers associated with a data object that stores the file content. The system determines that the data object is not expired based at least in part on the identifier being present in the list of unique identifiers.
Claims19
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing program instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to carry out operations comprising:
- receiving a request to insert a file into a deduplicated storage system, wherein the file includes file content;
- in response to receiving the request:
- determining a unique identifier for the file;
- recording a first instance of the unique identifier in a catalog that identifies a location of a data object that includes the file content;
- determining whether the deduplicated storage system already stores the data object;
- in response to determining that the deduplicated storage system already stores the data object, recording a second instance of the unique identifier in a list of unique identifiers corresponding to the data object, wherein the list is separate from the catalog, wherein metadata of the data object is stored by the catalog, and wherein the unique identifier includes a sub-identifiers part comprising one or more sub-identifiers indicating the metadata, wherein the one or more sub-identifiers are usable to recover at least a portion of the metadata in response to the catalog becoming lost, corrupted, or otherwise unavailable;
- subsequent to recording the first instance and to recording the second instance, receiving a request to remove the file from the deduplicated storage system;
- and
- determining, based on the list, whether to grant the request to remove the file.
6 more elements
A method comprising:
- a computer system receiving a request to insert a file into a deduplicated storage system, wherein the file includes file content;
- in response to receiving the request to insert the file, the computer system:
- determining a unique identifier for the file;
- storing a first instance of the unique identifier in a catalog that identifies a location of the file content and storing a second instance of the unique identifier in a list of unique identifiers corresponding to a data object stored in the deduplicated storage system, wherein the data object includes the file content, wherein the list includes at least one other unique identifier corresponding to the data object, and wherein the list is stored separately from the catalog;
- and
- subsequent to storing the first instance and to storing the second instance, the computer system receiving a request to remove the file from the deduplicated storage system, wherein the list identifies whether the data object is referred to by at least one source computer;
- wherein metadata of the file is stored by the catalog, and wherein the unique identifier includes a sub-identifiers part comprising one or more sub-identifiers indicating the metadata, wherein the one or more sub-identifiers are usable to recover at least a portion of the metadata in response to the catalog becoming lost, corrupted, or otherwise unavailable.
4 more elements
A system comprising:
- a processor;
- a memory coupled to the processor and storing program instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to carry out operations comprising:
- receiving a request to insert a file into a deduplicated storage system, wherein the file includes file content;
- in response to receiving the request to insert the file:
- determining a unique identifier for the file, wherein the unique identifier includes a sub-identifier indicating metadata for the file;
- recording a first instance of the unique identifier in a catalog that identifies a location of a data object that includes the file content, wherein at least a portion of the metadata is stored by the catalog;
- in response to determining that the deduplicated storage system stores the data object, recording a second instance of the unique identifier in a list of unique identifiers corresponding to the data object;
- subsequent to recording the first instance and to recording the second instance, receiving a request to remove the file from the deduplicated storage system;
- and
- determining, based at least in part on the unique identifier being present in the list corresponding to the data object, that the data object is referred to by at least one source computer;
- wherein metadata of the file is stored by the catalog, and wherein the unique identifier includes a sub-identifiers part comprising one or more sub-identifiers indicating the metadata, wherein the one or more sub-identifiers are usable to recover at least a portion of the metadata in response to the catalog becoming lost, corrupted, or otherwise unavailable.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.