The present disclosure relates to data block migration.
Maintaining vast amounts of data is resource intensive not just in terms of the physical hardware costs but also in terms of system administration and infrastructure costs. Some mechanisms provide compression of data to save resources. For example, some file formats such as the Portable Document Format (PDF) are compressed. Some other utilities allow compression on an individual file level in a relatively inefficient manner.
Data deduplication refers to the ability of a system to eliminate data duplication across files to increase storage, transmission, and/or processing efficiency. A storage system which incorporates deduplication technology involves storing a single instance of a data segment that is common across multiple files. In some examples, data sent to a storage system is segmented in fixed or variable sized segments. Each segment is provided with a segment identifier (ID), such as a digital signature or a hash of the actual data. Once the segment ID is generated, it can be used to determine if the data segment already exists in the system. If the data segment does exist, it need not be stored again.
In many conventional implementations, data blocks may need to be migrated around a cluster. However, mechanisms for migrating data blocks are limited. Consequently, mechanisms are provided for improving data block migration.
The disclosure may best be understood by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which illustrate particular embodiments of the present invention.
Reference will now be made in detail to some specific examples of the invention including the best modes contemplated by the inventors for carrying out the invention. Examples of these specific embodiments are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. While the invention is described in conjunction with these specific embodiments, it will be understood that it is not intended to limit the invention to the described embodiments. On the contrary, it is intended to cover alternatives, modifications, and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
For example, the techniques and mechanisms of the present invention will he described in the context of data blocks. However, it should be noted that the techniques and mechanisms of the present invention apply to a variety of different data constructs including variations to data blocks, In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. Particular example embodiments of the present invention may be implemented without some or all of these specific details. In other instances, well known process operations have not been described in detail in order not to unnecessarily obscure the present invention.
Various techniques and mechanisms of the present invention will sometimes be described in singular form for clarity. However, it should be noted that some embodiments include multiple iterations of a technique or multiple instantiations of a mechanism unless noted otherwise. For example, a system uses a processor in a variety of contexts. However, it will be appreciated that a system can use multiple processors while remaining within the scope of the present invention unless otherwise noted, :Furthermore, the techniques and mechanisms of the present invention will sometimes describe a connection between two entities. It should be noted that a connection between two entities does not necessarily mean a direct, unimpeded connection, as a variety of other entities may reside between the two entities. For example, a processor may be connected to memory, but it will be appreciated that a variety of bridges and controllers may reside between the processor and memory. Consequently, a connection does not necessarily mean a direct, unimpeded connection unless otherwise noted.
Techniques and mechanisms are provided for migrating data blocks around a cluster during node addition and node deletion. Migration requires no downtime, as a newly added node is immediately operational while the data blocks are being moved. Blockmap files and deduplication dictionaries need not be updated.
Maintaining, managing, transmitting, and/or processing large amounts of data can have significant costs. These costs include not only power and cooling costs but system maintenance, network bandwidth, and hardware costs as well.
Some efforts have been made to reduce the footprint of data maintained by file servers and reduce the associated network traffic. A variety of utilities compress files on an individual basis prior to writing data to file servers. Compression algorithms are well developed and widely available. Some compression algorithms target specific types of data or specific types of files. Compression algorithms operate in a variety of manners, but many compression algorithms analyze data to determine source sequences in data that can be mapped to shorter code words. In many implementations, the most frequent source sequences or the most frequent long source sequences are replaced with the shortest possible code words.
Data deduplication reduces storage footprints by reducing the amount of redundant data. Deduplication may involve identifying variable or fixed sized segments. According to various embodiments, each segment of data is processed using a hash algorithm such as N/ID5 or SHA-1. This process generates a unique ID, hash, or reference for each segment. That is, if only a few bytes of a document or presentation are changed, only changed portions are saved. In some instances, a deduplication system searches for matching sequences using a fixed or sliding window and uses references to identify matching sequences instead of storing the matching sequences again.
In a data deduplication system, the backup server working in conjunction with a backup agent identifies candidate files for backup, creates a backup stream and sends the data to the deduplication system. A typical target system in a deduplication system will deduplicate data as data segments are received. A block that has a duplicate already stored on the deduplication system will not need to be stored again. However, other information such as references and reference counts may need to be updated. Some implementations allow the candidate data to be directly moved to the deduplication system without using backup software by exposing a NAS drive that a user can manipulate to backup and. archive files.
In an active file system, nodes may need to be added or removed during system operation. It is often desirable to be able to migrate data blocks around the cluster in the face of node addition and node deletion. According to various embodiments, each block map and datastore suitcase in a cluster has a suitcase ID or SCID. An SCID identifies the node and the block map or datastore suitcase, so an SCID can globally identify a file located within the cluster.
According to various embodiments, the techniques and mechanisms of the present invention allow for mapping of nodes to an SCID in light of node addition and deletion. Node mappings can be changed while limiting or avoiding data copying. In particular embodiments, each SCID need not be scanned to update each blockmap to modify the SCID. The techniques of the present invention can be applied to any clustered environment with any number of nodes. Data can be rebalanced across the nodes whenever a new node is added. Similarly, data can be redistributed from a node when that node scheduled for removal while copying only data from the node to be removed
Many existing mapping functions have a number of drawbacks. Many mapping functions can be difficult to calculate and may require numerous processor cycles. The mapping functions may require that keys be rewritten whenever a mapping function changes and may require extra copying of data between existing members when a new node is added. When adding a new node to a two node cluster, a less efficient solution may require copying data to the new node along with copying data from node 1 to node 2 and from node 2 to node 1. According to various embodiments of the present invention, data is only copied to the new node.
According to various embodiments, a node number can be obtained from a SCID using a function such as gdefine get_the_node_number_from_the_scid(_scid_) scid_to_node_array[_scid_% MAX_CLUSTER_SIZE]. A mapping function allows a key to identify the node that holds the data. According to various embodiments, the mapping function can be changed while new keys are being generated. The keys themselves may contain a node number so that keys can be allocated independently on each node without communicating between the nodes. In particular embodiments, existing keys need not be rewritten to relocate data blocks to different nodes during a node addition or deletion. When a node is added, an arbitrary amount of data can be copied from each node to the new node to rebalance the data across the cluster.
A compute cloud service provider allows a user to create new instances of virtual images on demand. These new instances may be clones of exiting virtual machine images. An object optimization system provides application program interfaces (APIs) which can be used to instantly clone a file. When the API is used, a new stub is put in the user namespace and a block map file is cloned.
In particular embodiments, every file maintained in an object optimization system is represented by a block map file that represents all objects found in that file. The block map file includes the offsets and sizes of each object. Each entry in a block map file then points to a certain offset within a data suitcase. According to various embodiments, many block map files will be pointing to fewer data suitcases, hence resulting in multiple files sharing the same data blocks.
According to various embodiments, the block map file maintains all of the same offsets and location pointers as the original file's block map, so no user file data need be copied. In particular embodiments, if the cloned file is later modified, the behavior is the same as what happens when a deduplicated file is modified.
According to various embodiments, optimized data is maintained in a locker 221. Block map files 261 include offset, length, and location identifiers for locating appropriate data segments in a datastore suitcase 271. Multiple block map files may point to the same data segments in a data store suitcase. Each blockmap file also has corresponding extended attribute information 231 and 241 corresponding to directory handle virtual image A 233 and directory handle virtual image B 243.
At 305, multiple keys are generated. In particular embodiments, a mapping function is rewritten at 307. In particular embodiments, the multiple keys may be suitcase identifiers and/or correspond to particular blockmap files. According to various embodiments, the mapping function provides that the keys identify or correspond to particular nodes. The mapping function may be rewritten while generating the multiple keys. At 309, data is copied from nodes to a new node to rebalance data across the data storage cluster. According to various embodiments, blockmap files need not be scanned, accessed, analyzed, or modified during node addition, removal, or modification. In particular embodiments, blockmap files remain unchanged.
#define get_the_node_number_from_the_scid(_scid_) scid_to_node_array[_scid_%MAX_CLUSTER_SIZE]
At 357, the user accesses the blockmap file. The blockmap file includes offset, length, and location information identifying data segments in a data store suitcase. According to various embodiments, the blockmap file need not be accessed, scanned, or updated upon data migration. At 359, the data store suitcase in the appropriate node is accessed. At 361, metadata in the datastore suitcase may be obtained. At 363, data segments in the datastore suitcase may be obtained. The data segments may be reflated and/or decompressed at 365 to obtained unoptimized data.
According to various embodiments, datastore suitcase 471 includes three offset, reference count pairs which map to the data segments of the filemap file X 401. In the index portion, index 1 corresponding to data in offset-data A has been referenced once. Index 2 corresponding to data in offset-data B has been referenced once. Index 3 corresponding to data in offset-data C has been referenced once. In the data portion, index 1 includes data A and a reference to File X 401 which was last to place a reference on the data A. Index 2 includes data B and a reference to File X 401 which was last to place a reference on the data B. Index 3 includes data C and a reference to File X 401 which was last to place a reference on the data C.
According to various embodiments, the dictionary is a key for the deduplication system. The dictionary is used to identify duplicate data segments and point to the location of the data segment. When numerous small data segments exist in a system, the size of a dictionary can become inefficiently large. Furthermore, when multiple optimizers nodes are working on the same data set they will each create their own dictionary. This approach can lead to suboptimal deduplication since a first node may have already identified a redundant data segment but a second node is not vet aware of it because the dictionary is not shared between the two nodes, Thus, the second node stores the same data segment as an original segment. Sharing the entire dictionary would be possible with a locking mechanism and a mechanism for coalescing updates from multiple nodes. However, such mechanisms can be complicated and adversely impact performance.
Consequently, a work partitioning scheme can be applied based on segment ID or hash value ranges for various data segments. Ranges of hash values are assigned to different nodes within the cluster. If a node is processing a data segment which has a hash value which maps to another node, it will contact the other node that owns the range to find out if the data segments already exist in a datastore.
Having numerous small segments increases the likelihood that duplicates will be found. However, having numerous small segments decreases the efficiency of using the dictionary itself as well as the efficiency of using associated filemaps and datastore suitcases.
According to various embodiments, it is recognized that certain types of non-container files do not benefit from having a segment size smaller than the size of the file itself. For example, many image files such as .jpg and .tiff files do not have many segments in common with other jpg and ,tiff files. Consequently, selecting small segments for such file types is inefficient, Consequently, the segment boundaries for an image file may be the boundaries for the file itself. For example, noncontainer data 601 includes file 603 of a type that does not benefit from finer grain segmentation. File types that do not benefit from finer grain segmentation include image files such as .jpg, .png, .gif, .and .bmp files. Consequently, tile 603 is provided with a single segment 605. A single segment is maintained in the deduplication dictionary. Providing a single large segment encompassing an entire file can also make compression of the segment more efficient. According to various embodiments, multiple segments encompassing multiple files of the same type are compressed at the same time. In particular embodiments, only segments having data from the same type of file are compressed using a single compression context. It is recognized that specialized compressors may be applied to particular segments associated with the same file type.
A variety of devices and applications can implement particular examples of network efficient deduplication.
In addition, various very high-speed interfaces may be provided such as fast Ethernet interfaces, Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, ATM interfaces, HSSI interfaces, POS interfaces, FDDI interfaces and the like. Generally, these interfaces may include ports appropriate for communication with the appropriate media. In some cases, they may also include an independent processor and, in some instances, volatile RAM. The independent processors may control such communications intensive tasks as packet switching, media control and management.
According to particular example embodiments, the system 700 uses memory 703 to store data and program instructions and maintained a local side cache. The program instructions may control the operation of an operating system and/or one or more applications, for example. The memory or memories may also be configured to store received metadata and batch requested metadata.
Because such information and program instructions may be employed to implement the systems/methods described herein, the present invention relates to tangible, machine readable media that include program instructions, state information, etc. for performing various operations described herein. Examples of machine-readable media include hard disks, floppy disks, magnetic tape, optical media such as CD-ROM disks and DVDs, magneto-optical media such as optical disks, and hardware devices that are specially configured to store and perform program instructions, such as read-only memory devices (ROM) and programmable read-only memory devices (PROMs). Examples of program instructions include both machine code, such as produced by a compiler, and files containing higher level code that may be executed by the computer using an interpreter.
Although many of the components and processes are described above in the singular for convenience, it will be appreciated by one of skill in the art that multiple components and repeated processes can also be used to practice the techniques of the present invention.
While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to specific embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that changes in the form and details of the disclosed embodiments may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. It is therefore intended that the invention be interpreted to include all variations and equivalents that fall within the true spirit and scope of the present invention.
This application is a continuation of and claims benefit under 35 U.S.C. §120 of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/158,289 (Attorney Docket No. DELLP017) filed Jun. 10, 2011, which claims benefit under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/389,602 (Attorney Docket No. DELLP017P) filed Oct. 4, 2010. Both applications are incorporated by reference in their entireties for all purposes.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61389602 | Oct 2010 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 13158289 | Jun 2011 | US |
Child | 15220018 | US |