Method and apparatus for data copy

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10545668-B2
Application number	US-201715848532-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 20, 2017
Priority date	Dec 21, 2016
Publication date	Jan 28, 2020
Grant date	Jan 28, 2020

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to methods and apparatuses for data copy. A method comprises receiving, from a client module in a first processing unit, a read request for reading data from a first storage region. The method further comprises, in response to determining from the read request that the data is to be copied, obtaining, from a cache, a first bitmap associated with the first storage region, the first bitmap indicating if the first storage region is filled with zero. The method further comprises, in response to determining from the first bitmap that the first storage region is filled with zero, sending, to the client module, an indication that the data is zero.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method of data copy, comprising:
in response to receiving a command for copying data from a first storage region to a second storage region, sending, to a cache, a read request for reading the data from the first storage region, the read request indicating that the data is to be copied; and
in response to receiving from the cache an indication that the data is zero, sending, to the cache, a write request for writing zero to the second storage region such that the cache updates a bitmap associated with the second storage region to indicate that the second storage region is filled with zero.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein sending the read request comprises:
setting a flag to indicate that the data is to be copied; and
sending the read request including the flag.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein updating the bitmap comprises:
setting a bit in the bitmap corresponding to the second storage region to one.

4. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
updating, based on the bitmap, the data from the cache to a non-volatile storage device.

5. An apparatus comprising processing circuitry coupled to memory configured to perform data copy by:
in response to receiving a command for copying data from a first storage region to a second storage region, sending, to a cache, a read request for reading the data from the first storage region, the read request indicating that the data is to be copied; and
in response to receiving from the cache an indication that the data is zero, sending, to the cache, a write request for writing zero to the second storage region such that the cache updates a bitmap associated with the second storage region to indicate that the second storage region is filled with zero.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein sending the read request includes:
setting a flag to indicate that the data is to be copied; and
sending the read request including the flag.

7. The apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein updating the bitmap includes:
setting a bit in the bitmap corresponding to the second storage region to one.

8. The apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the processing circuitry coupled to memory is further configured to perform data copy by:
updating, based on the bitmap, the data from the cache to a non-volatile storage device.

9. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions, which, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform data copy by:
in response to receiving a command for copying data from a first storage region to a second storage region, sending, to a cache, a read request for reading the data from the first storage region, the read request indicating that the data is to be copied; and
in response to receiving from the cache an indication that the data is zero, sending, to the cache, a write request for writing zero to the second storage region such that the cache updates a bitmap associated with the second storage region to indicate that the second storage region is filled with zero.

10. The computer program product according to claim 9 , wherein sending the read request includes:
setting a flag to indicate that the data is to be copied; and
sending the read request including the flag.

11. The computer program product according to claim 9 , wherein updating the bitmap includes:
setting a bit in the bitmap corresponding to the second storage region to one.

12. The computer program product according to claim 9 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the computing device, further cause the computing device to perform data copy by:
updating, based on the bitmap, the data from the cache to a non-volatile storage device.

Assignees

• Emc Ip Holding Co Llc

Inventors

• Feng Changyu
• Gao Jian
• Xu Xinlei
• Yang Lifeng
• Li Liam Xiongcheng

Classifications

• G06F12/0871

  Allocation or management of cache space · CPC title

• G06F2212/312

  In storage controller · CPC title

• G06F2212/263

  Network storage, e.g. SAN or NAS · CPC title

• G06F2212/284

  being distributed · CPC title

• G06F2212/1024

  Latency reduction · CPC title