Configurable data replication

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11797569-B2
Application number	US-201916668794-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 30, 2019
Priority date	Sep 13, 2019
Publication date	Oct 24, 2023
Grant date	Oct 24, 2023

Abstract

Continuous data protection, including sending, to a target data repository from a source data repository, metadata describing one or more updates to one or more datasets stored within the source data repository; generating, based on the metadata describing the one or more updates to the one or more datasets, an ordered log of metadata describing an ordered application of the one or more updates to the one or more datasets; and generating, on the source data repository and based on the ordered log of metadata, the one or more datasets in accordance with the one or more updates corresponding to a specified point in time.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, at a source storage system, one or more updates to one or more datasets stored within the source storage system;
generating, based on the one or more updates, metadata describing the one or more updates, wherein the metadata excludes data included in the one or more updates and includes references to data within the source storage system;
generating, based on the metadata, a metadata checkpoint comprising a portion of the metadata, wherein the metadata checkpoint excludes the data and describes a sequentially ordered application of one or more updates data storage operations to the one or more datasets; and
sending, from the source storage system, the metadata checkpoint to a target storage system, wherein the source storage system and the target storage system are different storage systems.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating a sequentially ordered log of metadata comprising one or more checkpoints.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein a quantity of updates to the one or more datasets described by a given checkpoint is specified by a configurable data replication setting of the first storage system.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the configurable data replication setting is a target recovery point objective.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein a time interval between each of the one or more checkpoints is less than 100 milliseconds.

6. An apparatus that includes a computer memory and a computer processor, the computer memory including program instructions that, when executed by the computer processor, cause the apparatus to carry out the steps of:
receiving, at a target storage system from a source storage system, metadata describing one or more updates to one or more datasets stored within the source storage system, wherein the metadata excludes data included in the one or more updates and includes references to data associated with the one or more updates, and wherein the source storage system and the target storage system are different storage systems;
generating, based on the metadata, a sequentially ordered log of metadata describing a sequentially ordered application of the one or more updates to the one or more datasets, wherein the sequentially ordered log of metadata excludes the data and describes a sequentially ordered application of one or more data storage operations to the one or more datasets; and
generating, based on the sequentially ordered log of metadata, the one or more datasets in accordance with the one or more updates.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the program instructions, when executed by the computer processor, further cause the storage system to carry out the steps of:
receiving, at the target data repository from the source data repository and independent from receiving the metadata describing the one or more updates to the one or more datasets, data corresponding to the one or more updates to the one or more datasets.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the sequentially ordered log of metadata is organized into one or more checkpoints.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein a checkpoint comprises a quantity of updates since a past checkpoint and the quantity of updates since the past checkpoint is specified by a configurable data replication setting of the source storage system.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the configurable data replication setting is a target recovery point objective.

11. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein a time interval between each of the one or more checkpoints is less than 100 milliseconds.

12. A method comprising:
generating at a first storage system, based on metadata describing one or more updates to one or more datasets, wherein the metadata excludes data included in the one or more updates and includes references to data associated with the one or more updates, a sequentially ordered log of metadata that excludes the data and describes a sequentially ordered application of one or more storage operations to the one or more datasets;
sending, from the first storage system to a second storage system, data corresponding to the sequentially ordered log of metadata, wherein the first storage system and the second storage system are different storage systems;
sending, from the first storage system to the second storage system, the sequentially ordered log of metadata; and
generating, on a source data repository of the first storage system and based on the sequentially ordered log of metadata, at least a portion of the one or more datasets in accordance with the one or more updates corresponding to a specified point in time.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein at least one location of data is available based on garbage collection on the source data repository using both a reference table maintained by a storage controller and also a list of references within the sequentially ordered log of metadata.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the sequentially ordered log of metadata is organized into one or more checkpoints.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein a checkpoint comprises a quantity of updates since a past checkpoint and the quantity of updates since the past checkpoint is specified a configurable data replication setting.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein a quantity of checkpoints stored on the source data repository is based on a configuration setting that specifies a recovery time window.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the recovery time window is less than 100 milliseconds.

Assignees

• Pure Storage Inc

Inventors

• Grunwald David
• Gill Thomas
• Colgrove John
• Karr Ronald
• Fay Matthew
• Paulsen Luke
• Wang Zong

Classifications

• G06F16/273 Primary

  Asynchronous replication or reconciliation · CPC title

• G06F16/2379

  Updates performed during online database operations; commit processing · CPC title

• G06F11/2071 Primary

  using a plurality of controllers · CPC title

• G06F11/1471

  involving logging of persistent data for recovery · CPC title

• G06F2201/84

  Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data · CPC title