Storage system cloning

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12596506-B2
Application number	US-202418650198-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 30, 2024
Priority date	Nov 18, 2018
Publication date	Apr 7, 2026
Grant date	Apr 7, 2026

Abstract

Cloning storage systems in a cloud computing environment, including: receiving a request to create a cloud-based storage system; retrieving, from cloud-based object storage, one or more objects to include in the cloud-based storage system; and creating the cloud-based storage system, including storing, in block storage of the cloud-based storage system, data contained in the one or more objects retrieved from the cloud-based object storage.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1 . A method comprising:
identifying, from a cloud-based storage resource, data elements that were written to as part of servicing modifying operations by one or more cloud-based storage systems; and cloning the one or more cloud-based storage systems by including references to the identified one or more data elements in one or more cloud-based storage devices of a new storage system that implements a storage controller application via cloud computing resources.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that at least some portion of a dataset stored by the one or more cloud-based storage systems has not been committed to the cloud-based storage; and delaying retrieval, from the cloud-based storage, of at least one data element to include in the cloud-based storage system.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein creating the cloud-based storage system includes replicating configuration related information associated with one of the one or more cloud-based storage systems.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the configuration related information comprises information describing connectivity between the one of the one or more cloud-based storage systems and one or more hosts that issue I/O requests to the one of the one or more cloud-based storage systems.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein retrieving data elements to include in the cloud-based storage system comprises retrieving, from the cloud-based storage, data elements that contain valid data for the cloud-based storage system.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a request to create the storage system, wherein the request to create the cloud-based storage system includes information describing a previous point-in-time, and wherein retrieving data elements to include in the cloud-based storage system comprises retrieving, from the cloud-based storage, data elements that contain data that was valid for the one or more cloud-based storage systems at the previous point-in-time.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein invalid data elements associated with the one or more cloud-based storage system are retained in dependence upon a predetermined retention policy.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein retrieving, from the cloud-based storage, data elements to include in the cloud-based storage system includes verifying that each write to the data elements has been acknowledged.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the data elements were previously written to the cloud-based storage as part of servicing modifying operations directed to the one or more cloud-based storage systems.

10 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
cloning the one or more cloud-based storage systems based on a request to clone one of the one or more cloud-based storage systems.

11 . An apparatus comprising:
a memory; a processing device operably coupled to the memory, configured to:
identify, from a cloud-based storage resource, data elements that were written to as part of servicing modifying operations by one or more cloud-based storage systems; and
clone the one or more cloud-based storage systems by storing references to the identified one or more data elements in one or more cloud-based storage devices of a new storage system that implements a storage controller application via cloud computing resources.

12 . The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the processing device is further configured to:
determine that at least some portion of a dataset stored by the one or more cloud-based storage systems has not been committed to the cloud-based storage; and delay retrieval, from the cloud-based storage, of at least one data element to include in the cloud-based storage system.

13 . The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein creating the cloud-based storage system includes replicating configuration related information associated with one of the one or more cloud-based storage systems.

14 . The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the configuration related information comprises information describing connectivity between the one of the one or more cloud-based storage systems and one or more hosts that issue I/O requests to the one of the one or more cloud-based storage systems.

15 . The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein retrieving data elements to include in the cloud-based storage system comprises retrieving, from the cloud-based storage, data elements that contain valid data for the cloud-based storage system.

16 . The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the processing device is further configured to:
receive a request to create the storage system, wherein the request to create the cloud-based storage system includes information describing a previous point-in-time; and retrieve data elements to include in the cloud-based storage system comprising retrieving, from the cloud-based storage, data elements that contain data that was valid for the one or more cloud-based storage systems at the previous point-in-time.

17 . The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein invalid data elements associated with the one or more cloud-based storage system are retained in dependence upon a predetermined retention policy.

18 . The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein retrieving, from the cloud-based storage, data elements to include in the cloud-based storage system includes verifying that each write to the data elements has been acknowledged.

19 . The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the data elements were previously written to the cloud-based storage as part of servicing modifying operations directed to the one or more cloud-based storage systems.

20 . A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed, cause a processing device to:
receive a request to create a cloud-based storage system; create a cloud-based storage system based on the request, the cloud-based storage system comprising at least one cloud computing resource implementing a storage controller application and one or more cloud-based storage devices; retrieve, from a cloud-based storage, data elements to include in the cloud-based storage system using information that associates the data elements with one or more cloud-based storage systems; and store, in the one or more cloud-based storage devices, data contained in the data elements retrieved from the cloud-based storage.

Assignees

• Pure Storage Inc
• Everpure Inc

Inventors

• Zhuravlev Sergey
• Neelakantam Naveen
• Mcnutt Gregory
• Frandzel Yuval

Classifications

• G06F9/5005

  to service a request · CPC title

• G06F3/0658

  Controller construction arrangements · CPC title

• G06F3/0607

  by facilitating the process of upgrading existing storage systems, e.g. for improving compatibility between host and storage device · CPC title

• G06F16/9035

  Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles · CPC title

• G06F2009/45595

  Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances · CPC title