Storage system and deduplication control method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016259591-A1
Application number	US-201314652577-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 24, 2013
Priority date	Dec 24, 2013
Publication date	Sep 8, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A storage system, in a write process of a file, stores the file in a memory and selects whether or not to perform a deduplication process of a chunk based on whether or not at least one of an attribute of the file and a usage capacity at a time of a chunk being read from the memory satisfies a predetermined condition, with respect to each of multiple chunks composing the file. With respect to the chunks which are selected not to perform a deduplication process, a deduplication process may be performed asynchronously from a write process.

First claim

1 . A storage system, comprising:
one or more storage areas; and a control unit being configured to perform a write process of a file, the control unit comprising a memory, the control unit being configured to store the file in the memory in the write process, and with respect to each of multiple chunks composing the file,
read a chunk from the memory,
perform a deduplication process with respect to the chunk read from the memory, in a case where at least one of an attribute of the file and a load of the storage system at a time of the chunk being read from the memory satisfies a predetermined condition, control, in the deduplication process, whether or not to write the chunk read from the memory to a second storage area, based on whether or not a chunk duplicating the chunk read from the memory is stored in the second storage area which is one of storage areas among the one or more storage areas, and

write the chunk read from the memory to a first storage area which is a different storage area from the second storage area among the one or more storage areas, in a case where at least one of the attribute of the file and the load of the storage system does not satisfy the predetermined condition.

2 . The storage system according to claim 1 , wherein
the control unit is configured to judge, at each time of reading a chunk from the memory, whether or not the chunk satisfies the predetermined condition.

3 . The storage system according to claim 2 , wherein
the load of the storage system is a free capacity of the first storage area, and the predetermined condition is that the free capacity of the first storage area is less than a predetermined capacity.

4 . The storage system according to claim 2 , wherein
the load of the storage system is a memory chunk number which is the number of chunks stored in the memory, and the predetermined condition is that the memory chunk number is equal to or more than a predetermined number.

5 . The storage system according to claim 2 , wherein
the load of the storage system is a memory chunk number which is the number of chunks stored in the memory, and the predetermined condition is that the memory chunk number is less than a predetermined number.

6 . The storage system according to claim 2 , wherein
the load of the storage system is a free capacity of the first storage area and a memory chunk number which is the number of chunks stored in the memory, and the predetermined condition is that the free capacity of the first storage area is less than a predetermined capacity and the memory chunk number is less than a predetermined number.

7 . (canceled)

8 . The storage system according to claim 1 , wherein
the control unit is configured to perform a condition judgment whether or not the attribute of the file satisfies a predetermined condition at file open, decide to perform the deduplication process with respect to the file, in a case where a result of the condition judgment is false, and decide not to perform the deduplication process with respect to the file, in a case where a result of the condition judgment is true, the control unit is configured to control whether or not to perform the deduplication process, based on a decision according to a result of the condition judgment, with respect to chunks of the file.

9 . The storage system according to claim 8 , wherein
the predetermined condition is that the file is to fit into at least one kind of file among a compressed file, an image file, a log file, a dump file and a file of first generation.

10 . The storage system according to claim 1 , wherein
the control unit is configured to compress the chunk read from the memory, and the deduplication process is performed with respect to the compressed chunk, and also the compressed chunk is stored in the first or the second storage area.

11 . The storage system according to claim 1 , comprising:
a storage apparatus comprising the one or more storage areas and a storage control unit which performs the deduplication process, and a host apparatus which is coupled to the storage apparatus and configured to send the file to the storage apparatus, wherein the host apparatus comprises the memory, and a processor which judges whether or not at least one of the attribute of the file and the load of the storage system satisfies a predetermined condition and which is coupled to the memory, and the control unit includes the memory and the processor of the host apparatus and the storage control unit.

12 . The storage system according to claim 1 , further comprising:
an interface unit which is coupled to a host apparatus and configured to receive the file from the host apparatus, wherein the control unit is configured to divide the file which the interface unit received into chunks.

13 . The storage system according to claim 1 , wherein
the control unit is configured to read, asynchronously from the write process of the file, a chunk which the deduplication process is not performed from the first storage area, and perform the deduplication process with respect to the chunk read from the first or the second storage area.

14 . A deduplication control method comprising,
storing the file in a memory of a storage system in a write process of a file, with respect to each of multiple chunks composing the file,
reading a chunk from the memory,
performing a deduplication process with respect to the chunk read from the memory, in a case where at least one of an attribute of the file and a load of the storage system at a time of the chunk being read from the memory satisfies a predetermined condition, controlling, in the deduplication process, whether or not to write the chunk read from the memory to a second storage area, based on whether or not a chunk which duplicating the chunk read from the memory is stored in the second storage area which is one of storage areas among the one or more storage areas, and
writing the chunk read from the memory to or a first storage area which is a different storage area from the second storage area among the one or more storage areas, in a case where at least one of the attribute of the file and the load of the storage system does not satisfy the predetermined condition.

15 . A host apparatus coupled to a storage apparatus which manages storage areas and performs a deduplication process, the host apparatus comprising:
an interface unit coupled to the storage apparatus, a memory, and a processor coupled to the memory and the interface unit, the processor being configured to store the file in the memory in a write process of a file, the processor being configured to, with respect to each of multiple chunks composing the file,
read a chunk from the memory,
make the storage apparatus perform a deduplication process with respect to the chunk read from the memory, in a case where at least one of an attribute of the file and a load of the storage apparatus at a time of the chunk being read from the memory satisfies a predetermined condition, and
write the chunk read from the memory to the storage area, in a case where at least one of the attribute of the file and the load of the storage apparatus does not satisfy the predetermined condition.

16 . The storage system according to claim 2 , wherein
the load of the storage system is a free capacity of the first storage area and a memory chunk number which is the number of chunks stored in the memory and the predetermined condition is that the free capacity of the first storage area is less than a predetermined capacity and the memory chunk

Assignees

• Hitachi Ltd
• Hitachi Information & Telecommunication Eng Ltd

Inventors

• Arikawa Hidehisa
• Tashiro Naomitsu
• Ogata Mikito

Classifications

• G06F3/0683

  Plurality of storage devices · CPC title

• G06F3/0608

  Saving storage space on storage systems · CPC title

• G06F3/0641 Primary

  De-duplication techniques · CPC title

• G06F3/0689

  Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD · CPC title