Namespace mirroring in an expandable storage volume

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9684571-B2
Application number	US-201313875236-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 1, 2013
Priority date	May 1, 2013
Publication date	Jun 20, 2017
Grant date	Jun 20, 2017

Abstract

Technology for maintaining a backup of namespace metadata of an expandable storage volume is disclosed. In various embodiments, the expandable storage volume backs up metadata of a namespace constituent volume of the expandable storage volume into a namespace mirror volume. The namespace constituent volume is responsible for storing the metadata for data objects stored in multiple data constituent volumes of the expandable storage volume. In response to a signal indicating that the namespace constituent volume is unavailable, the namespace mirror volume replaces the role of the namespace constituent volume. The new namespace constituent volume continues to provide metadata for a data object of the data objects in response to an operation request for the data object.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
backing up metadata of a namespace constituent volume into a first namespace mirror volume, wherein the namespace constituent volume stores the metadata for data objects stored in data constituent volumes that are separate from the namespace constituent volume, wherein the first namespace mirror volume is separate from the namespace constituent volume and separate from the data constituent volumes;
determining to provide metadata indicated in a first metadata request from the namespace constituent volume for a first data object of the data objects based, at least in part, on a comparison of a frequency of access operations on the namespace constituent volume with a frequency of access operations on the first namespace mirror volume;
based on an indication that the namespace constituent volume is unavailable, redirecting the first metadata requests to the first namespace mirror volume instead of the namespace constituent volume; and
providing metadata for the first data object from the first namespace mirror volume.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein backing up the metadata of the namespace constituent volume into the first namespace mirror volume comprises:
copying a redirector object for a second data object of the data objects from the namespace constituent volume to the first namespace mirror volume, wherein the redirector object includes an object locator indicating a location of the second data object within a data constituent volume of the data constituent volumes.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein backing up the metadata of the namespace constituent volume into the first namespace mirror volume comprises:
backing up the metadata of the namespace constituent volume into the first namespace mirror volume according to a predetermined schedule.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein an expandable storage volume comprises the namespace constituent volume, the first namespace mirror volume, and the data constituent volumes.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metadata are organized as inode files stored in the namespace constituent volume, wherein each of the inode files includes metadata for a data object of the data objects.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first namespace mirror volume is located in a high-availability pair separate from another high-availability pair that contains the namespace constituent volume.

7. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
based on an operation to set the expandable storage volume offline, stopping the backing up the metadata of the namespace constituent volume to the first namespace mirror volume.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying a stub file for the first data object based, at least in part, on the metadata for the first data object; and
locating the first data object based, at least in part, on an object locator stored in the stub file.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
adjusting a backup schedule based, at least in part, on a workload of the namespace constituent volume, wherein the metadata of the namespace constituent volume is backed up into the first namespace mirror volume according to the backup schedule.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein backing up the metadata of the namespace constituent volume into the first namespace mirror volume comprises:
backing up a portion of metadata of the namespace constituent volume into the first namespace mirror volume, wherein the portion of the metadata corresponds to an active file system including multiple data constituent volumes.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein backing up the metadata of the namespace constituent volume into the first namespace mirror volume comprises, based on receipt of a request to write first metadata to the namespace constituent volume, writing the first metadata to the namespace constituent volume and the first namespace mirror volume.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
monitoring available storage space for a first aggregate, wherein the namespace constituent volume and the first namespace mirror volume are located on the first aggregate; and
based on determining that the available storage space for the first aggregate is insufficient to store the namespace constituent volume and the first namespace mirror volume, migrating the first namespace mirror volume to a second aggregate.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions comprising machine executable code which, when executed by at least one machine, causes the at least one machine to:
in response to an instruction for generating a snapshot for an expandable storage volume having a namespace constituent volume, multiple data constituent volumes, and a first namespace mirror volume, generate snapshots for a namespace constituent volume and multiple data constituent volumes of the expandable storage volume without generation of a snapshot for the first namespace mirror volume, wherein the namespace constituent volume stores metadata for data objects stored in the multiple data constituent volumes;
in response to an instruction for restoring the expandable storage volume, copy metadata in the snapshot of the namespace constituent volume to the namespace constituent volume of the expandable storage volume, and restore the data constituent volumes to the snapshots for the data constituent volumes; and
after copying metadata to the namespace constituent volume,
create a second namespace mirror volume as a backup for the namespace constituent volume;
back up the metadata of the namespace constituent volume into the second namespace mirror volume; and
determine whether to direct requests for metadata to the second namespace mirror volume based, at least in part, on a comparison of a frequency of access operations on the namespace constituent volume with a frequency of access operations on the second namespace mirror volume.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 , wherein the namespace constituent volume includes inode files for data objects stored in the data constituent volumes, wherein the inode files include pointers to stub files, wherein each of the stub files maintain an object locator for identifying aggregates and storage nodes that store a data object of the data objects.

15. A device comprising:
a processor; and
a memory containing machine readable medium having stored thereon instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the device to,
back up metadata of a namespace constituent volume into a first namespace mirror volume, wherein the namespace constituent volume stores the metadata for data objects stored in multiple data constituent volumes that are separate from the namespace constituent volume, wherein the first namespace mirror volume is separate from the namespace constituent volume and separate from the data constituent volumes;
determine to provide metadata indicated in a first metadata request from the namespace constituent volume for a first data object of the data objects based, at least in part, on a comparison of a frequency of access operations on the namespace constituent volume with a frequency of access operations on the first namespace mirror volume;
based on an indication that the namespace constituent volume is unavailable, redirect the first metadata requests to the first namespace mirror volume instead of the namespace constituent volume; and
provide metadata for the first data object from the first namespace mirror volume.

16. The device of claim 15 , wherein an expandable storage vol

Assignees

• Netapp Inc

Inventors

• Modukuri Kiran Kumar
• Chen Su

Classifications

• G06F11/2056 Primary

  by mirroring · CPC title

• G06F11/1435

  using file system or storage system metadata · CPC title

• G06F11/20 Primary

  using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements · CPC title

• G06F2201/84

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