System and method for retaining deduplication in a storage object after a clone split operation

摘要

Described herein is a system and method for retaining deduplication of data blocks of a resulting storage object (e.g., a flexible volume) from a split operation of a clone of a base storage object. The clone may comprise data blocks that are shared with at least one data block of the base storage object and at least one data block that is not shared with at least one data block of the base storage object. The data blocks of the clone that are shared with the base storage object may be indicated to receive a write allocation that may comprise assigning a new pointer to a indicated data block. Each data block may comprise a plurality of pointers comprising a virtual address pointer and a physical address pointer. As such, data blocks of the clone comprising the same virtual address pointer may be assigned a single physical address pointer. Thus, a new physical address pointer is assigned or allocated once to a given virtual address pointer of data blocks of a clone.

主权项

1. A system, comprising at least one processor and memory, for managing data on a storage system, the storage system providing data storage for at least one storage object and a clone of the storage object, the system comprising:
the storage system configured for:
receiving a write allocation for a current data block of the clone of the storage object, the clone comprises a plurality of data blocks and is based on the storage object, each data block comprises a current physical address pointer to a location within a storage aggregate;determining if the current data block of the clone is shared with at least one data block of the storage object, wherein the clone of the storage object comprises at least one data block shared with at least one data block of the storage object and at least one data block not shared with data blocks of the storage object, wherein the current data block of the clone is shared with at least one data block of the storage object if the current physical address pointer of the current data block of the clone is the same as a physical address pointer of at least one data block of the storage object; andassigning a new pointer to the current physical address pointer of the current data block of the clone if the current data block is shared with at least one data block of the storage object.