Enhanced method and system for assuring integrity of deduplicated data

摘要

The present invention provides for an enhanced method and system for assuring integrity of deduplicated data objects stored within a storage system. A digital signature of the data object is generated to determine if the data object reassembled from a deduplicated state is identical to its pre-deduplication state. In one embodiment, generating the object signature of a data object before deduplication comprises generating an object signature from intermediate hash values computed from a hash function operating on each data chunk within the data object, the hash function also used to determine duplicate data chunks. In an alternative embodiment, generating the object signature of a data object before deduplication comprises generating an object signature on a portion of each data chunk of the data object.