System and method to support single instance storage operations

Abstract

Systems and methods for single instance storage operations are provided. Systems constructed in accordance with the principals of the present invention may process data containing a payload and associated metadata. Often, chunks of data are copied to traditional archive storage wherein some or all of the chunk, including the payload and associated metadata are copied to the physical archive storage medium. In some embodiments, chunks of data are designated for storage in single instance storage devices. The system may remove the encapsulation from the chunk and may copy the chunk payload to a single instance storage device. The single instance storage device may return a signature or other identifier for items copied from the chunk payload. The metadata associated with the chunk may be maintained in separate storage and may track the association between the logical identifiers and the signatures for the individual items of the chunk payload which may be generated by the single instance storage device.

Description

PRIORITY CLAIM [0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application No. 60 / 626,076 titled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PERFORMING STORAGE OPERATIONS IN A COMPUTER NETWORK, filed Nov. 8, 2004, and U.S. provisional application No. 60 / 625,746 titled STORAGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM filed Nov. 5, 2004, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. RELATED APPLICATIONS [0002] This application is related to the following patents and pending applications, each of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety: [0003] application Ser. No. 09 / 354,058, titled HIERARCHICAL BACKUP AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM, filed Jul. 15, 1999, attorney docket number 4982 / 5; [0004] U.S. Pat. No. 6,418,478, titled PIPELINED HIGH SPEED DATA TRANSFER MECHANISM, issued Jul. 9, 2002, attorney docket number 4982 / 6; [0005] application Ser. No. 60 / 460,234, SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PERFORMING STORAGE OPERATIONS IN A COMPUTER NETWORK, filed Apr. 3, 2003, attorney docket number 4982 / ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0024] Systems and methods for single instance storage operations are provided. Systems constructed in accordance with the principals of the present invention may process data containing a payload and associated metadata. Often, chunks of data are copied to traditional archive storage wherein some or all of the chunk, including the payload and associated metadata are copied to the physical archive storage medium. In some embodiments, chunks of data are designated for storage in single instance storage devices. The system may remove the encapsulation from the chunk and may copy the chunk payload to a single instance storage device. The single instance storage device may return a signature or other identifier for items copied from the chunk payload. The metadata associated with the chunk may be maintained in separate storage and may track the association between the logical identifiers and the signatures for the individual items of the chunk payload which may be generated by the single instance storage device.

Problems solved by technology

During the early development of the computer, storage of data was limited to individual computers.

Alternatively, individual users may also lose track of or otherwise retain several copies of a file on their own personal hard drive or network share.

Thus, storage space on systems is being wasted by multiple instances of the same data.

One problem associated with single instance storage solutions is that they are not designed to process backup data stored as chunks.

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