Host Storage Metadata Interception for Data Reduction
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current data reduction methods in storage systems lack the ability to effectively communicate performance-improving information from host devices to storage systems, limiting the efficiency and performance of data reduction processing.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that intercepts data intended for storage, obtains reduction-pertinent metadata, encodes it into connection protocol datagrams, and transmits it to the storage system, enabling the storage system to improve data reduction processing through enhanced deduplication and compression algorithms.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If data reduction metadata is not communicated from host to storage system, then the storage system processes data without prior information about deduplication and compression potential, but the storage system cannot optimize data reduction processing and requires more I/O operations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism that captures reduction-pertinent metadata at the host device and transports it through the interface protocol to the storage system. This metadata acts as a mediator that enables the storage system to perform optimized data reduction processing without requiring additional I/O operations to query for this information.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements preliminary action by obtaining and transmitting reduction-pertinent metadata before the actual data reduction processing occurs at the storage system. This allows the storage system to have advance knowledge of deduplication and compression potential, enabling it to optimize its processing strategy beforehand rather than discovering this information during data ingestion.
2Productivity
If reduction-pertinent metadata is transmitted to the storage system, then the storage system can improve data reduction processing efficiency, but additional data transmission overhead is introduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the transmission of reduction-pertinent metadata with existing data transmission operations by incorporating the metadata into the same interface protocol communication channel. This combining approach allows metadata to be transmitted alongside data without requiring separate dedicated communication channels, thereby improving data transfer rate while minimizing additional protocol complexity.
3Ease of operation
If the storage system processes data without a priori information, then the interface protocol remains simple, but the storage system performs suboptimal data reduction processing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service by enabling the host device to automatically capture, format, and transmit reduction-pertinent metadata without requiring complex coordination or additional protocol mechanisms. The host device serves itself by generating the metadata in a format that can be directly utilized by the storage system, thereby maintaining interface protocol simplicity while improving data reduction performance through the provision of a priori information.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and system for sharing data reduction metadata with storage systems. Specifically, the disclosed method and system entail communicating, to a storage system, information known to host devices from which data (submitted to-be-written to the storage system) may originate. This a priori reduction-pertinent information, which may include the potential to improve storage system efficiency and/or performance at least with respect to data reduction processing of the data submitted to-be-written, had previously been considered incommunicable to the storage system. The disclosed method and system, however, lift this previous limitation and enable communication of any storage system performance-improving information, applicable to the data submitted to-be-written, to the storage system.