Prioritizing Storage Data Units During Virtualized Delete Operations
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional virtualized storage systems lack the ability to prioritize host metadata during deletion processes, leading to potential loss of critical data and inefficient storage management.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that prioritize physical storage data units based on assigned priorities, ensuring host metadata is retained until lower-priority data is deleted, allowing for coherent metadata structure preservation and improved data retention.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If data is deleted using conventional garbage collection process, then storage space is reclaimed, but host metadata is lost along with user data
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments data into different priority levels, separating host metadata from regular user data. This segmentation allows the garbage collection process to selectively delete lower-priority data while preserving higher-priority metadata, resolving the contradiction between space reclamation and metadata preservation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by assigning different deletion priorities to different data units within the same storage system. Host metadata is assigned a higher priority level than user data, creating a local quality distinction that enables selective preservation during deletion operations while maintaining overall system functionality.
2Ease of operation
If all data units are treated equally during deletion, then deletion process is simple, but critical metadata may be lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by pre-assigning priority levels to data units before deletion occurs. The host system marks metadata writes with a priority indicator, and the storage system records these priority assignments in advance. This preliminary classification enables the deletion process to automatically preserve critical data without requiring complex real-time decisions, maintaining simplicity while improving reliability.
3Loss of information
If host metadata is preserved during deletion, then data recovery is improved, but storage space reclamation is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies partial action by selectively preserving only the necessary portion of data (host metadata) during deletion, rather than preserving all data. The system deletes lower-priority user data while retaining higher-priority metadata, achieving partial deletion that balances metadata retention with storage space reclamation. This selective approach recovers more space than full preservation while maintaining essential metadata.
Data Source
AI summary
A method, computer program product and computer system are provided. A processor receives a host input/output write operation, wherein the host input/output write operation includes host metadata regarding data represented by the host input/output write operation. The processor stores the host input/output write operation in one or more physical storage data units. A processor assigns a priority to the one or more physical storage data units. In response to receiving a host volume delete command associated with at least one of the one or more physical storage data units, a processor prioritizes data units of the host volume for deletion based, at least in part, on the assigned priority of the data units of the host volume, wherein data units with a lower priority are permanently deleted before data units with a higher priority.