Policy-Based Snapshot Lineage Management for Storage Systems

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current storage systems face challenges in efficiently managing snapshots across local and cloud storage, particularly in maintaining snapshot lineages and ensuring data availability and recovery, especially in distributed and cloud-based environments.

Innovation Solution

The implementation of a policy-based snapshot lineage management system that allows for the creation, storage, and retrieval of snapshots across both local and cloud storage systems, utilizing a snapshot and file tiering management service to orchestrate snapshot shipping, archiving, and recovery, ensuring data consistency and availability.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Speed

If snapshots are stored locally in the storage system, then data availability and access speed are improved, but storage capacity and cost are consumed

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedata access speedVSAvoidstorage capacity

Core Design Contradiction:

SpeedVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments snapshot storage into two parts: local storage for recent snapshots requiring fast access, and cloud storage for historical snapshots requiring long-term retention. This segmentation allows the system to maintain fast access for active snapshots while using cloud storage for archival purposes, resolving the contradiction between access speed and storage capacity consumption.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces a new dimension by extending storage from local to cloud-based remote storage. This dimensional expansion allows snapshots to be stored in multiple locations with different access characteristics, enabling the system to optimize for both speed (local) and capacity efficiency (cloud) simultaneously.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

2Quantity of substance

If snapshots are archived to cloud storage, then storage costs are reduced, but data retrieval time increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvestorage capacityVSAvoiddata retrieval time

Core Design Contradiction:

Quantity of substanceVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by pre-copying snapshots to cloud storage while maintaining local references. This allows the cloud archiving process to occur in advance without impacting operational performance, as the local storage system retains the ability to serve requests immediately while the cloud copy is being prepared.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent applies local quality by maintaining different storage characteristics for different snapshot ages and access patterns. Recent snapshots remain locally accessible for fast retrieval, while older snapshots are archived to cloud storage. This quality differentiation resolves the contradiction by ensuring that only snapshots requiring fast access remain local, while others can be archived.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

3Reliability

If multiple snapshots are maintained for data recovery, then data protection reliability is improved, but storage resource consumption increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedata protectionVSAvoidstorage resources

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The patent uses copying to create snapshot copies that can be stored in cloud storage rather than maintaining full local copies. This allows multiple snapshot versions to be preserved for data recovery purposes while consuming minimal local storage resources, as the cloud copies serve as the primary storage medium for historical snapshots.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

Data Source

PatentUS11537553B2Managing snapshots stored locally in a storage system and in cloud storage utilizing policy-based snapshot lineages

Publication Date: 2022.12.27 EMC IP HLDG CO LLC

AI summary

An apparatus includes a processing device configured to identify a snapshot policy for creating a snapshot lineage comprising snapshots of a storage volume comprising data stored on a storage system, the snapshot lineage comprising (i) a local snapshot lineage stored on the storage system and (ii) at least one cloud snapshot lineage stored on cloud storage. The processing device is also configured to generate snapshots of the storage volume in accordance with the snapshot policy, to store the snapshots in the local snapshot lineage, and to copy snapshots from the local snapshot lineage to the at least one cloud snapshot lineage in accordance with the at least one snapshot policy. The processing device is further configured to provide an interface for managing the snapshot lineage by accessing, from the storage system, snapshots of the storage volume in the local snapshot lineage and the at least one cloud snapshot lineage.