Classifying data for deduplication and storage
View Patent ↗In a method of classifying data for deduplication, data to be classified is accessed. The data is classified into a deduplication classification in accordance with a data content aware data classification policy such that classified data is created. The data classification policy includes a plurality of deduplication classifications.
1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method, the method comprising:
accessing data to be classified;
classifying the data into a deduplication classification based, at least in part, on a classification policy where the classification policy explicitly indicates at least a blocklet size for the data, where classifying the data into a deduplication classification based, at least in part, on the classification policy includes classifying the data based, at least in part, on an access requirement associated with the data;
controlling a processor to selectively perform a whole file deduplication methodology on an item upon determining that the deduplication classification associated with the item is a whole file deduplication policy; and
controlling the processor to perform a sub-file blocklet level deduplication methodology on the item upon determining that the deduplication classification associated with the item is a sub-file blocklet level deduplication policy, where the sub-file blocklet level deduplication methodology is controlled, at least in part, by the deduplication classification associated with the item, where the item comprises a file or a data stream, and where the different deduplication methodologies deduplicate with respect to average blocklet size, minimum blocklet size, or maximum blocklet size as controlled by the deduplication classification.
2. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , where accessing data to be classified comprises receiving the data in the form of a file or the form of a data stream.
3. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , where classifying the data includes assigning the data to a data deduplication methodology of a plurality of predefined different data deduplication methodologies preassociated with different deduplication classifications, where the plurality of predefined different data deduplication methodologies are configured to selectively perform deduplication using different blocklet sizes for different items, where the different blocklet sizes for the different items are selected based, at least in part, on the deduplication classification associated with the item.
4. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 3 , where classifying the data includes directing the data to be processed and stored in a storage medium associated with an assigned deduplication classification.
5. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 3 , where classifying the data includes storing the data for future processing in accordance with the deduplication classification.
6. A system, comprising:
a receiver comprising a hardware processor that receives data that has been classified into a deduplication classification in accordance with a classification policy, where the classification policy includes a plurality of different deduplication classifications for indicating different deduplicating methodologies for different types of data, where the different deduplicating methodologies perform deduplication using different block sizes, where the different block sizes are based, at least in part, on the classification policy; and
a storage processing block comprising a hardware processor that processes the data according to a predefined data deduplication methodology associated with the deduplication classification.
7. The system of claim 6 , comprising:
a plurality of repositories that separately store data associated with different deduplication classifications.
8. The system of claim 6 , where the different deduplicating methodologies deduplicate with respect to average blocklet size, minimum blocklet size, or maximum blocklet size as controlled by a deduplication classification.
9. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer executable instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method, the method comprising:
classifying the data into a deduplication class from the plurality of deduplication classes based, at least in part, on a classification policy, where the classification policy correlates data to a deduplication class based, at least in part, on a content type of the data, and an access requirement of the data, where the access requirement indicates a quality of service associated with the data;
receiving data that is classified into a deduplication class of a plurality of deduplication classes, where the plurality of deduplication classes identify different granularity of sub-file blocklet size when performing deduplication; and
deduplicating the data based, at least in part, on a granularity of sub-file blocklet size for the deduplication class of the data.
10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9 , where the data is stored in a storage medium for data of the deduplication class of the plurality of deduplication classes and data of a second deduplication class of the plurality of deduplication classes is stored in a second storage medium.
11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9 , where deduplicating the data based, at least in part, on the granularity of sub-file blocklet size for the deduplication class of the data comprises directing the data to one of a plurality of different sub-file blocklet level deduplicators associated with the deduplication class.