File system agnostic replication

1. A method comprising:

migrating data from a source volume having a source file system type on a first storage system to a destination volume having a destination file system type on a second storage system, wherein the source file system type is different from the destination file system type, and wherein the source volume comprises an object, identified by an identifier, configured to be accessed by a client device;

generating, by the first storage system, difference information from a source file system on the source volume;

generating, by the first storage system, a file system agnostic representation of the object in the source volume from the difference information, wherein the representation comprises the identifier and file data;

transmitting, by the first storage system, the representation to the destination volume having the destination file system type; and

converting, by the second storage system, the representation to conform to the destination file system type, wherein the converted representation always comprises the same identifier and the same file data from the source file system.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the file data comprises metadata information, a data block, or a directory entry.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the identifier comprises one of a common Internet file system (CIFS) file identifier; a network file system (NFS) file handle; a directory search cookie; and a filename.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating difference information comprises:

creating a first snapshot of the source file system;

creating a second snapshot of the source file system; and

determining a difference between the first snapshot and the second snapshot.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating a the system agnostic representation comprises:

reading a portion of data from the difference information;

extracting metadata information, a data block and a directory entry for the portion of the data; and

converting the metadata information, the data block and the directory entry into a file system agnostic format.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein converting the representation comprises reconstructing the object from the representation according to the destination file system type.

7. A system comprising:

a client device;

a first storage system coupled to the client device; and

a second storage system coupled to the first storage system, wherein the first storage system is configured to migrate data from a source volume having a source file system type on the first storage system to a destination volume having a destination file system type on the second storage system, wherein the source file system type is different from the destination file system type, wherein the source volume comprises an object, identified by an identifier, configured to be accessed by the client device, wherein the first storage system is configured to:

generate difference information from a source file system on the source volume;

generate a file system agnostic representation of the object in the source volume from the difference information, wherein the representation comprises the identifier and file data; and

transmit the representation to the destination volume; and

wherein the second storage system is configured to:

convert the representation to conform to the destination file system type, wherein converted representation always comprises the same identifier and the same file data from the source file system; and

identify the object using the identifier.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the file data comprises metadata information, a data block, or a directory entry.

9. The system of claim 7 , wherein the identifier comprises one of a common internet file system (CIFS) file identifier; network file system (NFS) file handle; a directory search cookie; and a filename.

10. The system of claim 7 , wherein the first storage server comprises a sender node and the second storage server comprises a receiver node.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the sender node comprises:

a snapshot comparison module;

a scanner module coupled to the snapshot comparison module; and

a router coupled to the scanner module.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the scanner module is configured to generate a file system agnostic representation of a portion of data in the source volume.

13. The system of claim 10 , wherein the receiver node comprises:

a router; and

a writer module coupled to the router.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the writer module is configured to convert the file system agnostic representation to conform to the destination file system type.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein converting the file system agnostic representation comprises reconstructing the object from the representation according to the destination file system type.

16. The system of claim 14 , wherein the sender node further comprises a filter module coupled to the scanner module.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the receiver node further comprises a filter module coupled to the router.

18. The system of claim 7 , wherein generating a file system agnostic representation comprises:

reading a portion of the data from the snapshot comparison module;

extracting metadata information, a data block and a directory entry for the portion of the data; and

converting the metadata information, the data block and the directory entry into a file system agnostic format.

19. A machine readable non-transitory storage medium storing executable program instructions which when executed by a data processing system cause the data processing system to perform a method comprising:

migrating data from a source volume having a source file system type on a first storage system to a destination volume having a destination file system type on a second storage system, wherein the source file system type is different from the destination the system type, and wherein the source volume comprises an object, identified by an identifier, configured to be accessed by a client device

generating, by the first storage system, difference information from a source file system on the source volume;

generating, by the first storage system, a file system agnostic representation of the object in the source volume from the difference information, wherein the representation comprises the identifier and file data;

transmitting, by the first storage system, the representation to the destination volume having the destination file system type; and

converting, by the second storage system, the representation to conform to the destination file system type, wherein the converted representation always comprises the same identifier and the same file data from the source file system.

20. The medium as in claim 19 , wherein the file data comprises metadata information, a data block, or a directory entry.

21. The medium as in claim 19 , wherein the identifier comprises one of: a common internet file system (CIFS) file identifier; a network file system (NFS) file handle; a directory search cookie; and a filename.

22. The medium as in claim 19 , wherein generating difference information comprises:

creating a first snapshot of the source file system;

creating a second snapshot of the source file system; and

determining a difference between the first snapshot and the second snapshot.

23. The medium as in claim 19 , wherein generating a file system agnostic representation comprises:

reading a portion of data from the difference information;

extracting metadata information, a data block and a directory entry for the portion of the data; and

converting the metadata information, the data block and the directory entry into a file system agnostic format.

24. The medium as in claim 19 , wherein converting the representation comprises reconstructing the object from the representation according to the destination file system type.