Merging data volumes and derivative versions of the data volumes
View Patent ↗Responsive to an instruction to collapse a derivative version of an ancestor data volume into the ancestor data volume, it is determined if a characteristic of the derivative version of the ancestor data volume satisfies a criteria relative to a characteristic of the ancestor data volume. If the characteristic of the derivative version satisfies the criteria, the ancestor data volume is merged into the derivative version of the underlying data to form an updated derivative version. The updated derivative version is established as the ancestor data volume.
1. A method of collapsing derivative versions of ancestor data volumes, the method comprising:
responsive to an instruction to collapse a derivative version of an ancestor data volume into the ancestor data volume, determining if a characteristic of the derivative version of the ancestor data volume satisfies a criteria relative to a characteristic of the ancestor data volume; and,
if the characteristic of the derivative version satisfies the criteria, merging the ancestor data volume into the derivative version of the ancestor data volume to form an updated derivative version and establishing the updated derivative version as the ancestor data volume.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the derivative version corresponds to only a first portion of the ancestor data volume, and wherein the criteria comprises whether or not a size of the derivative version is greater than a size of a remaining portion of the ancestor data volume that does not include the first portion of the ancestor data volume.
3. The method of claim 2 wherein the size of the derivative version of the ancestor data volume does not include unallocated portions of the derivative version of the ancestor data volume.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein merging the ancestor data volume into the derivative version to form the updated derivate version comprises copying only portions of the ancestor data volume not yet represented in the derivative version into the derivative version.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein merging the ancestor data volume into the derivative version of the ancestor data volume to form the updated derivative version and establishing the updated derivative version as the ancestor data volume comprises altering meta data from pointing to portions of an underlying data volume as containing the ancestor data volume to pointing to a subset of the portions of the underlying data volume and additional portions of the underlying data volume as containing the derivative version.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the ancestor data volume comprises a virtual disk file having a virtual machine stored therein.
7. The method of claim 6 wherein the derivative version of the ancestor data volume comprises a snapshot of the virtual disk file.
8. The method of claim 1 further comprising, if the derivative version does not satisfy the criteria, merging the derivative version into the ancestor data volume.
9. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored therein program instructions executable by a computer system for collapsing derivative versions of ancestor data volumes, that when executed by the computer system, direct the computer system to:
responsive to an instruction to collapse a derivative version of an ancestor data volume into the ancestor data volume, determine if a characteristic of the derivative version of the ancestor data volume satisfies a criteria relative to a characteristic of the ancestor data volume; and,
if the characteristic of the derivative version satisfies the criteria, merge the ancestor data volume into the derivative version of the ancestor data volume to form an updated derivative version and establish the updated derivative version as the ancestor data volume.
10. The computer readable medium of claim 9 wherein the derivative version corresponds to only a first portion of the ancestor data volume, and wherein the criteria comprises whether or not a size of the derivative version is greater than a size of a remaining portion of the ancestor data volume that does not include the first portion of the ancestor data volume.
11. The computer readable medium of claim 10 wherein the size of the derivative version of the ancestor data volume does not include unallocated portions of the derivative version of the ancestor data volume.
12. The computer readable medium of claim 9 wherein, to merge the ancestor data volume into the derivative version to form the updated derivate version, the program instructions, when executed by the computer system, direct the computer system to copy only portions of the ancestor data volume not yet represented in the derivative version into the derivative version.
13. The computer readable medium of claim 9 wherein, to merge the ancestor data volume into the derivative version to form the updated derivate version and establish the updated derivative version as the ancestor data volume, the program instructions, when executed by the computer system, direct the computer system to alter meta data from pointing to portions of an underlying data volume as containing the ancestor data volume to pointing to a subset of the portions of the underlying data volume and additional portions of the underlying data volume as containing the derivative version.
14. The computer readable medium of claim 9 wherein the ancestor data volume comprises a virtual disk file having a virtual machine stored therein.
15. The computer readable medium of claim 14 wherein the derivative version of the ancestor data volume comprises a snapshot of the virtual disk file.
16. The computer readable medium of claim 9 wherein the program instructions, when executed by the computer system, further direct the computer system to merge the derivative version into the ancestor data volume if the derivative version does not satisfy the criteria.
17. A data control system for collapsing derivative versions of ancestor data volumes comprising:
a processing system configured to execute program instructions directing the processing system to, responsive to an instruction to collapse a derivative version of an ancestor data volume into the ancestor data volume, determine if a characteristic of the derivative version of the ancestor data volume satisfies a criteria relative to a characteristic of the ancestor data volume, and if the characteristic of the derivative version satisfies the criteria, merge the ancestor data volume into the derivative version of the ancestor data volume to form an updated derivative version and establish the updated derivative version as the ancestor data volume; and,
a non-transitory storage system having the program instructions stored thereon.
18. The data control system of claim 17 wherein the derivative version corresponds to only a first portion of the ancestor data volume, and wherein the criteria comprises whether or not a size of the derivative version is greater than a size of a remaining portion of the ancestor data volume that does not include the first portion of the ancestor data volume, and wherein the size of the derivative version of the ancestor data volume does not include unallocated portions of the derivative version of the ancestor data volume.
19. The data control system of claim 17 wherein the ancestor data volume comprises a virtual disk file having a virtual machine stored therein, and wherein the derivative version of the ancestor data volume comprises a snapshot of the virtual disk file.
20. The data control system of claim 17 wherein the program instructions, when executed by the computer system, further direct the computer system to merge the derivative version into the ancestor data volume if the derivative version does not satisfy the criteria.