VIRTUAL SUBDIRECTORY MANAGEMENT
A unified system provides primary storage and in-line analytics-based data protection. Additional data intelligence and analytics gathered on protected data and prior analytics are stored in discovery points. The disclosed system implements multi-threaded log writes across primary and restore nodes with write gathering across file systems; nested directories such as may be used for storing virtual machine files, where every subdirectory has an associated file system for snapshot purposes; and cloning objects on demand with background metadata and data migration.
1 . A method for processing in a data-intelligent storage system that includes a primary node storing primary data and in-line analytics and a restore node storing further analytics and intelligence, comprising the steps of:
intercepting a make directory request from an application, the request to create a subdirectory for storing one or more file objects;
storing a file system level object on at least one of the primary and restore nodes, the file system level object containing access information for the subdirectory, such that multiple make directory requests result in storing a corresponding multiple number of file system level objects as a virtual file system structure; and
subsequently processing an access request for a file object located with the subdirectory, using only the file system level object information to access the content of the subdirectory, such that the virtual file system structure is transparent to the hypervisor application.
2 . The method of claim 1 wherein the access request writes a file system object that is a virtual machine definition file.
3 . The method of claim 1 wherein the primary node and restore node do not provide access for the action at a directory level.
4 . The method of claim 1 wherein the access request further comprises a file system action that is one of a snapshot, de-duplicate, or compression action.
5 . The method of claim 1 further comprising:
storing a property with two or more virtual file system objects indicating that the step of processing an access request applies to two or more directories as a consistency group.
6 . The method of claim 1 additionally comprising:
storing a property associated with a virtual file system object, with the property determined from an intelligence action performed by the restore node.
7 . The method of claim 1 additionally comprising:
intercepting a remove directory request to remove a subdirectory; and
deleting the file system level object associated with the directory.
8 . A method comprising:
intercepting a make directory request from a hypervisor application, the made directory request being a request to create a subdirectory for storing one or more virtual machine definition files;
creating a file system object on a primary node and on a restore node, the file system object containing access information for the subdirectory, such that multiple make directory requests result in storing a corresponding multiple number of file system objects stored as a virtual file system structure; and
receiving an access request from the hypervisor application, the access request for access to a virtual machine definition file stored in a subdirectory;
forwarding the access request to at least one of the primary node and restore node; and
processing the access request on at least one of the primary node and restore node to locate the virtual machine definition file using only the file system object to access the content of the subdirectory, such that the virtual file system structure is transparent to the hypervisor is application.