Accessing a file system using tiered deduplication
An illustrative pseudo-file-system driver uses deduplication functionality and resources in a storage management system to provide an application and/or a virtual machine with access to a locally-stored file system. From the perspective of the application/virtual machine, the file system appears to be of virtually unlimited capacity. The pseudo-file-system driver instantiates the file system in primary storage, e.g., configured on a local disk. The application/virtual machine requires no configured settings or limits for the file system's storage capacity, and may thus treat the file system as “infinite.” The pseudo-file-system driver intercepts write requests and may use the deduplication infrastructure in the storage management system to offload excess data from local primary storage to deduplicated secondary storage, based on a deduplication database. The pseudo-file-system driver also intercepts read requests and in response may restore data from deduplicated secondary storage to primary storage, also based on the deduplication database.
1. A method comprising:
executing a data agent associated with a virtual machine, wherein the data agent is a component of a storage management system;
executing a pseudo-file-system driver that instantiates a file system based on exposing a first mount point for the file system,
wherein the file system resides in a primary storage resource in communication with the virtual machine;
associating, by the pseudo-file-system driver, the file system with a deduplication database component of the storage management system;
executing the virtual machine with access to the file system;
invoking by the pseudo-file system driver at least one deduplication job, which:
(i) moves some data from the file system in the primary storage resource to a secondary storage resource, and
(ii) stores the moved data in deduplicated form in the secondary storage resource based at least in part on the deduplication database associated with the file system; and
wherein, based on the at least one deduplication job, the pseudo-file-system driver provides the virtual machine with access to the file system configured without a storage-capacity limit; and
wherein the virtual machine, the data agent, and the pseudo-file-system driver execute in a cloud services environment, and further wherein at least one of the primary storage resource and the secondary storage resource is configured in the cloud services environment.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one deduplication job invoked by the pseudo-file-system driver enables the file system to be configured without a storage-capacity limit.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the virtual machine is configured without a storage-capacity limit for the file system.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein executing the at least one deduplication job invoked by the pseudo-file-system driver renders unnecessary configuring the virtual machine with a storage-capacity limit for the file system.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pseudo-file-system driver identifies excess data in the file system before invoking the at least one deduplication job, which is applied to the excess data.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one deduplication job is performed at least in part by a media agent component of the storage management system, and wherein the media agent component maintains the deduplication database.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data agent performs the at least one deduplication job in conjunction with a media agent component of the storage management system, and wherein the media agent component maintains the deduplication database.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein when the pseudo-file-system driver identifies data requested by the virtual machine that is unavailable from the file system in the primary storage resource, the pseudo-file-system driver invokes a restore job that uses the deduplication database to retrieve the unavailable data from at least one of the deduplication database and a secondary storage resource associated with a media agent component of the storage management system.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the restore job is performed at least in part by the media agent component of the storage management system, and wherein the media agent maintains the deduplication database.
10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the data agent performs the restore job in conjunction with the media agent component of the storage management system, and wherein the media agent maintains the deduplication database.
11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the media agent executes in the cloud-services environment, and further wherein the deduplication database is stored in the cloud-services environment.
12. A method for using deduplication to provide a virtual machine in a cloud computing environment with access to a file system of seemingly unlimited storage capacity, the method comprising:
on a cloud computing resource in the cloud computing environment, executing a data agent associated with a virtual machine, wherein the data agent is a component of a storage management system;
on a cloud computing resource in the cloud computing environment, executing a pseudo-file-system driver that instantiates a file system based on exposing a first mount point for the file system,
wherein the file system resides in a primary storage resource in the cloud computing environment, and wherein the file system is in communication with the virtual machine;
by the pseudo-file-system driver, associating the file system with a deduplication database component of the storage management system;
on a cloud computing resource in the cloud computing environment, executing the virtual machine with access to the file system;
by the pseudo-file system driver, invoking at least one deduplication job that uses the deduplication database, wherein the at least one deduplication job:
(i) moves some data from the file system in the primary storage resource to a secondary storage resource, and
(ii) stores the moved data in deduplicated form in the secondary storage resource; and
wherein, based on the at least one deduplication job, the pseudo-file-system driver provides the virtual machine with access to the file system configured without a storage-capacity limit.
13. The method of claim 12 , wherein, based at least in part on the invoking of the at least one deduplication job, the file system appears to the virtual machine to be of virtually unlimited storage capacity.
14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the pseudo-file-system driver invokes the at least one deduplication job for excess data identified by the pseudo-file-system driver in the file system.
15. The method of claim 12 , wherein the pseudo-file-system driver invokes a restore job that uses the deduplication database to retrieve, from at least one of the deduplication database and the secondary storage resource, data requested by the virtual machine which is unavailable from the file system in the primary storage resource.
16. The method of claim 12 , wherein the virtual machine is configured without a storage-capacity limit for the file system.
17. The method of claim 12 , wherein the at least one deduplication job is performed at least in part by a media agent component of the storage management system, and wherein the media agent component maintains the deduplication database.
18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the media agent executes on a cloud computing resource in the cloud computing environment, and wherein the media agent performs the at least one deduplication job in conjunction with the data agent.
19. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
when the pseudo-file-system driver identifies data requested by the virtual machine that is unavailable from the file system in the primary storage resource, invoking, by the pseudo-file-system driver, at least one restore job that moves the unavailable data to the file system in the primary storage resource from one or more of: a media agent that executes on a cloud computing resource in the cloud computing environment, and a secondary storage resource, and
wherein the restore job uses the deduplication database.
20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the deduplication database is stored in a storage resource in the cloud computing environment.