Supporting glacier tiering of archived data in cloud/object storage

1. A method for supporting glacier tiering of archived data in cloud/object storage, the method comprising:

identifying, by a computer system, one or more snapshots of a data set archived in the cloud/object storage that are scheduled to be migrated from a standard tier of the cloud/object storage to a glacier tier of the cloud/object storage;

determining, by the computer system from among the one or more snapshots that are scheduled to be migrated, one or more data objects of the one or more snapshots that are referred to by at least one child snapshot stored in the standard tier, the determining comprising:

retrieving, from the cloud/object storage, first metadata associated with the one or more snapshots that are scheduled to be migrated and second metadata associated with the at least one child snapshot; and

determining that the one or more data objects are included in the first metadata and not included in the second metadata; and

cloning, by the computer system, the one or more data objects in the standard tier.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the identifying comprises:

identifying snapshots in the cloud/object storage that are older than a predefined number of time units, wherein the predefined number of time units is specified in a lifecycle management policy associated with the data set.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more snapshots are ordered by age prior to the determining.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the cloning of the one or more data objects is performed in a sequence from oldest snapshot to newest snapshot.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising, at the time of cloning a data object:

determining whether the created clone overwrites another clone created earlier in the sequence.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

if the created clone overwrites another clone created earlier in the sequence, deleting said another clone from the standard tier.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the cloning comprises:

creating a copy of each of the one or more data objects under a new snapshot that is related to the data object's original snapshot.

8. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon program code executable by a computer system, the program code embodying a method for supporting glacier tiering of archived data in cloud/object storage, the method comprising:

identifying one or more snapshots of a data set archived in the cloud/object storage that are scheduled to be migrated from a standard tier of the cloud/object storage to a glacier tier of the cloud/object storage;

determining, from among the one or more snapshots that are scheduled to be migrated, one or more data objects of the one or more snapshots that are referred to by at least one child snapshot stored in the standard tier, the determining comprising:

retrieving, from the cloud/object storage, first metadata associated with the one or more snapshots that are scheduled to be migrated and second metadata associated with the at least one child snapshot; and

determining that the one or more data objects are included in the first metadata and not included in the second metadata; and

cloning the one or more data objects in the standard tier.

9. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8 wherein the identifying comprises:

identifying snapshots in the cloud/object storage that are older than a predefined number of time units, wherein the predefined number of time units is specified in a lifecycle management policy associated with the data set.

10. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8 wherein the one or more snapshots are ordered by age prior to the determining.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10 wherein the cloning of the one or more data objects is performed in a sequence from oldest snapshot to newest snapshot.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11 wherein the method further comprises, at the time of cloning a data object:

determining whether the created clone overwrites another clone created earlier in the sequence.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 12 wherein the method further comprises:

if the created clone overwrites another clone created earlier in the sequence, deleting said another clone from the standard tier.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8 wherein the cloning comprises:

creating a copy of each of the one or more data objects under a new snapshot that is related to the data object's original snapshot.

15. A computer system comprising:

a processor; and

a non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon program code for supporting glacier tiering of archived data in cloud/object storage, the program code causing the processor to:

identify one or more snapshots of a data set archived in the cloud/object storage that are scheduled to be migrated from a standard tier of the cloud/object storage to a glacier tier of the cloud/object storage;

determine, from among the one or more snapshots that are scheduled to be migrated, one or more data objects of the one or more snapshots that are referred to by at least one child snapshot stored in the standard tier, the program code that causes the processor to determine the one or more data objects comprising program code that causes the processor to:

retrieve, from the cloud/object storage, first metadata associated with the one or more snapshots that are scheduled to be migrated and second metadata associated with the at least one child snapshot; and

determine that the one or more data objects are included in the first metadata and not included in the second metadata; and

clone the one or more data objects in the standard tier.

16. The computer system of claim 15 wherein the identifying comprises:

identifying snapshots in the cloud/object storage that are older than a predefined number of time units, wherein the predefined number of time units is specified in a lifecycle management policy associated with the data set.

17. The computer system of claim 15 wherein the one or more snapshots are ordered by age prior to the determining.

18. The computer system of claim 17 wherein the cloning of the one or more data objects is performed in a sequence from oldest snapshot to newest snapshot.

19. The computer system of claim 18 wherein the program code further causes the processor to, at the time of cloning a data object:

determine whether the created clone overwrites another clone created earlier in the sequence.

20. The computer system of claim 19 wherein the program code further causes the processor to:

if the created clone overwrites another clone created earlier in the sequence, delete said another clone from the standard tier.

21. The computer system of claim 15 wherein the cloning comprises:

creating a copy of each of the one or more data objects under a new snapshot that is related to the data object's original snapshot.