Patent ID: 9619477
Date: 2017-04-11
CPC Classifications: G06F

Claim:
1. A computer-implemented method for accelerating backup operations, at least a portion of the method being performed by a computing device comprising at least one processor, the method comprising: identifying a storage unit of a computing system, wherein: the computing system is attached to a network; the storage unit is periodically backed up to a deduplicated data store by storing a copy of the storage unit at the deduplicated data store; any data segments that are contained within data objects stored at the storage unit and not already stored to the deduplicated data store must be transferred from the storage unit to the deduplicated data store as part of periodically backing up the data objects to the deduplicated data store; and any data segments that are contained within the data objects stored at the storage unit and already stored to the deduplicated data store are not required to be transferred from the storage unit to the deduplicated data store as part of periodically backing up the data objects to the deduplicated data store; identifying, within traffic on the network, a new data object that is destined for the storage unit but that has not reached or been stored to the storage unit, wherein the new data object contains a new data segment that has not been stored to the deduplicated data store; generating, before the new data object reaches the storage unit and in response to identifying the new data object within the traffic on the network, a copy of the new data object from the traffic on the network; seeding, before the copy of the storage unit that contains the new data object is stored to the deduplicated data store and in response to generating the copy of the new data object from the traffic on the network, the deduplicated data store with the copy of the new data object by storing, to the deduplicated data store, an instance of the new data segment from the copy of the new data object from the traffic on the network; and storing, after seeding the deduplicated data store with the copy of the new data object from the traffic on the network, the copy of the storage unit that contains the new data object to the deduplicated data store by: determining that the instance of the new data segment contained within the new data object is already stored to the deduplicated data store; refraining from transferring the new data segment contained within the new data object from the storage unit to the deduplicated data store; and creating a reference between the copy of the storage unit that contains the new data object and the instance of the new data segment that is already stored to the deduplicated data store.