Patent ID: 8195614
Filing Date: 2012-06-05
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A computer-implemented method comprising: storing a plurality of active snapshots as a plurality of storage trees within a memory space, each active snapshot taken at a point in time of target data being processed and at least including data blocks to store user-generated data and data blocks to store system-generated data, the system-generated data including pointers to reference other data blocks to enable overlapping and sharing of the user-generated data between and among different snapshots of the plurality of snapshots, wherein each of the storage trees includes a plurality of nodes, each node representing a data block of an active snapshot associated with each storage tree, the plurality of nodes including leaf nodes representing the data blocks of user-generated data and root and intermediate nodes representing the data blocks of system-generated data; deleting the active snapshots from the memory space over time as each of the active snapshots reaches a pre-determined age, wherein the active snapshots are those snapshots that have not yet been deleted; and performing garbage collection on at least a portion of the memory space to remove data associated with snapshots that have been previously deleted wherein the memory space is a log and the at least a portion of the memory space is a segment of the log.