Patent ID: 10049118

Abstract:
A cluster-wide consistency checker ensures that two file systems of a storage input/output (I/O) stack executing on each node of a cluster are self-consistent as well as consistent with respect to each other. The file systems include a deduplication file system and a host-facing file system that cooperate to provide a layered file system of the storage I/O stack. The deduplication file system is a log-structured file system managed by an extent store layer of the storage I/O stack, whereas the host-facing file system is managed by a volume layer of the stack. Illustratively, each log-structured file system implements a key-value store and cooperates with other nodes of the cluster to provide a cluster-wide (global) key-value store. The consistency checker verifies and/or fixes on-disk structures of the layered file system to ensure its consistency. To that end, the consistency checker may determine whether there are inconsistencies in the key-value store and, if so, reconciles those inconsistencies from a client (volume layer) perspective.