Patent ID: 8631052

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for generating a meta-data trace for a file in a deduplication data storage system, the method comprising: selecting a file recipe for the file in the deduplication data storage system, the file recipe selected from a data collection storage unit that includes one or more file recipes; retrieving data chunk meta-data for research and analysis, the data chunk meta-data corresponding to a unique data chunk identified by a fingerprint in the selected file recipe; determining a number of file recipe bins corresponding to a memory unit for the selected file recipe based on a number of fingerprints in the selected file recipe; mapping the selected file recipe to correspond to the determined number of file recipe bins; reading the selected file recipe into the corresponding bins of the memory unit; and merging retrieved data chunk meta-data into the meta-data trace corresponding to the file recipe, wherein the meta-data trace is a data structure used for research and analysis of the deduplication data storage system.