Patent ID: 7870105

Claim:
A computerized data storage system comprising: a. At least one host computer; b. A management terminal; and c. A storage system comprising: i. An interface operable to communicate with the at least one host computer; ii. A storage device comprising a plurality of data objects; and iii. A deduplication controller operable to perform a deduplication of data stored in the storage device, wherein the deduplication controller maintains a threshold with respect to allowed degree of deduplication, counts a number of links for each data object and does not perform deduplication when the counted number of links for the data object exceeds the threshold even if duplication is detected; wherein performing a deduplication comprises creating a plurality of links pointing from a plurality of virtual objects to one data object; wherein the data object is stored without performing deduplication when the counted number of links for the data object exceeds the threshold even if duplication is detected.