US 12,282,493 B2
Data storage object cloning in a multi-appliance federation
Dmitry Nikolayevich Tylik, Westborough, MA (US); and Nagasimha Haravu, Chapel Hill, NC (US)
Assigned to Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX (US)
Filed by Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX (US)
Filed on Oct. 14, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/965,991.
Prior Publication US 2024/0126777 A1, Apr. 18, 2024
Int. Cl. G06F 16/00 (2019.01); G06F 16/21 (2019.01); G06F 16/27 (2019.01)
CPC G06F 16/27 (2019.01) [G06F 16/214 (2019.01)] 16 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of creating a clone, on a second data storage appliance of a federation, of a source storage object stored on a first data storage appliance of the federation, comprising:
at the first data storage appliance, creating a snapshot being a point-in-time copy of the source storage object;
performing a full copy of the snapshot from the first data storage appliance to the second data storage appliance to produce a copy snapshot on the second data storage appliance;
at the second data storage appliance, creating the clone from the copy snapshot and incorporating the clone into a federation-wide family association of the source storage object; and
subsequently:
1. Having separate applications access the clone and the source storage object at the first and second data storage appliances respectively, and
2. Maintaining the clone in synchronism with the source storage object by subsequent refresh operations each including (i) creating a new snapshot of the source storage object on the first data storage appliance, (ii) copying a snapshot difference between the new snapshot and the snapshot on the first data storage appliance to the second data storage appliance, the snapshot difference being used to create a new copy snapshot referenced to the copy snapshot on the second data storage appliance, the new copy snapshot containing volume state from which the clone can be refreshed, (iii) and refreshing the clone from the new copy snapshot.