US 12,475,042 B2
Deallocating storage resources based on metadata of a deleted object
Yi Ye, Shanghai (CN); Kalyan C. Gunda, Bangalore (IN); and Jiang Cao, Shanghai (CN)
Assigned to Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX (US)
Filed by Dell Products, L.P., Round Rock, TX (US)
Filed on Jan. 3, 2024, as Appl. No. 18/403,708.
Prior Publication US 2025/0217283 A1, Jul. 3, 2025
Int. Cl. G06F 12/02 (2006.01); G06F 3/06 (2006.01)
CPC G06F 12/0253 (2013.01) [G06F 3/0653 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method, comprising:
based on an indication that a data object stored using storage resources of a data storage system is to be deleted, identifying, by a controller device comprising at least one processor, metadata of a first chunk of storage of the data storage system, the data object being stored using the first chunk of storage;
based on the metadata of the first chunk of storage, selecting, by the controller device, a deallocation approach from different deallocation approaches, wherein the deallocation approach is usable to designate the first chunk of storage as available for storage of one or more other data objects; and
facilitating, by the controller device, designation of the first chunk of storage as being available for the storage of the one or more other data objects in accordance with the deallocation approach, wherein the different deallocation approaches comprise:
a first deallocation approach that comprises designating the first chunk of storage as available for storage of other data objects other than the data object without first copying any data from the first chunk of storage to a second data chunk of storage of the data storage system, wherein the first deallocation approach is selected based on the metadata specifying that no other data object references any data stored using the first chunk of storage, and wherein the first deallocation approach further comprises designating the first chunk of storage as available without first copying any data, referenced by another data object other than the data object, to the second data chunk of storage, and
a second deallocation approach, different from the first deallocation approach, that comprises copying the data referenced by the other object to the second data chunk of storage, before designating the first chunk of storage as available for storage of the other data objects.