Abstract: Distributed appending of transactions in data lakes is described. A first message is received, at a first ingestion node of a plurality of ingestion nodes, as part of a transaction. The first message identifies a transaction identifier (ID) and a portion of data for the transaction. The data of the first message is persisted in temporary storage. A count of messages for the transaction for the first ingestion node is determined. Based on at least the count of messages, it is determined that the first ingestion node has received a complete set of messages for the transaction for the first ingestion node. A metadata write request is transmitted, by the first ingestion node, to a coordinator. The metadata write request includes a self-describing reference to persisted data. The self-describing reference identifies the first ingestion node, location information of the persisted data, and a range of the first data.

Abstract: Embodiments of the disclosure provide techniques for measuring congestion and controlling quality of service to a shared resource. A module that interfaces with the shared resource monitors the usage of the shared resource by accessing clients. Upon detecting that the rate of usage of the shared resource has exceeded a maximum rate supported by the shared resource, the module determines and transmits a congestion metric to clients that are currently attempting to access the shared resource. Clients, in turn determine a delay period based on the congestion metric prior to attempting another access of the shared resource.

Abstract: Techniques for decoupling compute and storage resources in a hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) are provided. In one set of embodiments, a control plane of the HCI deployment can provision a host from a host platform of an infrastructure on which the HCI deployment is implemented and can provision one or more storage volumes from a storage platform of the infrastructure, where the storage platform runs on physical server resources in the infrastructure that are separate from the host platform. The control plane can then cause the one or more storage volumes to be network-attached to the host in a manner that enables a hypervisor of the host to make the one or more storage volumes available, as part of a virtual storage pool, to one or more virtual machines in the HCI deployment for data storage.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides techniques for deduplicating files. The techniques include creating a cache or subset of a large data structure. The large data structure organizes information by random hash values. The random hash values result in a random organization of information within the data structure, with the information spanning a large number of storage blocks within a storage system. The cache, however, is within memory and is small relative to the data structure. The cache is created so as to contain information that is likely to be needed during deduplication of a file. Having needed information within memory rather than in storage results in faster read and write operations to that information, improving the performance of a computing system.

Abstract: A version control interface for data provides a layer of abstraction that permits multiple readers and writers to access data lakes concurrently. An overlay file system, based on a data structure such as a tree, is used on top of one or more underlying storage instances to implement the interface. Each tree node tree is identified and accessed by means of any universally unique identifiers. Copy-on-write with the tree data structure implements snapshots of the overlay file system. The snapshots support a long-lived master branch, with point-in-time snapshots of its history, and one or more short-lived private branches. As data objects are written to the data lake, the private branch corresponding to a writer is updated. The private branches are merged back into the master branch using any merging logic, and conflict resolution policies are implemented. Readers read from the updated master branch or from any of the private branches.

Abstract: Examples disclosed herein relate to propagating changes made on a file system volume of a primary cluster of nodes to the same file system volume also being managed by a secondary cluster of nodes. An application is executed on both clusters, and data changes on the primary cluster are mirrored to the secondary cluster using an exo-clone file. The exo-clone file includes the differences between two or more snapshots of the volume on the primary cluster, along with identifiers of the change blocks and (optionally) state information thereof. Just these changes, identifiers, and state information are packaged in the exo-clone file and then exported to the secondary cluster, which in turn makes the changes to its version of the volume. Exporting just the changes to the data blocks and the corresponding block identifiers drastically reduces the information needed to be exchanged and processed to keep the two volumes consistent.

Abstract: Techniques are described for storing a virtual disk in an object store comprising a plurality of physical storage devices housed in a plurality of host computers. A profile is received for creation of the virtual disk wherein the profile specifies storage properties desired for an intended use of the virtual disk. A virtual disk blueprint is generated based on the profile such that that the virtual disk blueprint describes a storage organization for the virtual disk that addresses redundancy or performance requirements corresponding to the profile. A set of the physical storage devices that can store components of the virtual disk in a manner that satisfies the storage organization is then determined.

Abstract: The disclosure provides techniques for deduplicating files. The techniques include, upon creating or modifying a file, placing a logical timestamp of the current logical time, within a queue associated with the directory of the file. The techniques further include placing the logical timestamp within a queue of each parent directory of the directory of the file. To determine a set of files for deduplication, the techniques disclosed herein identify files that have been modified within a logical time range. The set of files modified within a logical time is identified by traversing directories of a storage system, the directories being organized within a tree structure. If a directory's queue does not contain a timestamp that is within the logical time range, then all child directories can be skipped over for further processing, such that no files within the child directories end up being within the set of files for deduplication.

Abstract: Embodiments of the disclosure provide techniques for partitioning a resource object into multiple resource components of a cluster of host computer nodes in a distributed resources system. The distributed resources system translates high-level policy requirements into a resource configuration that the system accommodates. The system determines an allocation based on the policy requirements and identifies resource configurations that are available. Upon selecting a resource configuration, the distributed resources system assigns the allocation and associated values to the selected configuration and publishes the new configuration to other host computer nodes in the cluster.

Abstract: Embodiments presented herein techniques for balancing a multidimensional set of resources of different types within a distributed resources system. Each host computer providing the resources publishes a status on current resource usage by guest clients. Upon identifying a local imbalance, the host computer determines a source workload to migrate to or from the resources container to minimize the variance in resource usage. Additionally, when placing a new resource workload, the host computer selects a resources container that minimizes the variance to further balance resource usage.

Abstract: Disclosed techniques include deduplication. Techniques include determining whether a file is unique, and depending on whether the file is unique, deduplicating only part of the file or the entire file. The techniques include processing the first chunk of a file to determine whether the hash of the chunk hash is already within a chunk hash table, and if not, then a percentage of chunks of the file is similarly processed. If any of the hashes of chunks are already in the chunk hash table, then at least some of file has been previously deduplicated, and file is not unique the storage system. If none of the processed chunks have a hash that is already in the chunk hash table, then the file is considered to be unique within chunk store and only a partial percentage of the file's chunks are deduplicated. Not all of a unique file's chunks are deduplicated.

Abstract: The disclosure herein describes writing data to a log-structured merge (LSM) tree file system on an object storage platform. Write data instructions indicating data for writing to the LSM tree file system are received. Based on the received instructions, the data is written to the first data cache. Based on an instruction to transfer data in the live data cache to the LSM tree file system, the first data cache is converted to a stable cache. A second data cache configured as a live data cache is then generated based on cloning the first data cache. The data in the first data cache is then written to the LSM tree file system. Use of a stable cache and a cloned live data cache enables parallel writing data to the file system by the stable cache and handling write data instructions by the live data cache.

Abstract: A method includes obtaining a plurality of representations corresponding respectively to a plurality of blocks of data stored on a source node. A plurality of data pairs are sent to a destination node, where each data pair includes a logical address associated with a block of data from the plurality of blocks of data and the corresponding representation of the block of data. A determination is made whether the blocks of data associated with the respective logical addresses are duplicates of data stored on the destination node. In accordance with an affirmative determination, a reference to a physical address of the block of data stored on the destination node is stored. In accordance with a negative determination, an indication that the data corresponding to the respective logical address is not a duplicate is stored. The data indicated as not being a duplicate is written to the destination node.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides techniques for deallocating previously allocated storage blocks. The techniques include obtaining a list of chunk IDs to analyze, choosing a chunk ID, and determining the storage blocks spanned by the chunk corresponding to the chosen chunk ID. The technique further includes determining whether any file references any storage blocks spanned by the chunk. The determining may be performed by comparing an internal reference count to a total reference count, where the internal reference count is the number of reference to the storage block by a chunk ID data structure. If no files reference any of the storage blocks spanned by the chunk, then all the storage blocks of the chunk can be deallocated.

Abstract: Embodiments of the disclosure provide techniques managing a log-structured solid state drive (SSD) format in a distributed storage system. SSDs in the distributed storage system maintains a journal of logical changes to storage objects to persist prepared and committed changes in the latency path. The journal includes metadata entries that describe changes and reference data pages. Dense data structures (such as a logical block addressing table) index the metadata entries. To reduce the amount of overhead in I/O operations, the distributed storage system maintains the dense data structures in memory rather than on disk.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides techniques for deduplicating files. The techniques include creating a data structure that organizes metadata about chunks of files, the organization of the metadata preserving order and locality of the chunks within files. The organization of the metadata within storage blocks of storage devices matches the order of chunks within files. Upon a read or write operation to a metadata, the preservation of locality of metadata results in the likely fetching, from storage into a memory cache, metadata of subsequent and contiguous chunks. The preserved locality results in faster subsequent read and write operations of metadata, because the read and write operations are likely to be executed from memory rather than from storage.

Abstract: Techniques are disclosed for providing a file system interface for an object store intended to support simultaneous access to objects stored in the object store by multiple clients. In accordance with one method, an abstraction of a root directory to a hierarchical namespace for the object store is exposed to clients. The object store is backed by a plurality of physical storage devices housed in or directly attached to the plurality of host computers and internally tracks its stored objects using a flat namespace that maps unique identifiers to the stored objects. The creation of top-level objects appearing as subdirectories of the root directory is enabled, wherein each top-level object represents a separate abstraction of a storage device having a separate namespace that can be organized in accordance with any designated file system.

Abstract: Techniques are described for storing a virtual disk in an object store comprising a plurality of physical storage devices housed in a plurality of host computers. A profile is received for creation of the virtual disk wherein the profile specifies storage properties desired for an intended use of the virtual disk. A virtual disk blueprint is generated based on the profile such that that the virtual disk blueprint describes a storage organization for the virtual disk that addresses redundancy or performance requirements corresponding to the profile. A set of the physical storage devices that can store components of the virtual disk in a manner that satisfies the storage organization is then determined.

Abstract: The disclosure herein describes synchronizing a data cache and an LSM tree file system on an object storage platform. Instructions to send a cached data set from the data cache to the LSM tree file system are received. An updated metadata catalog is generated. If the LSM tree structure is out of shape, compaction is performed on the LSM tree file system which may be on a different system or server. When an unmerged compacted metadata catalog is identified, a merged metadata catalog is generated, based on the compacted metadata catalog and the cached data set, and associated with the cached data set. The cached data set and the associated metadata catalog are sent to the LSM tree file system, whereby the data cache and the LSM tree file system are synchronized. Synchronization is enabled without the data cache or file system being locked and/or waiting for the other entity.

Abstract: The disclosure herein describes providing and accessing data on an object storage platform using a log-structured merge (LSM) tree file system. The LSM tree file system on the object storage platform includes sorted data tables, each sorted data table including a payload portion and an index portion. Data is written to the LSM tree file system in at least one new sorted data table. Data is ready by identifying a data location of the data based on index portions of the sorted data tables and reading the data from a sorted data table associated with the identified data location. The use of the LSM tree file system on the object storage platform provides an efficient means for interacting with the data stored thereon.