Abstract: The disclosed techniques provide systems and methods for deletion of end-user messages, message threads, attachments, and/or other message information. More specifically, a key-value store residing in computer memory on the storage system is described. Each value in the key-value store is indexed by a key and structured to include multiple column portions associated with multiple column families. In one embodiment, a deletion column family having an associated retention policy for data stored therein is defined.

Abstract: An alignment data structure is used to map a logical data block start address to a physical data block start address dynamically, to service a client data access request. A separate alignment data structure can be provided for each data object managed by the storage system. Each such alignment data structure can be stored in, or referenced by a pointer in, the inode of the corresponding data object. A consequence of the mapping is that certain physical storage medium regions are not mapped to any logical data blocks. These unmapped regions may be visible only to the file system layer and layers that reside between the file system layer and the mass storage subsystem. They can be used, if desired, to store system information, i.e., information that is not visible to any storage client.

Abstract: I/O bandwidth reduction using storage-level common page information is implemented by a storage server. In response to receiving a request from a client for a page stored at a first virtual address, the storage server determines that the first virtual address maps to a page that is a duplicate of a page stored at a second virtual address. Or the storage server determines that the first and second virtual addresses map to a deduplicated page within a storage system. The storage server then transmits metadata to the client. The metadata maps the first virtual address to a second virtual address that also maps to the deduplicated page.

Abstract: A message tracking engine facilitates processing of a message through a determined workflow. In particular, the message tracking engine may route the message to various services in an order specified by the workflow. During processing, the message tracking engine tracks the progress of the message through the workflow. If any issues are encountered, the message tracking engine handles the encountered issues. In one aspect, the message tracking engine facilitates performance of one or more synchronous processing steps of the workflow during a first phase. Following the first phase, the message tracking engine serializes one or more asynchronous processing steps of the workflow to a storage device. After serializing the asynchronous processing steps, the message tracking engine facilitates performance of the asynchronous processing steps during a second phase.

Abstract: An alignment data structure is used to map a logical data block start address to a physical data block start address dynamically, to service a client data access request. A separate alignment data structure can be provided for each data object managed by the storage system. Each such alignment data structure can be stored in, or referenced by a pointer in, the inode of the corresponding data object. A consequence of the mapping is that certain physical storage medium regions are not mapped to any logical data blocks. These unmapped regions may be visible only to the file system layer and layers that reside between the file system layer and the mass storage subsystem. They can be used, if desired, to store system information, i.e., information that is not visible to any storage client.

Abstract: A message tracking engine facilitates processing of a message through a determined workflow. In particular, the message tracking engine may route the message to various services in an order specified by the workflow. During processing, the message tracking engine tracks the progress of the message through the workflow. If any issues are encountered, the message tracking engine handles the encountered issues. In one aspect, the message tracking engine facilitates performance of one or more synchronous processing steps of the workflow during a first phase. Following the first phase, the message tracking engine serializes one or more asynchronous processing steps of the workflow to a storage device. After serializing the asynchronous processing steps, the message tracking engine facilitates performance of the asynchronous processing steps during a second phase.