Pure Storage, Inc.
Tombstones for no longer relevant deduplication entries

Abstract:

An implementation of the disclosure provides a system comprising a storage array comprising a plurality of data blocks and a storage controller coupled to the storage array. The storage controller comprising a processing device to identify a canonical instance of a data block in a vector associated with a deduplication map. The vector represents a plurality of updates to the deduplication map over a determined time period. A deduplication reference representing duplicate data of the data block in the storage array is select from the deduplication map. The deduplication reference is remapped in the deduplication map to point to the canonical instance. Based on the remapping, an entry in the deduplication map for the deduplication reference is updated with a record. Responsive to detecting that the entry is in a location associated with an original entry of the data block in the deduplication map, delete the entry with the record.