Coalescing metadata for mirroring to a remote storage node in a cluster storage system

摘要

Described herein are a system and method for remote mirroring/copying data and metadata sets from a local node to a remote node that reduces the number of metadata sets that are mirrored. In some embodiments, the local node may coalesce metadata sets into metadata chains, each metadata chain comprising a grouping of two or more metadata sets. In some instances, a “representative” metadata set of a metadata chain may be selected for sending to the remote node for storing, wherein the other metadata sets of the metadata chain are not sent to the remote node. In these embodiments, the selected metadata set may represent all the metadata sets in the chain and be the only metadata set in the chain that is transmitted and stored to the remote node. As such, the network congestion between the local and remote nodes may be reduced.