Patent · US Expired

Immediately available, statically allocated, full-logical-unit copy with a transient, snapshot-copy-like intermediate stage

US6907505B2 · kind B2 · utility

60Cited by
3References
15Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJul 31, 2002
Grant dateJun 14, 2005
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 13, 2022

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
  • CPC primaryY10S707/99953
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A hybrid LUN copy operation that ultimately produces a full LUN copy, but involves a transient snapshot-copy-like intermediate stage. In one embodiment, a statically pre-allocated copy LUN is initialized with references pointing back to the primary LUN. Over time, the sectors, blocks, or other data-storage units of the primary LUN are copied to the copy LUN, so that, in the end, a full copy LUN in completed. In a second, alternative embodiment, both the primary LUN and copy LUN are READ and WRITE accessible immediately following the nearly instantaneous initialization of the copy LUN. In both embodiments, the copy LUN may be statically allocated. The immediate-full-LUN-copy operations provided by the present invention further enable rotatable copy-LUN groups, each copy LUN within a copy-LUN group representing a full, robust copy LUN.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.