Patent · US Expired

Technique for increasing the number of persistent consistency point images in a file system

US7313720B1 · kind B1 · utility

17Cited by
16References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 12, 2004
Grant dateDec 25, 2007
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 12, 2024

Classification

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

Abstract

An on-disk storage arrangement increases the number of persistent consistency point images (PCPIs) that may be maintained for a volume of a storage system. The on-disk storage arrangement comprises a novel volume information (volinfo) block representing a root of the volume; the volinfo block is stored at predefined locations on disk and comprises various system wide configuration data. The volinfo block further comprises a data structure configured to provide a level of indirection that increases the number of PCPIs maintainable by a file system executing on the storage system. To that end, the data structure may be organized as an array of pointers, wherein each pointer references a block containing a snapshot root, thereby enabling efficient access to each PCPI maintained by the file system.

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