Patent · US Active

Distributed open writable snapshot copy facility using file migration policies

US7546431B2 · kind B2 · utility

31Cited by
13References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMar 21, 2005
Grant dateJun 9, 2009
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 11, 2027

Classification

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

Abstract

A read-write snapshot copy facility is constructed from a hierarchical storage management facility. The read-write snapshot copy file system initially comprises stub files pointing to the files in a read-only snapshot copy file system. When an application writes to a file in the read-write snapshot copy, the read-write snapshot copy facility migrates a copy of the file to replace the stub file, and then writes to the migrated file. Because the read-write snapshot copy facility references the files in the read-only snapshot file system in a network namespace using standard protocols such as NFS or CIFS, the read-write snapshot copy facility permits referencing of distributed read-only snapshot file systems in an open (heterogeneous) network environment, and the read-write snapshot copy is scalable by linking the read-write snapshot copy facility to multiple file servers containing read-only snapshot file systems.

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