System and method for restoring data on demand for instant volume restoration
US7809693B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Apr 24, 2006 |
| Grant date | Oct 5, 2010 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Mar 23, 2027 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F16/10
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A technique is disclosed for restoring data of sparse volumes, where one or more block pointers within the file system structure are marked as ABSENT, and fetching the appropriate data from an alternate location on demand. Client data access requests to the local storage system initiate a restoration of the data from a backing store as required. A demand generator can also be used to restore the data as a background process by walking through the sparse volume and restoring the data of absent blocks. A pump module is also disclosed to regulate the access of the demand generator. Once all the data has been restored, the volume contains all data locally, and is no longer a sparse volume.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.