Patent · US Active

Access to data for virtual devices

US8819674B2 · kind B2 · utility

2Cited by
1References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 21, 2008
Grant dateAug 26, 2014
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 22, 2032

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F9/45537
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

One embodiment of the present invention is a method for a virtual machine to access data from a virtual device, the method including: (a) attaching the virtual device to the virtual machine with a backing store that is a virtual image of a file system conforming to a predetermined file system format, wherein: (i) file system data is stored in one or more files, (ii) the virtual image includes metadata stored apart from the file system data, which metadata corresponds to the predetermined file system format, (iii) the metadata includes one or more directory records, and (iv) the one or more directory records include information that points directly or indirectly to the file system data; (b) issuing a read request for a block of data from the file system as if stored in the predetermined file system format; (c) accessing the metadata and determining the location of the requested block of data in the file system data; and (d) retrieving the requested block of data from the file system data.

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