File system over thinly provisioned volume file in mapped mode
US9329803B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 28, 2013 |
| Grant date | May 3, 2016 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Apr 15, 2034 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F3/0665
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A data storage system includes storage devices and a processing subsystem executing software forming a lower-deck file system and an upper-deck file system. The lower-deck file system presents a volume file from which storage is provided to the upper-deck file system, and units of storage of the storage devices are allocable to the upper-deck file system but are not reserved to it. The volume file is thinly provisioned, and additional units of storage are added dynamically to increase its allocated size in response to demand from the upper-deck file system. The lower-deck file system operates in a mapped mode in which a block address in the lower-deck file system is obtained by a generally arbitrary mapping (e.g., an Inode/IB tree) of a block address in the volume file.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.