Communicating information for performing a live migration using recursive large-to-small-granularity querying

A storage device for communicating information, the storage device being configured to:

• determine that a first region of a source storage comprises a storage location comprising data to be copied from the source storage to a target storage, the first region having a size that is equal to a first granularity size;
• determine that a second region within the first region comprises the storage location, the second region having a size that is equal to a second granularity size that is less than the first granularity size;
• determine that the second region is associated with a threshold value;
• exit a query pattern that includes the first granularity size and the second granularity size;
• and
• send a results data structure indicating that the second region comprises the storage location.

A method for communicating information, the method comprising:

• receiving, at a storage device, an initial request for information indicating that one or more storage locations comprise data to be copied from a source storage to a target storage, the initial request being associated with a first granularity size;
• determining, by the storage device, that a first region of the source storage comprises a storage location comprising data to be copied from the source storage to the target storage, the first region having a size that is equal to the first granularity size;
• and
• determining automatically, based on the initial request, that a second region within the first region comprises the storage location, the second region having a size that is equal to a second granularity size that is less than the first granularity size.