Method and apparatus for maintaining inventory of logical volumes stored on storage elements
AssigneeEMC Corporation
InventorDavid Black
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Method and apparatus for keeping and maintaining inventory of logical entities stored in a computer storage system are disclosed. Identifying information for each user of a logical volume is maintained. As a part of the inventory process, this system may verify that the logical volume is still in use, for example by determining when it was last accessed and if a certain time threshold has been exceeded, verifying with the users of the logical entity that logical entity is no longer needed to be stored at its current location.
Claims9
A method of detecting when one of a plurality of logical volumes, each logical volume being stored on one of a plurality of storage elements in a computer storage system, no longer needs to be stored on its respective storage element, the method comprising steps of:
- tracking accesses to the logical volumes;
- automatically identifying one of the logical volumes that has not been accessed for a predetermined period;
- and
- determining whether the identified logical volume still requires storage on its respective storage element.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.