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US 7,457,982 B2Granted
Writable virtual disk of read-only snapshot file objects
AssigneeNetwork Appliance, Inc.
InventorVijayan Rajan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A technique enables creation and use of a writable, read-only snapshot of an active file system operating on a storage system, such as a multi-protocol storage appliance. The writable, read-only snapshot comprises a read-only “image” (file) residing in a snapshot and a writable virtual disk (vdisk) residing in the active file system. The writable vdisk is a “shadow” image of the snapshot file image and, as such, includes an attribute that specifies the snapshot file as a backing store.
Claims7
A storage system, comprising:
- a read-only file object residing in a snapshot of the active file system;
- and
- a processor running a writable virtual disk (vdisk) object adapted to store data to one or more storage devices in response to one or more write operations directed to the read-only file object, wherein the writable vdisk object resides in the active file system and is bound to the read-only file object.
A method for operating a storage system, comprising:
- maintaining a read-only file object in a snapshot of the active file system;
- and
- storing data in one or more storage devices using a writable virtual disk (vdisk) object residing in the active file system and bound to the read-only file object, in response to one or more write operations directed to the read-only file object.
A computer readable media, comprising:
- a processor;
- said computer readable media containing instructions for execution on the processor for the practice of a method of operating a storage system, the method having the steps of,
- maintaining a read-only file object in a snapshot of the active file system;
- and
- storing data in one or more storage devices using a writable virtual disk (vdisk) object residing in the active file system and bound to the read-only file object, in response to one or more write operations directed to the read-only file object.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.