Netapp, Inc.

Lsi Corporation

Ishai Nadler

Vladimir Popovski

Nelson Nahum

Moshe Melnikov

Alexander Lyakas

Methods and systems for improving performance in a storage system utilizing snapshots are disclosed by using metadata management of snapshot data. Specifically, various metadata structures associated with snapshots are utilized to reduce the number of IO operations required to locate data within any specific snapshot. The number of IO operations are reduced by allowing the various metadata structures associated with the temporally current snapshot to locate data directly within any temporally earlier snapshot or on the original root volume.

Snapshot metadata management in a storage system

Methods and apparatuses are provided for active-active support of virtual storage management in a storage area network ('SAN'). When a storage manager (that manages virtual storage volumes) of the SAN receives data to be written to a virtual storage volume from a computer server, the storage manager determines whether the writing request may result in updating a mapping of the virtual storage volume to a storage system. When the writing request does not involve updating the mapping, which happens most of the time, the storage manager simply writes the data to the storage system based on the existing mapping. Otherwise, the storage manager sends an updating request to another storage manager for updating a mapping of the virtual storage volume to a storage volume. Subsequently, the storage manager writes the data to the corresponding storage system based on the mapping that has been updated by the another storage manager.

Growing community of inventors

Kfar Saba, Israel

Ishai Nadler