Network Appliance, Inc.

Netapp, Inc.

Jason S Bertschi

Richard Parvin Jernigan, Iv

Bruce Leverett

Narayana R Tummala

Ronald William Kownacki

A technique for accelerating the creation of a hyperclone of a virtual file system. Specifically, each data block and indirect block directly referenced by a base inode are only copied. The hyperclone may then reference the original data blocks and original indirect blocks. Further, an indication may be provided for at least one of the copied data blocks and indirect blocks that indicates that the at least one of the copied data blocks and indirect blocks is in use.

Technique for accelerating the creation of a point in time representation of a virtual file system

According to an embodiment of the invention, a block allocation testing method tests the allocation of blocks to make sure they are consistent. The method first establishes a ready volumes list, including all of the most downstream volumes in a storage pool. From the ready volumes list, an inode data list is generated. Inodes are then removed from the inode data list and processed. The block pointers in the inodes are tested one by one, and compared to the downstream pointers to determine whether the copy on write bit (CWB) is properly set. It is also determined whether there is any illegal crosslinking. Once it is determined whether the pointers of a single inode are proper, the process continues with the next inode in the list.

Block allocation testing

A system and method for permitting bi-directional failover in two node clusters utilizing quorum-based data replication. In response to detecting an error in its partner the surviving node establishes itself as the primary of the cluster and sets a first persistent state in its local unit. A temporary epsilon value for quorum voting purposes is then assigned to the surviving node, which causes it to be in quorum. A second persistent state is stored in the local unit and the surviving node comes online as a result of being in quorum.

System and method for establishing bi-directional failover in a two node cluster

A technique for accelerating the creation of a hyperclone of a virtual file system. A hyperclone inode is copied from the base inode. Each indirect and direct block referenced by the base inode is also copied and the block pointers within the base inode are set to reference the copied direct data blocks. A CTW bit is set within each copied block that alerts the file system that the reference indirect or direct block is not to be deallocated.

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Pittsburgh, PA, United States of America

Jason S Bertschi