The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 06, 2007
Filed:
May. 10, 2001
Steven R. Kleiman, Los Altos, CA (US);
David Hitz, Los Altos, CA (US);
Guy Harris, Mountain View, CA (US);
Sean W. O'malley, Tucson, AZ (US);
Michael Malcolm, Los Altos, CA (US);
James Lau, Los Altos Hills, CA (US);
Byron Rakitzis, Burlingame, CA (US);
Steven R. Kleiman, Los Altos, CA (US);
David Hitz, Los Altos, CA (US);
Guy Harris, Mountain View, CA (US);
Sean W. O'Malley, Tucson, AZ (US);
Michael Malcolm, Los Altos, CA (US);
James Lau, Los Altos Hills, CA (US);
Byron Rakitzis, Burlingame, CA (US);
Network Appliance, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
The invention provides a method and system for duplicating all or part of a file system while maintaining consistent copies of the file system. The file server maintains a set of snapshots, each indicating a set of storage blocks making up a consistent copy of the file system as it was at a known time. Each snapshot can be used for a purpose other than maintaining the coherency of the file system, such as duplicating or transferring a backup copy of the file system to a destination storage medium. In a preferred embodiment, the snapshots can be manipulated to identify sets of storage blocks in the file system for incremental backup or copying, or to provide a file system backup that is both complete and relatively inexpensive. Also in a preferred embodiment, shadow snapshots can be maintained, with a shadow snapshot including a set of member storage blocks that formed a consistent file system other than an active file system, with a set of selected member storage blocks removed from the consistent file system.