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:
Dec. 03, 2013
Filed:
Sep. 30, 2008
Daniel Ravan, Fremont, CA (US);
Daniel Ravan, Fremont, CA (US);
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA (US);
Abstract
The invention is a system and method for quickly cloning a backup (file system) volume. Present volume cloning methods are based on creating copies of individual save sets written to a backup volume. However, this requires the steps of reading data blocks to cull the backed up data, stored as data chunks, from the chunk headers that separate and describe each data chunk, then writing the data chunks to new media. As a result, cloning a backup volume is time consuming and tedious. The invention applies the features and benefits of advanced file system devices ('AFTDs') to volume cloning. AFTDs store data as streams, rather than chunks, since AFTDs store data on disk media rather than on tape with tape blocks. As such, data stored on AFTDs are not separated by chunk headers. Instead, an AFTD contains a single volume label file that identifies the AFTD volume. The invention is a system and method for cloning backup volumes stored on AFTDs. Because data on AFTDs does not require separating data chunks from chunk headers, data may be quickly streamed and written from a source AFTD to a destination AFTD. The invention thereby creates a mirror image of the source device more quickly than cloning a tape volume.