Patent ID: 9251233
Filing Date: 2016-02-02
CPC Classification: G06F

Claim Text:
1. A method, comprising: storing in a plurality of first data structures indications that indicate storage locations that need to be copied for forming a consistency group, and storing in a plurality of second data structures indications that indicate new host writes subsequent to starting a point in time copy operation to form the consistency group, wherein a first data structure and a second data structure are maintained in a track, and a plurality of tracks are maintained in a metadata storage area; processing each track of the metadata storage area by performing: in response to determining that the second data structure indicates that there are no new host writes, the updating of the first data structure with the contents of the second data structure is not performed, the read access to the selected metadata track is released, and determining whether any further tracks in the metadata storage area are left to be processed; and in response to processing all of the plurality of metadata tracks maintained in the metadata storage area, setting an indicator indicating that all of the plurality of second data structures are now initialized, wherein the setting of the indicator is performed by a non-background task, wherein the updating of the first data structure with the contents of the second data structure comprises performing an OR operation of corresponding bits of the first data structure and the second data structure.