Patent ID: 9727257
Date: 2017-08-08
CPC Classifications: G06F

Claim:
1. A method comprising: receiving a request to delete a snapshot of a virtual machine; identifying a volume chain in a shared storage that comprises the snapshot, the volume chain comprising a first storage volume, a second storage volume associated with the snapshot, and a third storage volume, the first storage volume comprising a first storage reference, the second storage volume comprising a second storage reference relative to the first storage reference, the third storage volume comprising a third storage reference relative to the second storage reference; performing a live merge operation to merge the second storage volume associated with the snapshot with the first storage volume preceding the second storage volume in the volume chain; generating, by a processor, a new storage reference associated with the third storage volume, the new storage reference to be relative to the first storage reference in view of the second storage reference and the third storage reference; and deleting the second storage volume associated with the snapshot.