Patent ID: 9659026
Date: 2017-05-23
CPC Classifications: G06F

Claim:
1. A method, comprising: creating a current point-in-time image of a file system stored within a first server, the file system configured to store multiple data objects, each data object having assigned to it a corresponding data object identifier; scanning data objects within the file system to identify changes in the file system that occurred after an earlier replication operation was performed, by comparing the current point-in-time image with a previous point-in-time image corresponding to the earlier replication operation, the changes in the file system including updates to a data block of a file having both modified data blocks and unmodified data blocks and a generation number of the file; and transferring, in an unordered stream to a second server, the changes in the file system as multiple individual data units while preserving corresponding file system object identifiers to replicate the file system at the second server; wherein the transferring includes, for the file, transferring only the modified data blocks, and for a directory, transferring only modified directory entries, wherein the file is transferred before the directory within which the file is located.