Patent ID: 9612770
Date: 2017-04-04
CPC Classifications: G06F

Claim:
1. A method for memory management, the method comprises: receiving, by a storage system, an updated portion of a data unit, the data unit is associated with multiple members of a snapshot family that includes a source volume and one or more snapshots; wherein the updated portion is smaller than a granularity of a mapping data structure used for retrieval of the data unit; creating, by the storage system an extended data unit that comprises (i) an original content of the data unit, (ii) the updated portion and, (iii) updated portion metadata; wherein the updated portion metadata comprises (a) updated portion retrieval information for retrieving the updated portion, and (b) updated portion snapshot information indicative of at least one member of the multiple members of the snapshot family that is associated with the updated portion; receiving a request to read a certain data unit of a certain member of the snapshot family; in response to the receiving of the request to read the certain data unit: