Patent ID: 7100073
Filing Date: 2006-08-29
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A grouped-object storage system, comprising: a plurality of physical objects; a first predetermined number of stripes arranged across the plurality of physical objects, each stripe containing a second predetermined number of storage blocks, the second predetermined number of storage blocks in each stripe corresponding to a number of physical objects of the plurality of physical objects, one storage block of the second predetermined number of storage blocks in a stripe containing redundancy information for the stripe, the storage block containing redundancy information for a stripe and each other storage block of the stripe being mapped on to a respectively different physical object; and a plurality of virtual objects, each virtual object containing between one and first predetermined number of storage blocks, a group of virtual objects being formed when a virtual object contains less than the first predetermined number of storage blocks by associating the virtual object with at least one of at least one virtual object containing less than the first predetermined number of storage blocks and at least one storage block containing zero values so that each group of virtual objects contains the first predetermined number of storage blocks, the storage blocks of each virtual object containing the predetermined number of storage blocks being mapped to a respectively different stripe, and the storage blocks of each group of virtual objects being mapped to a respectively different stripe.