Patent ID: 8880820
Filing Date: 2014-11-04
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method implemented and residing within a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that is executed by one or more processors of a network to perform the method, comprising: detecting a write operation to a first block of data on a source volume, the source volume is being actively snapshotted; accessing metadata associated with a sparse file of a file system to locate a second block within the sparse file, the second block is not a particular volume set aside for snapshotting; copying the first block of data to the second block within the sparse file, the sparse file is a snapshot volume for a snapshot being performed, the first block copied before a volatile operation is performed on the first block, the source volume continues to be accessed and modified during snapshotting, and managing states of the source volume using the sparse file without reserving a snapshot file during the snapshotting by using the metadata to link locations in the source volume that have been modified to other locations within the sparse file having unmodified versions of data for the locations of the source volume, wherein the snapshot file is not set aside and is not used at all when creating and managing the snapshot as the sparse file; and updating the first block of data on the source volume by processing the write operation.