Patent ID: 7739241
Filing Date: 2010-06-15
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method for implementing dynamic copy-on-write (COW) storage compression comprising: detecting a purge function for a block being written for a write operation by COW storage, said detected purge function being used for compressing freed blocks from the COW storage; responsive to identifying the detected purge function and the block being a previously written block in the COW storage, deleting the previously written block from the COW storage; responsive to identifying the detected purge function and the block being written as not being a previously written block in the COW storage, marking the block as zero in the COW storage; and responsive to detecting a block not being deleted for the write operation by COW storage, allocating a new block in COW storage only responsive to identifying the detected block not being deleted as not being a previously written block.