Patent ID: 7290099

Claim:
A method for clearing meta data in a data storage system, comprising: determining a number N of task control blocks to be used for implementing a plurality of tasks for clearing the meta data; wherein the meta data is provided in tracks that are associated with the storage resources, and the storage resources are arranged in a hierarchy including at least a first level and a lower second level; and implementing the tasks by allocating a first subset of the N task control blocks, comprising a first plurality of the task control blocks, for first tasks for clearing first tracks of the meta data that are associated with the first level, and allocating a second subset of the N task control blocks, comprising a second plurality of the task control blocks, for second tasks for clearing second tracks of the meta data that are associated with the second level; wherein said first and second allocated subsets clear the first tracks of the meta data at the at least first level and the second tracks of the meta data at the lower second level of the storage resources.