Patent ID: 7734889

Claim:
A method of processing content in a computer system comprising at least one host and at least one storage system that comprises a plurality of zones, wherein the at least one host accesses content units stored on the at least one storage system using object identifiers, wherein the computer system maps each object identifier to one of the plurality of zones on the at least one storage system to which the corresponding content unit is allocated for storage, wherein the at least one storage system comprises a plurality of nodes, each of which is configured to receive and process access requests, wherein each of the plurality of nodes stores first information identifying which object identifiers map to which zones on the at least one storage system, and wherein the method comprises acts of: sending to each of the plurality of nodes second information, to replace the first information, that identifies which object identifiers map to which zones on the at least one storage system; sending to each of the plurality of nodes an indication of a future time associated with the second information; receiving, from each of the plurality of nodes, an acknowledgement of receipt of the second information; and in response to receiving the acknowledgement from each of the plurality of nodes, sending to each of the plurality of nodes a command to stop using the first information to map object identifiers to zones and to begin using the second information to map object identifiers to zones at the future time.