Patent ID: 8713077

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for distributing meta-data of a data container, comprising: striping a first data volume across a plurality of logical volumes configured to form a striped volume set, wherein each logical volume is a logical arrangement of a plurality of storage devices coupled to a computer, and wherein the first data volume includes the data container; storing a copy of the meta-data of the data container in a meta-data volume of the plurality of logical volumes, designating a second data volume of the plurality of logical volumes as a container attribute volume for the data container, wherein the container attribute volume serves as a first tier caching and distribution point within the striped volume set for the meta-data in the meta-data volume in response to receiving a data access request, and wherein the data container and container attribute volume are stored on different data volumes; invalidating a cached copy of the meta-data stored on the container attribute volume in response to receiving the data access request, wherein invalidating the cached copy of the meta-data comprises setting a meta-data invalidation flag of a data structure of the data container to identify that the cached copy of the meta-data is invalid; and updating the cached copy of the meta-data stored on the container attribute volume, wherein the data access request is one of a request to modify and to create the meta-data.