Patent ID: 8352518

Claim:
A data storage system having a processor and a memory, comprising: a storage layer to store blocks, including, (i) a first plurality of the blocks implemented as data blocks to store data; and (ii) a second plurality of the blocks implemented as a plurality of indirect blocks, each indirect block to store a plurality of pointers to a plurality of other blocks, each pointer having an address of the other block, the indirect blocks including one or more first level indirect blocks having pointers to the data blocks, and one or more additional indirect blocks having pointers to other indirect blocks in order to indirectly point to the data blocks; a file level (NAS) server to receive NAS protocol data access requests and to store a new NAS data associated with NAS storage structures to the storage layer in the data blocks, and to store one or more first pointers in indirect blocks of the plurality of indirect blocks to identify the new NAS data; a block level (SAN) server to receive SAN block based data access requests and to store a new SAN data associated with SAN storage structures to the storage layer in the data blocks, and to store one or more second pointers in indirect blocks of the plurality of indirect blocks to identify the new SAN data; and a management layer to perform identical management operations on both the NAS data structures and the SAN data structures on the storage layer using the plurality of indirect blocks, wherein the new NAS data and the new SAN data are identified by the plurality of indirect blocks, and wherein the NAS data structures and the SAN data structures on the storage layer share a same pool of available disk space and same storage servers.