Patent ID: 8751547

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving one or more commands and one or more parameters to create a single instance store, a plurality of volumes, a cache object on top of a backing store of the single instance store, and one or more file systems, wherein the plurality of volumes comprises a plurality of thin volumes created on top of the cache object, and wherein blocks in the backing store are allocated in the plurality of thin volumes from the cache object; storing information creating the cache object and the plurality of volumes, including the plurality of thin volumes, in a volume manager configuration file, wherein the plurality of thin volumes allow the single instance store solution to be shared across a plurality of file systems, across a plurality of hosts, or across a plurality of file systems and a plurality of hosts; and storing information creating the one or more file systems in a file system configuration file, wherein each file system is created on top of the plurality of volumes including the plurality of thin volumes.