Patent ID: 7539735

Claim:
A method of restoring data in a computer network system wherein a plurality of client systems have access to a storage pool coupled to an associated storage area network (SAN) comprising the steps of: requesting a restore wherein each of said plurality of client systems participate in said restore; and coordinating restoration of data stored in said storage pool by said plurality of client systems over a plurality of sessions using a storage management server that constructs a master restore table comprising a plurality of data portions to be restored, an associated location of said plurality of data portions in said storage pool, and a status of whether an associated storage media for a data portion has been restored, wherein said master restore table is partitioned into a plurality of sub-tables based on the locations of data portions and is identified by an associated token and a client system participating in a restore gains access to said master restore table by use of said token, tracks said plurality of data portions of said data as restored by said plurality of client systems using the status, and blocks access by said client systems to each of said plurality of data portions that have been restored by one of said plurality of client systems in response to a processed restoration status to avoid duplicative restoration efforts, wherein the plurality of client systems restore data portions to a single client.