Patent ID: 7668876

Claim:
A method comprising: writing a plurality of changes to data to a log on a first node, wherein each of the plurality of changes is written to each of a set of mirrored copies of the log, and at least one mirrored copy of the set of mirrored copies is constructed from a plurality of storage devices; when a storage device containing a portion of the at least one mirrored copy of the set of mirrored copies becomes full, discontinuing writing to the storage device, and disassociating the storage device from the set of mirrored copies, wherein the plurality of storage devices comprises the storage device; replicating log data from the storage device to a second node while the storage device is disassociated from the set of mirrored copies, without disturbing writing to each of the set of mirrored copies of the log, wherein each of the plurality of storage devices is a disk drive; and in response to the disassociating and prior to completing the replicating, selecting a second storage device from a free pool of resources, adding the second storage device to the set of mirrored copies at a location previously occupied by the storage device, and in response to completing the replicating, allocating the storage device to the free pool of resources.