Patent ID: 7873782

Claim:
A method of supplementing functionality of a block-level storage system that is capable of storing fixed-size blocks of data under the control of a host filesystem, the host filesystem currently operating in a host computer, the method comprising: in response to receiving, from the currently operating file system, a client request having fixed-sized blocks of data, analyzing the received blocks of data to identify the host filesystem type from among a plurality of supported host filesystem types; locating host filesystem data structures stored in the block-level storage system based on the identified host filesystem type; analyzing the host filesystem data structures to determine usage, by the host filesystem, of the fixed-size blocks of data stored in the block-level storage system; and managing storage of the fixed-size blocks of data in the block-level storage system based on the analysis; the first analyzing, locating, second analyzing, and managing steps being performed, outside the control of the host computer, by a storage controller disposed in the block-level storage system.