Patent ID: 8069191

Claim:
A method for managing a plurality of storage pools of snapshots associated with a plurality of physical storage units in a distributed data storage system, the method comprising the steps of: determining a ratio between a current amount of storage resources used in a first storage pool of snapshots and a total storage capacity for the first storage pool of snapshots, the ratio determined when one of a predetermined number of write operations has been performed on the first storage pool of snapshots and after a predetermined amount of time has passed; detecting a first trigger condition in the first storage pool of snapshots, the first trigger condition comprising determining that the ratio is greater than a first predetermined threshold; and transferring storage resources that are assigned to a second storage pool of snapshots to the first storage pool of snapshots in response to detecting the first trigger condition, wherein: the first storage pool of snapshots is included within a first physical storage unit, the second storage pool of snapshots is included within a second physical storage unit, and the storage resources are available for use by the first storage pool of snapshots upon being transferred from the second storage pool of snapshots to the first storage pool of snapshots.