Patent ID: 8539008

Claim:
A computerized method comprising: receiving, by a storage server from a client, a read request for an extent, wherein the extent includes a group of contiguous blocks of data and the read request includes a file block number (FBN) and wherein the storage server utilizes an FBN offset granularity that is less than a predetermined block size; retrieving, by the storage server, a first extent identifier from a first sorted data structure, wherein the storage server uses the received FBN to traverse the first sorted data structure to the first extent identifier; and retrieving, by the storage server, a first reference to the first extent from a second sorted data structure, wherein the storage server uses the retrieved first extent identifier to traverse the second sorted data structure to the first reference, and wherein the second sorted data structure is global across a plurality of volumes; retrieving, by the storage server from a storage device, the extent using the first reference; and returning, by the storage server, the extent to the client.