Patent ID: 7774391

Claim:
A method for performing offloaded file processing, the method comprising: accessing a request for services from a requester, the request including information from which a disk set is derived and a command involving the disk set; automatically determining volumes, volume formats of the volumes, file systems and file system formats of the file systems residing on the disk set; automatically determining existence and a state of a client computer associated with the disk set, the determining the state includes determining if the client computer is powered-on or powered-off; and executing the command, the executing includes accessing the disk set using information obtained from at least one of the volumes, the file systems, the volume formats, the file system formats and the state, wherein if the client computer is determined to be existent and powered-on, then determining a mechanism for generating a snapshot of said disk set, taking a snapshot of the disk set using the mechanism, and determining a network address of the snapshot, wherein the executing the command accesses the snapshot, and if the client computer is determined to be non-existent or powered-off, then automatically determining a network address of the disk set.