Patent ID: 8745336

Claim:
In a computer system including a host computer connected to a storage system having storage devices that are represented as logical storage units, a method of carrying out storage operations on a virtual disk that is stored in at least two non-adjacent locations in one or more logical storage units, said method comprising: issuing a single instruction from the host computer to the storage system, the single instruction including, as a parameter, information that identifies a blocklist, wherein the blocklist comprises an ordered list of blocks resolved from file segments of a file system, the file segments corresponding to the virtual disk, and wherein each block in the blocklist is stored in a respective location in the one or more logical storage units and none of the storage locations of the blocks are adjacent to each other; and carrying out the single instruction on said virtual disk at the storage system until completion of the single instruction and independently of the host computer, wherein the virtual disk is for a virtual machine that is configured in the host computer.