Patent ID: 7870116

Claim:
A method for administrating data storage in an information search and retrieval system, the method comprising: providing a network storage system that comprises a plurality of data storage devices, a data communication network and an application interface, the network storage system divided into a plurality of distinct logical volumes, each of the logical volumes being associated with one or more of the data storage devices, picking, by an indexing application provided by a first computer, a first logical volume from among a pool of unmounted volumes, the pool of unmounted volumes being ones of the logical volumes that are not mounted by any computer; after the indexing application picks the first logical volume, mounting, by the first computer, the first logical volume in a read-write mode; indexing, by the indexing application, objects in a content repository to generate, on the first logical volume, an updated version of an index; mounting, by a second computer, a second logical volume in a read-only mode, the second computer providing a searching application, the second logical volume being one of the logical volumes, the second logical volume storing an earlier version of the index; using, by the searching application, the earlier version of the index to search for objects in the content repository; after the indexing application finishes generating the updated version of the index, unmounting the first logical volume from the first computer; after the first logical volume is unmounted by the first computer, mounting, by the second computer, the first logical volume in the read-only mode; and after the second computer mounts the first logical volume, using, by the second computer, the updated version of the index to search for objects in the content repository.