Patent ID: 8275939

Claim:
A system comprising: a first storage server including a persistent memory; a second storage server; a data switch to couple a plurality of mass storage devices to the first storage server and the second storage server, wherein a first group of the mass storage devices are controlled by the first storage server and a second group of the mass storage devices are controlled by the second storage server; aggregate recovery logic in the first storage server to collect data records pertaining to the first group of mass storage devices from the persistent memory; and aggregate recovery logic in the second storage server to apply the collected data records to the first group of mass storage devices after the second storage server takes control of the first group of mass storage devices, the applying comprising: detecting an accessible aggregate, wherein the detected accessible aggregate was previously inaccessible, determining whether the detected accessible aggregate was last shut down cleanly with no outstanding client data writes, if the detected accessible aggregate was not last shut down cleanly, identifying a file containing uncommitted data records that correspond to the detected accessible aggregate, and replaying the uncommitted data records from the file containing uncommitted data records that corresponds to the detected accessible aggregate onto the detected accessible aggregate.