Patent ID: 7401081

Claim:
A method for providing control on metadata within a network of storage controllers, said method comprising: designating one of said storage controllers as an owner storage controller, wherein said owner storage controller owns metadata controlling all input/output (I/O) operations associated with a region of storage; designating remaining of said storage controllers as client storage controllers; in response to an I/O request to one of said client storage controllers, suspending said I/O request by said one client storage controller; determining by said owner storage controller, whether or not said region of storage has already been copied; in a determination that said region of storage has been copied, unpending said I/O request by said one client storage controller to process said I/O request; and in a determination that said region of storage has not been copied, placing a lock record against said metadata associated with said region of storage; copying data within said region of storage by said owner storage controller; and releasing said lock record to process said I/O request.