Patent ID: 8347059

Claim:
A method for data storage, comprising: representing logical volumes by respective sets of pointers to physical partitions in long-term storage devices in which data used by the logical volumes is stored; defining one or more of the logical volumes as provisionally deleted; selecting, based on a predetermined criterion, a provisionally-deleted logical volume for deletion, wherein: the selected provisionally-deleted logical volume comprises one or more private physical partitions, a private physical partition is a physical partition on a long-term storage device including data that is used exclusively by the provisionally-deleted logical volume, and the predetermined criterion comprises an age of the selected provisionally-deleted logical volume, a number of private physical partitions associated with the selected provisionally-deleted logical volume, and a size of a private physical partition associated with the selected provisionally-deleted logical volume; deleting the selected provisionally-deleted logical volume; and releasing at least one of the one or more of the private physical partitions for reallocation to another logical volume subsequent to deleting the selected provisionally-deleted logical volume.