Patent ID: 7287139

Claim:
A persistent operation implementation system, comprising: a storage system including a plurality of logical memory spaces comprising a plurality of volumes, each volume comprising at least one segment, each of said at least one segment residing on one of at least one memory storage device; and a global meta data control structure including a first bitmap containing a first plurality of binary digits and a second bitmap containing a second plurality of binary digits, said first and second bitmaps organized for each of the plurality of logical memory spaces in the storage system, each bit in said first and second bitmaps representing each of said plurality of volumes subject to a persistent operation wherein: each of said plurality of volumes is associated with a first corresponding binary digit included in said first plurality of binary digits that indicates whether said persistent operation is outstanding and each of said plurality of volumes is also associated with a second corresponding binary digit included in said second plurality of binary digits that indicates whether said persistent operation is in progress, upon a system-wide persistent operation which has been executed on said storage system, said first and second bitmaps are copied from a local meta data control structure onto said global meta data control structure, and each time an inaccessible volume of the plurality of volumes becomes available, a volume-online preparation procedure queries to determine if a persistent operation is pending for said inaccessible volume, wherein if the query returns in the affirmative, said persistent operation is performed before said inaccessible volume becomes available.