Patent ID: 7721045

Claim:
A method for operating a computer storage system, comprising: providing at least one data volume of a plurality of volumes, the at least one data volume configured to store a data content of a data container, and the plurality of volumes organized as a striped volume set (SVS), wherein each volume of the plurality of volumes serves as a container attribute volume (CAV) for any data container whose first stripe is stored therein, the CAV configured to store a copy of the plurality of mtimes for each data volume the CAV serves; generating, by a processor associated with the CAV, a data structure on the CAV corresponding to at least one selected data volume, the data structure having a plurality of permitted modification times (mtimes) to modify a data stored in the data container on the at least one selected data volume; issuing, by the CAV, the data structure to the at least one selected data volume; transmitting, by the at least one selected data volume, the mtimes in the data structure to a client in response to a request from the client for an I/O operation on the data stored in the at least one selected data volume; and performing, in response to an mtime included in the data structure transmitted to the client, an atomic I/O operation by the at least one selected data volume without having to re-request access to the data from the CAV on the SVS.