Patent ID: 7685169

Claim:
A method of operating a plurality of active file systems, the method comprising the steps of: making one or more snapshots of a first active file system of the plurality of active file systems, each of the one or more snapshots initially sharing data with the first active file system; converting each of the one or more snapshots to an active file system by making said each of the one or more snapshots writable to obtain one or more second active file systems of the plurality of active file systems; and operating a plurality of file system processors as file servers, each processor of the plurality of processors being associated with a different active file system of the plurality of active file systems; wherein said each processor is capable of receiving file server requests directed to the active file system associated with said each processor and making file server responses to the received requests; and changes made by said each processor to the active file system associated with said each processor in response to the received requests are recorded in the active file system associated with said each processor in a location that is not shared with other active file systems of the plurality of active file systems, so that the changes are not reflected in the active file systems of the plurality of active file systems other than the file system associated with said each processor.